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Polar Lights 1/1000 U.S.S Enterprise Refit


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On 2/1/2017 at 5:42 PM, Trojan Thunder said:

Nice work Kurt, I keep dropping or knocking painted parts which slows the build. Nice to see some paint going on it finally.

 

 

Thanks for the encouragement.

 

I have moved on to the pearl white coat

 

IMGP8595-vi.jpg

 

kind of hard to see it well, let us try the saucer

 

IMGP8596-vi.jpg

 

You can kind of see the pearl, it is more pronounced in real life.  The paint is tamiya spray which was decanted and airbrushed. 

 

so I will let it dry and see if it is smooth enough for decals. If not, clear coat ...

 

 

 

 

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The engines and the engineering section ended up with a smooth enough finish to decal. I felt the saucer was not.

 

I read in a facebook modeling group about using Tamiya gloss clear and Mr. Leveling thinner.  Several people reported good results thinning the clear with mr. Leveling thinner, spraying light coats, then finishing with a coat of just mr. Leveling thinner.

 

and hey, nothing like trying something for the first time on a painted model ...

 

 

IMGP8704-vi.jpg

 

hey, looks pretty good on the top.. It was dry to the touch in minutes, so ... on to the bottom

 

IMGP8705-vi.jpg

 

 

 

impressive!

 

I will let this dry for a few days before decals. I still need to paint some parts on the warp engines with duck egg blue, and black... so I guess i will start masking.

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At this point I have come to realize airbrushing is 90% masking and 10 percent painting

 

i spent quite a while making to paint these small areas

 

IMGP8717-vi.jpg

 

IMGP8718-vi.jpg

 

 

not apparent in these pictures is the "fin" on the trailing end of the nacelle is also duck egg blue.

more masking when this dries, the "grille" in the nacelle is to be black, as well as the "grille" along the side of the nacelle. 

 

see ya in a few days when I do more painting!

 

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Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been working on this one.

 

The warp engines are done

 

IMGP8760-vi.jpg

 

I had a tough time masking this, and it took some touch up with a brush, and I got it as good as I can

 

IMGP8761-vi.jpg

 

Now .. on to Decals.

 

 

Edited by Kurt H.
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Decaling has begun!

 

Since I have never built one of these before, I figured I would start with the least prominent location, so the bottom of the engineering hull

 

The decals are thick, but seem to snuggle down ok. Thick is actually a good thing, I am pretty clumsy with decals. They are well though out with shapes that match the model

 

IMGP8775-vi.jpg

 

That is not a big bubble, but it is just wet. 

 

I will see how these settle up over night and continue this weekend.

 

 

 

 

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and more decals

 

I started here

 

IMGP8777-vi.jpg

 

and after this session, I ended up here:

 

IMGP8778-vi.jpg

 

and the engineering hull

 

 

IMGP8779-vi.jpg

 

same progress on both sides. Slow and steady wins the race. I will pick it up again tomorrow

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More decals ....  with the experience gained on the top of the saucer, I did all the pie slices of the bottom of the saucer in one  long session

 

IMGP8793-vi.jpg

 

 

and on the neck

 

IMGP8794-vi.jpg

 

I know the decal on the upper half is shifted up a bit, but It would not budge once I noticed it. :(

 

I did a few more decals on the engineering hull but forgot to take a picture. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for your continued encouragement!

 

I am still making slow, but steady progress. The bottom of the saucer is done, and I am on to the top

 

IMGP8838-vi.jpg

 

Almost done with the engineering section and still making progress with the warp engines

 

IMGP8839-vi.jpg

 

I know I am getting close to the end, Instead of sheets of decals, I just have fragments, and a mountain of the scraps of decal paper for the decals I have applied.

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Yep still making slow and steady progress, just a few more decals to go. I did have a little problem with a few but there is not much I can do to fix it, so I will press on. I will update with pictures soon.

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it does not look much different, but i am still applying decals

 

IMGP8926-vi.jpg

 

I had a bit of trouble with the decals around the lower part of the bridge "island" That observation lounge window did not fit so well. I should have test fit before the decals that go over it were in the water. oops.

 

Here is the neck, I just put the last two decals on it

 

IMGP8927-vi.jpg

 

not too many more decals

 

till next time...

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