Warp Speed Mr. Sulu, Revell 1/500 STID USS Enterprise

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Apr 28, 2015
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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0CaTVTZfv4[/youtube]

Moving on with my next build, this time the Revell 1/500 USS Enterprise from Star Trek: Into Darkness.

I bought this model from the toy fair at Birmingham NEC in June 2015, it was an absolute bargain at £10.

The only thing wrong with it was that the box was very badly dented, but all the sprues were still bagged & luckily no parts are missing.

The reason ive left it until now to start, is the fact I had to buy a set of aztec decals to do the kit justice & selling some old XBox 360 games with a couple of XBox One games I dont play anymore to CEX, I got £47.50, so that paid for the aztec set which cost £42.00 from ebay.

Starting with the saucer section, I glued all the window clear inserts & glued the bridge & lower saucer centre pieces together & glued those into the centre of the both halves of the saucer.

Then on the domes I painted some Tamiya X-23 Clear Blue, which took a couple of coats to get it right & also the same on the bridge windows & left those to dry.

I then glued the 2 halves of the saucer together, lining up the pins to their respective holes was quite difficult, but they went in eventually & then pushed the edges around the saucer until they clicked into place.

Putting the completed saucer aside, I then started on the secondary hull.

Same as before, first glueing the clear window inserts & taping them down while the glue dries, once the glue dried I carefully removed the tape while holding down the inserts & started on the inside supports.

Glueing the supports into place, making sure they sat 100% into the grooves and the sidewalls of the one half & glueing the shuttlebay door into place, again on the one half.

As a precaution I decided to remove the 2 mounting notches on the top of the secondary hull, as ive read that if you attempt to test fit the secondary hull to the saucer section they will lock & prevent you from re-taking it apart.

Then the spine section, with a small square insert & 2 small clear windows & painted those in the clear blue.

Then came the hard part of the secondary hull.

Glueing the spine into the one half to go with the previous inside parts & manoeuvering that, the shuttlebay door & the various locator pins into place whilst trying to stop the spine & inner from popping out, but I got there in the end.

Once they all finally locked & glued into place, got my trusty electrical tape & taped the 2 halves together whilst the glue dried.

One dry, I again carefully removed the tape & sanded all the seams down & glued the pylon/nacelle strut cover plate into place.

Not having any locator pins to deal with, I aligned the cover the best I could & clamped it into place & again waited for the glue to dry.

Removing the clamps & sanded down the seams on the rear of the pylons/nacelle struts, on the front face of the struts there was a raised panel line/seam which I was tempted to sand, but I wasnt sure if it was a raised panel line that should remain.

To finish off the secondary hull, I glued in the deflector assembly minus the defector dish.

So far its looking great.

Cheers,

Wayne.
 
Re: Revell 1/500 JJ'Prise

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7wG_A_eEEM[/youtube]

Finishing off the main part of construction by glueing the saucer to the secondary hull, I nursed the neck & its holding pins into the saucer.

Took a few mins to get it to lock 100%, then held it down the best I could with my clamps.

Now the Saucer & Secondary Hull are complete, I started work on the Warp Nacelles.

Started by glueing in the clear parts into each side of the inner parts of the nacelles using my glue n glaze, the small upper clear parts had to be laid flat into place, then came the main side inserts which have a small triangular cut out on each edge to be slid inside the hole & using a combination of the glue & glaze with normal model glue around the edges for a bit of extra security.

Also there was a c-shaped clear peice that had to be glued into place between the upper & lower parts of the nacelle & clamped whilst the glue dried.

Then I painted the clear parts from the inside with my Tamiya X-23 Clear blue which took a few coats.

I then started to paint the nacelle domes from the inside with my X-23 mixed with some thinner & a few coats later (over a couple of days) they were ready to be glued onto their supports.

Putting the nacelle dome decal onto the inside of the dome supports, I glued the supports to the domes & left them to dry.

Also painting the exhaust clear parts (again in the X-23) the nacelles were ready to be put together.

The first nacelle went together ok, but once I took the tape off after the glue dried, I noticed the nacelle dome assembly had dried cock-eyed & I didnt locate the locking notch correctly, to which the dome now sits behind.

Just a seam issue to deal with & a small bit of filling to do, especially around the bottom of the nacelle (where the dome hadnt locked into place properly)

Rince & repeat with the 2nd nacelle, but his time I managed to get the dome to mount correctly, but I had more filling issues to deal with than seams.

Once the nacelles were complete, I went back to the saucer & secondary hull to primer.

Using Humbrol Maskol to mask off the clear parts, which was easy to paint on, I left the clear parts to dry.

I then started with my grey primer on the bottom side & turning over to spray the top side.

Then came the white spray, which was rinse & repeat, then I shook my Citadel Purity seal for a good 5 arm-wrenching minutes & sealed, which has dried real nice.

Taking the maskol off with my knife, tweezers & cotton bud stick, I have to top up by hand around the clear windows with some white & then I can start with the aztecs.

Cheers,

Wayne.
 
Re: Revell 1/500 JJ'Prise

Looking good, Wayne.
The niggles with the Maskol could have been a lot worse, so don't worry too much about it
 
Re: Revell 1/500 JJ'Prise

Thanks Patrick.

Pulling off the maskol on the bigger clear parts is easy, but on those small windows was very niggly & it was a pain.

Should ok when applied to the nacelles, as those clear parts are a lot bigger.
 
Re: Revell 1/500 JJ'Prise

Ive started on the aztecs, they had the feel of very thin film.

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They have gone down really well so far, after I patted them down with some damp kitchen towel to smooth out the creases & bubbles.

Half down, the other half to go.

Wayne
 
Re: Revell 1/500 JJ'Prise

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YK0NkPmzl0[/youtube]

Its time to get ready for aztecing.

But first I started with the markings on the bottom of the saucer which have to be painted on.

I bought some Tamiya 87177 (2mm curved masking tape) after seeing a recommendation thread about it on Britmodeller forums.

The tape went down really well & brushing some Klear on the edges of the tape to stop any paint bleed after receiving a tip (again from BM forums) I started painting on Tamiya XF-80 grey for the ring.

Whilst that was drying I masked off some of the other areas which had to be painted & painted those with Revell Aquacolor 36179 grey & applied some of the kit decals.

The 2 ring line decals which go around the inner ring & some small grey square markings which have to be applied before the aztecs.

Slowly pulling off the curved masking tape, the paint had dried brilliantly & no paint bleed & also the other masked off areas, which had to be tidyed up a little, but everything was now ready for the aztecs.

Starting with the one half of the bottom of the saucer, I slowly made my way around, the aztecs had the feel of very thin film which folded over a few times in the corners & trying to get the corners to fold back over was very difficult indeed.

Making the edges line up to the next aztec along wasnt too hard, but when I made it over to the last 3 sections, the secondary hull made it a bit awkward to get them into place & I had to change direction of the backing paper to slide off, but I got there in the end.

I let the first half dry overnight & the next day I started on the other half, same again with working my over to last couple of sections near the secondary hull, but on the top & bottom of the neck the aztecs didnt meet & also around the inner circle I discovered I could have pushed them up a little more, as a small gap appeared.

Not worrying about the slight gap issues, I then applied some microsol & left them to dry.

Then I sealed all the bottom of the saucer with some Humbrol Glosscote & again left them to dry.

Then came the inner ring, I applied the small aztecs along with some of the kit markings & they went down really well & microsol & sealed those.

Now came the difficult bit, the secondary hull.

Standing the saucer on its end working from the side, I slowly worked my way across & down the neck with the aztecs & everyone of the sections folded over & with me swearing at them trying to get them all to fold out (which I apologize for on the video)

I got to the bottom on the end very frustrated, as I still had the other half to go.

Fortunatley, learning my lesson from the first half, the other side went down swimmingly without any problems.

A correction on the placement guide for the aztec nearest the deflector dish, it was 120 not 124.

Then came a wierd occurance after I had sealed the secondary hull aztecs, the one aztec on the neck had totally faded away & im not sure how it could have happened.

Whatever the reason was, maybe there was a little thinner residue on the brush that had mixed in with the glosscote or maybe I might have brushed a little too much on, im not sure.

Then I started on the very few markings for the secondary hull, along with the federation logo & stripe, so if you plan on building this without aztecs, the secondary hull will look very bare indeed.

Work continued, this time on the belly.

Placing the aztecs along the belly both sides, MS'ing those & sealing them, the one decal I used from the aztec set started to break up & fade (for some strange reason) when I was applying it with microset & a little water.

On the safe side I used the kit markings for those & im now waiting for those to dry.

Apart from the little mishaps here & there along with frustrating secondary hull work, aztecing is going really well.

20160618_164918_zpse3axcwsf.jpg

Cheers,

Wayne.
 
Re: Revell 1/500 JJ'Prise

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7GSwBbc7qw[/youtube]

This part is now solely about the warp nacelles.

I started getting them ready for primer by masking off all the clear parts.

Using normal household masking tape for the domes, making sure every nook & cranny was sealed so no primer could get inside.

Then I masked off the side blue parts with electrical tape with some Klear around the edges to make a better edge seal.

After that I used some maskol on the blue clear running lights & finally sealing off the exhausts with some white tack & filled in the exhausts, as I couldnt get the tape to work.

I then started spraying on the primer bottom first, letting them dry & turning them over & spraying the sides & top.

Once primered, I then rinsed & repeated with the white spray & again let them dry.

Finishing off with some Citadel Purity Seal & it was time to to mount them to the rest of the Enterprise.

Once I peeled off the masking tape with great results, I mounted them into the holes on the struts with relative ease & let gravity dry the glue.

But, I found that when I mounted the nacelles, the whole model was back heavy, so I had to weigh it down on the top of the saucer to stop it tipping backwards.

Once the glue dried, I turned the enterprise over & using my tall charcoal pot & some sponge to support the back, I started on the aztecing.

From the underneath, I worked my way across & down each nacelle, a couple of the aztecs did fold on me, but no-where near the trouble I had with the first part of the neck of the secondary hull.

A few creases have popped up here & there, but with a couple of applications of microset, they have disappeared more & more between each coat.

Using a combination of the kit markings & the markings that came with the aztecs, they went down really well, apart from a couple of the aztec markings wanting to fade & break up on me whilst trying to apply them, so I had to resort using the kit markings.

This happenend the first time on the belly with a little yellow circle marking, then on the curved markings that go on the bottom of the struts onto the secondary hull, so again I had to use the kit markings.

Once I finished the bottom of the nacelles, I then applied the strut aztecs on the outside, along with the black stripes & turned the enterprise over.

I then started first with the back & the insides of the struts.

Aztecs first on the struts & then the back spine, sealed those & the inside stripes & neck spine marking & sealed those.

Then came the top of the nacelles.

I started with the stripe section with mounts around the running light, it filled a gap which I was concerned about between the front & back aztecs of the bottom of the nacelle, but I noticed a small gap between the stripe & one of the lower back aztec edges.

I started applying the aztecs on the forward part of the top of the nacelles & noticed that there were 4 aztecs for the vents, but I decided to use the kit marking vent grid decals so those small aztecs were spare.

I ten decided to fill the gap on the side of the nacelle with a small peice cut off the spares to fill that gap in & another gap around the curved parts by the running lights & they have blended really well.

The fin aztecs went down really well too & now the aztecing of the nacelles is finished, Ive just got to microsol them & seal them & then I can start of the markings.

Cheers,

Wayne.
 
Re: Revell 1/500 JJ'Prise

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qB3rRy5OmU[/youtube]

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Its finale time on the Enterprise.

I started by finishing off the nacelles by applying the various markings on top of the aztecs.

At the front I applied the very thin line markings, being very gentle so they wouldnt tear, especially around the curves sections & down the side of the nacelle.

In between the vent decals were some rectangular markings that had to go on top of a raised section & the microsol sucked those into place.

After those there were some more line decals to go around the edge lip of the upper parts of the nacelles which (to my surprise) went down really easy when drawing them off the backing paper.

Some small stripes below the vents & then the registry markings & finally the fin decals.

Once dry I Microsol'd & sealed them & it was finally time to start on the top half of the saucer.

I started with the pre-painting of the T sections & the little square decals as I did before on the bottom half along with those little black & yellow house shape sections on the edges along with the blue lights on the spine.

Once all those were dry & sealed, I started on the aztecs.

The same as before (section by section) I worked my way around applying them, but this time I had a lot more raised sections to deal with.

Once the aztecs had dried I applied the microset a couple of times to the areas of aztecs sitting on top of the raised sections & once dried they had sucked right into those offending raised sections.

I then applied the Microsol to the rest of the aztecs & let those dry & then sealed them with some Revell Aquacolor clear gloss.

Once all dry, I then started work of the inner ring & bridge area.

Applying the ring aztec, then the upper ring aztec marking along with the grey & red stripe aztec markings.

While the grey & red stripes was drying, the red stripe's ink started to come away & break up, so I removed them & waited for the rest of the ring aztecs to dry.

Once dried I Microsol'd those & let them dry & sealed them.

Once all dry, I used my Tamiya curve tape & masked off the section to paint grey, I let that dry & applied the kit marking red stripe.

I then applied the aztec marking for the grey section around the bridge dome, but again to my dismay that also decided to break up, fade & change color to a greenish grey whilst drying, so again I had to remove the decal & mask off & paint that with the grey paint.

Once that dried, I sealed that & worked my way down the back of the bridge section & onto the spine.

Applying the small "USS Enterprise" lettering kit decal, along with a small red circle & some small grey square decals, I started on the spine.

Applying the spine aztec & I had to trim it slightly as it was a little too long for the channel it was applied to, then came the rear section.

Applying the aztec onto the curved rectangular section & the little c sections on the outer part, I discovered there was a gap, so I filled that it in with the spare bit of aztec I had from the nacelles & it patched it up real nice.

I then turned the enterprise around & put down the red vent aztec markings on the rear of the saucer, but again the ink on that also decided to break up, so luckily the yellow option went down with no problems & the microsol sucked those into the little dimples really nice too.

Also the marking between the yellow vents & a couple of little grey markings went down great too.

Then finally back again on the top of the saucer, I applied the thin circle kit stripe, which took a while to get to go as circular as I could & the Microsol took care of that into the channel in sat on top of.

The "USS Enterprise" lettering & the registry kit markings then were applied with no problems at all.

Then to finish off the saucer, I started on the rim stripes.

Firstly the left & right stripes from the rear were applied & once Microsol'd & sealed I worked my way around with the 2 sets of front stripes which all were applied in sections of 3 stripes which took 5 days to finish.

Once all that was done, all I had to do was finish off the deflector dish & apply a blue & black stripe above the dish & the Enterprise was done.

I then assembled the stand & filled in the hollow base with some household filler to make the stand more heavier & sturdy to prevent the weight of the enterprise from tipping over.

I then glued the neck & the base together, primered & painted the the base in Humbrol Brass Metallic & the neck & the lower lip of the base in Revell Aquacolor Silver.

Mounting the Enterprise to the base was quite easy, but I do have a concern out the mounting notches into the belly, but if left alone on my shelf, it should be ok.

Anyways, I have enjoyed building the Enterprise & for the most part glad I bought the aztecs & apart from the few frustrating bits here & there, the aztecs have really brought the model too life.

Cheers,

Wayne.
 
You're doing an amazing job of taking a design I really hate and turning it into a build I really think looks awesome!
Witchcraft, I say!
 

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