jj Abrams movie U.S.S. Enterprise Model

jj Abrams movie U.S.S. Enterprise Model
WARP SPEED

Wednesday 10 October 2012

MY build-up of the AMT ERTL 1/537 Scale Star trek Enterprise NCC-1701-A model

Some pictures of the completed model.

This is my third and probably final attempt at building one of these kits, the second one I built a few years ago was very good, and I learned from building it, but this one is awesome! and is my pride and joy with more parts made accurate than the previous two as these kits are well known to have lots of inaccuracies, I wanted to take it to the next level and I set out to make every detail accurate to the filming model and fully light it up (this did not happen) as the amount of time and setbacks like having to re-glue the warp engines to the secondary hull three times because they kept sagging with gravity and almost made me give up on it, and then I lost interest in it for months as sometimes it was like taking 1 step forward then take 2-3 steps backL, from start to finish this build has taken me about 10 months with lots of gaps in between sometimes months in a row so overall about 18 months, Now back to the build the horrible panels all over it have now gone! This task took a lot of time to complete!, the (smoothy) kit would have saved a hell of a lot of time, In the build I have used some DLM parts which are: main deflector dish blue /clear  impulse engine + Chrystal / lower sensor unit / warp engine buzzards / B&C decks with bridge / photon torpedoes / VIP lounge / and the 2 detail parts each side of the cargo bay door, otherwise all the other changes are my own which include adding the officers mess then drilling out all of the windows and the arboretum which has miniature trees & rocks with scale figures to, other parts made accurate are the round docking ports which are now the correct size and the rectangle docking port on the side of the saucer section, I drilled out the tiny red widows above the hanger bay door and lit them, the warp engines now have spot lights on the front of them, I removed all the phaser blobs and made new ones as the old ones were a little too big then added some to the underside of the secondary hull and the area above the cargo bay door and now it has the full set as in the movies, I painted the 1st coat onto the model using enamel matt white as the base colour then I applied the second coat using Tamiya pearl white, then I tried to save time and use Aztec decals instead of masking templates which looked ok but started to peel at the edges and corners so I had to take it all off again, finally I used the Aztec dummy masking templates and applied the top/last coat using enamel flat white put on very lightly with my airbrush and it looks impressive, this is my second attempt at painting the Aztec as my first attempt was on my playmates JJ Abram’s Enterprise model and I was impressed with it, I have installed a circuit board in the base to make the navigation and strobe lights to flash correctly, a 6 pin surface mount screw type connector was used mounted onto 6” metal pole/tube so the model is detachable from the base which also houses the 9v battery & two round on/off rocker switches, the base is custom made from a solid hard wood then I had the brass plaque engraved especially for it, during the build I have changed my mind a few times like after priming it I painted parts in shiny gloss white enamel which looked good but then I went and cut out the kits B/C deck after reshaping the VIP windows then the impulse engines followed by the arboretum windows, the wiring was a pain as I found the flexibleness of the wire to stiff and a little too thick for some areas of the model, the wire was from an electronics store and the thinnest there was (hook up) wire I think, The red-green-yellow navigation lights are 1mm fibre optic cable glued to LED’s from inside which allow the fibre optic cable to protrude from the model to give them a much better scale, the white strobe lights are 1.8mm LED’s with just the tips protruding from the surface of the model.

Decals used are PNT & JT graphics.

The model now proudly sits in my glass display cabinet away from dust and direct sunlightJJJJJ.

 looking back now I should of made the hatches on the underside of the saucer the correct shape and size along with other minor inaccuracies but I now have the much larger 1/350 polar lights kit by (round2) to build one day, and I have the Aztec dummy templates & the clear DLM impulse engine part to go with itJ.
 









VIP lounge with figures










Once I get a better camera i will take some more pictures of the finished model and add them to.
MY build-up of the 1/537 Star trek Enterprise NCC-1701-A model part 4.



Lighting up test looks super!



These pictures show the Aztec decals in place.



Brass engraved plaque
MY build-up of the 1/537 Star trek Enterprise NCC-1701-A model part 3.
Comparison between the Pearl and matt white paint

Underside with phaser bank and strobe LED

Front spot lights and the DLM grill part.


Light up test, very nice!

Arboretum windows


MY build-up of the 1/537 Star trek Enterprise NCC-1701-A model part 2.
My custom light tube for warp engines.

Missing impulse engines

See the green light at the end of the fibre optic cable

My custom light boxes in place and a bit of a wiring mess.

Rebuilt neck section compared to the kits standard part.

Hanger bay door control windows drilled out.



Arboretum in place with miniature scale figures & trees.
 

MY build-up of the 1/537 Star trek Enterprise NCC-1701-A model part 1.

 
Reshaped VIP windows
The horrible panels have gone! "smooth"




Super shiny


DLM-VIP lounge with figures

DLM blue deflector dish

DLM bridge with LED fitted

DLM photons

DLM lower sensor part

DLM clear impulse engine