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The Completed Model
12 October 2006
At long last, she is done! It has taken months of on again, off again work to get her finished, and I'm very happy with the results. She isn't perfect, though. There are some fairly egregious light leaks and fit problems, and some of my lighting inexplicable stopped working (probably due to a broken connection or a short). Still, the overall effect is quite nice. If I ever build one of these kits again, there are a few things I would have done differently. All things considered, it seems that the only way to eliminate all light leaks is to completely assemble the model before painting. this worked fairly well on the secondary hull, and I should have done it on the saucer section as well. This would have made it possible to completely eliminate the light leaks around the saucer rim and where it joins to the neck. And for some reason, after assembly was complete the warp grills seemed to lose most of their brightness, to the point that the blue glow in now barely visible. I think this might be due to the voltage drop from the other LED's in the model causing the blue LEDs in the engines to be fainter than they appeared when they were tested. Thus, I think I would have used more than 2 LEDs in each engine, in order to compensate.
Also, in retrospect the metal armature was probably more trouble than it was worth. While it undoubted strengthened the model, I think it directly contributed to some of the fit issues I had with my model. On the other hand, I'm pretty pleased with how the aztecing effect came out. I would definitely go with the gloss white on flat white approach again. Also, the large custom decals I used on the strong back, pylons, and neck look awesome. Finally, the VooDoo FX lighting board was a good buy, as it allowed me include flashing and blinking effects quickly and easily.
Anyway, I present to you my USS Enterprise refit model:
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Family Reunion
I staged a bit of a "family reunion" with the rest of my
refit Enterprise toys and models!
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Videos
I've taken a couple of videos with my digital camera, but
I had to post them on YouTube because this Geocities Pro account has a 5mb
upload limit. The videos were a bit grainy to begin with, and the process of
posting them on YouTube didn't help them at all, but I think they still look
pretty good. The first one is a re-creation of the final fly-by scene from
the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which I have fantasized about
re-creating with this model since I started the project! Click on the
thumbnails for the video.
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Finally, I can't say thank you enough to all of those on the Hobbytalk boards that helped me with this project, whether it was advice, free decal templates, or a spare part. Without all of you, this ship never would have made it out of dry dock!
Andy Rucker