Polarlights Enterprise 1701-A Refit
1/350th Scale



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Almost Crunch Time Part 1

Well first things first, this page will be covering the masking and light bleed painting
in stages so will be updated when I have updates for you goodly lot.
Main painting will be on the next fresh page to arrive hopefully soon.

Right, to business then. She's now pretty much together and in her support rig so it's primary masking time.
Well windows like the VIP lounge and the arboretum will be taken care of with masking fluid,
you know that brush on latex stuff,
anyways that leaves more than a few windows in need of masking,
namely all the little round ones and the elongated types so onward.

Now to cut out the round masks, done in my usual simplistic fashion was as follows...
A short length of 3mm brass rod turned in a mini drill and one end taken down to about 2mm diameter
simply by running up and down along an old file.
Once done then a small diameter ball shaped grinding bit run into the
narrowed end creating a shallow dish with a sharp edge.


Using the underside of a cutting mat,
just lay a strip of your bog standard DIY type masking tape,
get the brass rod in a pair of grips and with the sharp end down
give the blunt end a couple of firm taps with a small hammer.


Cut along one end and peel away excess and there you have it.
Repeat the file down and grind out procedure every 20 or so, more if it's still cutting ok,
taking care to maintain the sharp end diameter and in no time you'll
have the 140 or so that you will need.
Not perfect but it do work.


Well you can guess the deal here, just peel of the mat and start applying.


Dull and tedious but like a lot of things, necessary for the deed to be done.


And while all masking mayhem this carries on, I thought it might be a good idea to get some
shots in of this bugger lit up even though some of the windows be masked over.

Now I had made the mistake of having a clear up 'fore I got the masking underway and
for some reason the 12v 2 amp power pack was nowhere to be found,
the only one to hand was the 12v 1amp testing power pack so
that's what ya gonna have to live with and me too untill I figure out what in
the name o' hell I did with the bloody thing.

Bear in mind the lighting in the hellhole is on, these pics were taken about 9:30 PM
and the 6 foot fluorescent tube is about 4 foot away so I think it reasonably
shows just how bright the spotlight footprints are going to be running at full whack.










Almost Crunch Time Part 2...For That Lighter, Whiter Look.

Well now, seeing as all my light hiding efforts during assembly were only partially successful,
time for the airbrushed matt black to get a good hammering.


Once that was sorted, a wee cleanup of the spotlight areas.




When done with all them fun and games, time to slap on some large
lumps o' frisket here and there.


More than a small amount of matt white paint courtesy of a can of matt white auto primer and masks removed.
Now this tactic left bare plastic areas for the light to show through but also
some rather prominent paint ridge lines surrounding the lit areas
so some 1200 grit wet and dry along with a fair dollop of elbow grease later smoothed those out nicely.


That bit sorted, so out with a mixture of airbrushed acrylic and auto spray gloss white liberally laid on.


And of course the obligatory light test,
found the 12v 2amp pack by the way, long story.
Not too shabby but a bit of edge fuzzing was called for.


So out with the matt white, some fiddling about with airbrushing about the edges and
then overcoating with more gloss white and this was the result.







And not forgetting the now fully expected in the dark shot


Well that's that for this lot, base colour sorted so next part is crunch time for real paintwork wise.
Yep some form of finish line is most certainly in sight.

Right now the battery in my camera needs re-charging and quite frankly so do I.

You lot go easy and see thee on page 18 where we gonna have a giggle.



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