Polar lights USS Enterprise NCC-1701 Star Trek The Motion Picture Refit 1/350th Scale
Page Number
And back once again...
For Some Saucer Shenanigans As It Were!
OK, so it's on to the long time in coming paintwork on this here beastie. Now this will be a doing it in stages thing...
And being the crusty, curmudgeonly old bastard I aspire to be, I make no apologies in any way, shape or form for putting it in the following fashion.
So then, saucer up first and after a good bath and shower to clean all the crap off, we get to masking the windows and the like.
Used the pre-cut kabuki tape supplied with the Orbital Drydock Aztec mask set.
That said, I also had to use some of the 1701 TOS window masking set since the Aztec set is for the
Refit kit done 'as is' but all my windows are smaller than the kit supplied ones.
The long windows likewise so a bit of sliver slicing required but no biggie.
Simply an aesthetic choice made way back when this hoo-ha got started but anyways.
All relevant lit areas masked and the same with the rest of the ship.
Three coats of auto primer white later and we got this.
So next up, a grey wash for the grid lines and so on. Selected an enamel mid to dark grey rather then the dark sea grey i've used before as it's a bit too stark.
Trying for something a smidgen more subtle here about's.
So that mixed with plenty of thinners, applied, left to dry fully and cleaned up.
That'll do it.
And now to the main aztecing event! Some more masking laid down to keep the pearl where I want it.
Now all the hoo-ha testing for this was covered on pages 27 and 28 so i'll not go over that lot again.
So first laying on the masks for small areas of pearl and airbrush a single coat of gold to keep it subtle.
These masks from the Orbital Drydock set are supposed to be used for the smaller panels on the main aztec but using them here instead before the main event. This is for no other reason than to break up the white areas just a little bit.
Then shift masks one step over and do the red, then again and do the green.
And with that done, the main area aztec antics begin. First with the masks from the Orbital Drydock set.
After masking areas that are gold and airbrushing a coat or two on, they got covered and on to the blue with varying number coats here and there. I did a single light coat in the blue, then second coats in some areas and working up to about 7 coats overall in differing areas.
Done and done with that, off with the masking covering the gold. Out with my cut frisket film and in with the green, gold and red where required.
Again in multiple coats in different areas. Some passes with blue over the predominately gold areas, peel off all masking and it's a done thingy.
A bit of bodily twisting to get some light kick off the pearls.
I have a single fluorescent strip in the Hellhole so the lighting is not as good as it should be but it is what it is.
The saucer edges and sides had much masking and airbrush waving about done unto them.
Then to the middle of the saucer and the B/C decks and bridge.
Started with the masks laid down and used the Trekmodeler paint guide
to mark what colour's I wanted where.
Easy enough deal with this bit. Remove the bits for each colour, airbrush, wait a bit for the pearl to settle down, replace and remove next colour and so on.
Last job was to remove the areas masked and left white and use a slightly modified mask section from the set.
The small shapes got airbrushed in blue pearl.
Take a good look, then remove all masking and take a look at the overall thingy.
Me likey!
Pearls applied to the B/C decks and bridge area. The pearl work around the impulse drive likewise sorted and on to some detail painting. Colours for this are all acrylics either used 'as is' or mixed to requirements. A slight smidgen of shading and toning here and there as that's how the eventual owner seems to like things.
Aye, that's pretty much what one was after!
Now to the last bits of paintwork here and there.
And pretty much the same deal done airbrush, mask and pearl style on the underside of the saucer.
And that pretty much kicks the paintwork in to touch for the saucer.
Now to the start of giving this lass her 'colours'. Saucer registry and small markings via DIY dry rubdowns and/or paintwork as needed.
And methinks it's time for as best a pearl and lighting look see as one can manage.
And I do believe I like what I see!
And after much faffing about with a camera and editing, the consistently dodgy youtube vid of course.
So with the exception of some little things to sort, that's the done deal for the saucer so on to the neck and secondary hull. That's for the next update so i'll see you goodly folks then. Go easy out there all!
