AMT Defiant Class - First Build!!

[Igard]

Hey folks! I found this old kit one day in my attic and decided to build it up. I haven't built a model kit for about 14 years (when I was about 14 years old!).

So, here it goes. This might not be up to a very high standard as I'm a total newbie and this kit is a real baptism of fire. Not one seam on this closes properly and in one place there's a gap of at least 2mm!

The goal of this model is simply to learn, to make lots of mistakes and not let them bother me too much, because, you know, it's about learning and most of all, having fun.

As such, I figure I'll try to do as much as possible with it. I'll be amending a few inaccuracies. I'll be lighting it. I'll also be creating my own decals.

Fixing the step detail on the bridge section with styrene strips and lots of squadron putty. I'm also scribing the panel details to replace the raised details. This was supposed to be to make it more screen accurate, but it turned out that I made a few mistakes and couldn't bring myself to scribe over the puttied bridge section, so a few lines are missing here sadly.

The windows were matched as closely as possible with the studio model. The original kit had the wrong shaped windows as well as the wrong locations. I used Araldite 2020 clear epoxy to fill the windows. I would have been better with either a fast drying epoxy resin or Micro Krystal Klear.

I also sprayed the inside with a metallic paint to help light block. I hoped it would be more reflective than this. It's pretty crap stuff, but I had to try it.

Ventral hull with lots of LED enclosures. I don't know if it was really necessary to use so much putty to hold it all in place, but it kept the LEDs secure in such a large space inside the ship.

I added a few random shaped segments of aluminium foil inside the warp engines to cover up some wires and to hopefully add some nice effects to the model when lit.

This is the dorsal hull section with the LEDs wired up.

The light leak around a Bussard Collector. I've wired this up so that I can light the cabin windows and the running lights on there own, without the engines, or I can light it all up. Just a nice feature that was a good excercise in electronics for a beginner like me. My brother helped a bit with the connections to the 3 way switch, which I couldn't figure out.

I got this idea from a website. I cut out the plasma exhausts and stuck a shirt button below each one. I then attached them to the hull using clear epoxy resin. So they should've been stuck on solid as rock. One of them wasn't. About half way into the sealing and putting stage, one of them came loose. Thankfully there wasn't much movement, but I did have to use some superglue and it got a bit messy. Now the plasma exhaust in question is sitting slightly out of place and I'm too scared to try and fix it.

Remember what I said about making lots of mistakes and not letting them bother me? Well, it doesn't quite work like that.

Here's the bridge section. Oh yes, it is primed/primered or whatever the term is. It's far from perfect, but I prefer this to the inaccurate, stepped bridge of the original kit. You can really see here that there should be some panel lines running down the sides of the bridge section. I can live without them though. I'm far too scared to damage the putty at this stage.

I've just got to stick on the phaser cannons and cloaking device and that's it ready for painting.

 

[Grendels]

Nice work so far!! A few mistakes here and there, but for a beginner, you are doing well!!

 

[ScreamingSamuraiStudio]

Just a beginner and already scribing lines with the best of them..Nice Work!

 

[Quaralane]

Excellent work on that, especially with all you've tried to tackle.

 

[Igard]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Painting work has halted since I ran out of sky grey! It seems I fail miserably at logistics. Large areas need more than 10ml of paint! :

I've got a whole list of other problems, but didn't want to sound too boring or negative when writing this. I'll probably go through them all when it's completely finished.

 

[punkpigpen]

you rule...first kit in 14 years and you go straight for the lighting project. NICE!

 

[Igard]

you rule...first kit in 14 years and you go straight for the lighting project. NICE!

Ha Ha! Talk about trying to fly before you can crawl eh?

I don't find the lighting to be too difficult though. It's the painting that I'm finding the biggest challenge.

Managed to pick up some more paint today, so I'll be getting back to it tonight! Yay! Hope I've got enough this time...

 

[Igard]

The colour for the hull turned out OK. It's a mix of sky grey and white. Just getting used to the distance to hold the airbrush. I think I held it too far at some points and got a sort of grainy effect.

1 or 2 places I might have just over painted and got some build up, but it's not too bad.

This is the first stage of masking for the blue panels. There appear to be 3 different shades of blue panelling. You can't really see from this photo, but the darker shade is too dark and the lighter shades appear slightly green. Not sure what to do here, but I'll definately need to go over the dark blue again with a lighter shade.

Also notice that my masking tape wasn't stuck down right in a couple of places. You can make out the worst of the leak just below the bridge section. I need to be more careful.

Overall, I'm pretty happy. Things aren't going too badly. It's very difficult to learn this way, but it's still good fun.

 

[punkpigpen]

it looks great to me. yehh dont hold that airbrush far away the acrylics if thats what youre using will dry before it hits and create a sandpaper looking surface. paint close but feather it back and forth and take down the PSI maybe. i love WIPs! hell yehh!

 

[Grendels]

Yeah, what he said!!

 

[Quaralane]

What you've got is looking good so far

 

[cobraleader]

nice work

With the grainy paint finish you could also add a touch extra bit of thinner or some sort of Paint Retarder (Tamiya and Gunze both have one for their range of acrylics - don't know about enamels or lacquers). This would help with keep the paint wet - but has a longer drying time than normal.

Are you test spraying on a piece of paper/scrape plastic/wood before hand ?
The paint should gone on wet or have a gloss appearance. Test spraying may help identify paint-to-thinner ratio problems that could causing a grainy effect when applied.

Track down (I found this at a library) some DVD's/Videos on artists using airbrushes.

have fun

A tip i've read many times, (but never done myself) once you've masked, airbrush on the under colour again or a clear coat of some sort - this helps seal the masking edges.

 

[Igard]

Thanks everyone.

cobraleader, I'm using Tamiya acrylics and working by the rule that too much thinner is better than too little. I'm usually using 1 part thinner to 1 part paint, but not everytime as occasionally, it looks like it thins easier.

I test sprayed the lighter tone of blue on a plastic drinks bottle, but after that, I just continued to add a bit of blue to the mix and proceed with the darker panels. I wanted the darker blue to be much darker, but not as much as this. I really should've tested it first as it was a big change in tone. I'll make sure to do this from now on.

I've watched quite a few youtube vids about airbrushing, but the more I watch, the more I learn. Some DVDs from professionals would probably be a good thing for me.

Seems like a good idea to do an under colour, but I can imagine using alot more paint that way. This is the most of the masking done anyway, so I'll just be more careful with the masking tape. It's Tamiya 6mm masking tape I'm using, then I'm using blue Scotch masking tape to cover the areas around it.

I'm not sure if I should touch up the leaked areas with a brush, or if I should airbrush them again? It would only take a couple of minutes to brush them compared with the time it takes to mask them and spray with the airbrush. For such a tiny amount of paint/area, which is best?

Thanks for all the help, folks.

 

[punkpigpen]

if there is only a tiny bit of bleed after the mask has been removed i usually touch it up with a brush BUT thin it down as to avoid brushy looking stroke touch ups. touch ups are weird cuz the paint looks alot lighter most of the times when its wet then it dries to the already painted area. hope that helps.

 

[Igard]

Very helpful, thanks. I'll give it a try with some of the smaller bleeds first.

 

[noc5659]

very nice progress on this build. this kit is notorious for being difficult to assemble and inaccurate. i did one a few years ago and it now rests in the Federation graveyard!!

 

[Grendels]

A tip i've read many times, (but never done myself) once you've masked, airbrush on the under colour again or a clear coat of some sort - this helps seal the masking edges.

I have done this and it does help. It doesn't require a thick coating of paint to be effective.

 

[fumblethumbs]

It's coming together nicely! Quite an ambitious project but why not eh! I use the same masking products. Tamiya tape backed with painters green for more coverage. I only ever have a bleed issue where two tapes intersect and one lays over the other. I must try the under colour first tchnique. Anyway, she's lookin' good. Keep having fun with it!!

 

[Igard]

Thanks again for the encouraging comments. Trust me, it really does help.

Airbrushing the under colour works great. I haven't been doing it every time, but I think I'm getting better at sticking the tape on more tightly together. So no more bleeds thus far.

I also picked up some masking oil. It works great for doing around curved areas or recessed areas that tape can't get to.

Not making very fast progress with the painting. A bit tentative if I'm honest, but apart from the blue panels, I'm really happy with how the dark grey panels on the nacelles came out and those sort of fleshy coloured panels on the nose and behind the bridge.

 

[punkpigpen]

lookin goood! keep the pics coming! that Tamiya tape is the best. i never bought any till recently because i thought the pinstripping tape and blue tape worked fine. but i never get bleeds with the Tamiya.