Polar Lights 1701 USS Enterprise Refit
WiP Log Page 1
1/350th Scale
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By the sacred mechanical doodlings of Matt Jeffries...
By the righteous drafting pencils of Andrew Probert!......
By the noted napkin scribbling's of some bloke called Gene Rodenberry!.........
it's One Of These Bloody Things Again!!
Well, seventh times a charm I hope.
Well here we go again gang, another build of this one.

Right, let's get to it and see what we got to work with
and since a review of kit parts has been done by me and done better by others,
i'll skip that in favour of a rundown of what we got and what bits of that
lot will be used...or not as the case may be.

it's an original Polar Lights issue, not the Round 2 issue with the Aztec decals.

Ok, a bit of info for those who may not know.

in the dim and fairly distant past, yours truly came up with a sort of lighting system for this beast.
This came to be known as the 'Raytheon Effect'
Go Google it and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, this was a little trick where the spotlighting on the hull was faked if you
will by lighting the plastic from the inside of the model.

By no means perfect and certainly not the only way of doing it but it meant
that the model was all there, self contained with no need for external light sources
or having lighting emitters where there aren't any on the 'real' ship.

Now preferences aside as to whether some folks like it done the way I did or variations of the idea...
Some do, or whether they don't like it done the fake spotlight way, some don't and that's fair enough.

Now what all this waffle is leading to is this.
The effect works as it should do with the original issue white styrene Polar Lights Refit.

However, it doesn't work, or at least work the same on the Round 2
reissue of the same kit.

it's something to do with the plastic they use in the new issue which makes the
lights coming through the plastic have a noticeable yellow cast to the light.

I can't place a name that's technically exact on what causes this, I only know that it is the case.
So if you're considering doing the fake spotlight method or variation on a theme of it,
best to check what kit you have before going ahead!.

Waffle over for that subject so onward!

So a pile of clear parts.

Out of that, i'll only need this lot.

Of course i'll need the saucer, engines and pylons.





The rest of the plastic parts.





Out of that lot, i'll need these bits.





So that's the stock kit parts, on to the rest of what I have.

The Don's Light And Magic replacement resin parts fantail Doors,
side engine grilles and impulse engine.

Out of that lot, i'll need this.

The DLM parts for the travel pods, workbees and cargo containers.



And i'll need these.

Now this was included and i'm not sure as yet what the client wants to do but for information purposes,
The DLM resin replacement hangar bay for the Enterprise 1701-A

And a nice piece of gear it does look i'll be honest.
Crisp castings and a sheet of very nice decals.









The JT Graphics decals for the saucer sensor bands.
Very sharp decal printing I must say.







Next up, the rather splendid Aztek Dummy Aztec masks by Lou Dalmalso.
As usual, top quality gear from Lou, nicely done that fella!



The PNT photo etch upgrade fret.
Splendid quality stuff I know of old.





Second to last, the usual packet of stock kit instructions and decals.
Staying sealed untill I need the decals.

Lastly from Madman Lighting, the big starship lighting kit.



LED's wire, heat shrink tube , jumpers<, fiber optic, wire, power plug and socket./FONT>

Three boards.
Two for the constant on LEDs and one for the nav and strobe flashy stuff.

And a pile of paperwork for the very much required destructions!

Now the chances of me using this gear is not that great.
Please don't get me wrong, it seems to be quality stuff
but the lighting in this monster in the usual way I do it
is such that apart from a few custom modules, some of which
i'll make myself and some i'll buy in,
the greater amount of this is redundant for my purposes.

Still that said, anything is possible so we'll see.

So then, the build brief and this is a bit different...
Build, light and paint with all markings of course
but the difference is that this one is going to get shipped to Australia.
With that in mind it will be a modular model in the following way.

The secondary hull, neck and pylons will be in one piece and wired in to the base board
with pretty much the same switch set up as per the last build.
idea being when it gets there, pick up the secondary hull by
the support pole and slip it in to the base.

The engines and saucer will be separate parts with tiny plug and socket
setups so the fella on the receiving end just has to plug up,
slip the engines on and glue in to place.
Likewise sort of deal with the saucer and it's a done thing.

Wall mains adaptor 12volt supply will be included and there ya have it!

Now the reason for sending it like this is I can't send it any other way.
She's just too big as a made up model for me to ship and
even if I could send her as a finished item, the size would cost
an arm, leg, nutsack and a couple of internal organs to boot.

Just better and safer this way and all will become clear a I go along.
Which is slated to be about the end of January 2013.
So i'll see you merry mob back here round about then will I not?
I will?
You wild and impetuous fools you!!

Take care and go easy out there now gang.
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