All I did was stick the model in front of my TV with the blu-ray of "The Corbomite Maneuver" playing and took the picture. Old school SFX! Though I did have to paint out the CGI Enterprise where my model didn't line up exactly with the screenshot.
My model flying into Murasaki 312. As with the previous photo, all I did was cover the CGI Enterprise with my own and clicked.
In order to get the taper right, I originally filled the back of b&c deck with 30 minute Devcon epoxy. I later learned that I should have use Apoxysculpt as I have to cut much, much further than I thought I would.
After sanding and grinding, I needed to rebuild b& c decks to get the shape right.
Grinding down the stock piece... not quite there.
The shape is almost right...
And then I discovered that it was just easier to shave the whole top off. Here I have it temporarily filled with Epoxy, which I later filled with Apoxy.
...unfortunately, the shape of the stock piece is way wrong and I discovered that I had to cut things down even further.
The tape is to keep all the epoxy from leaking through.
Hellllooooo Apoxysculpt to save the day. Much sculpting and sanding to go...
Ahhh.... finally a pleasing shape.
I actually spent time sanding it down even further as B&C decks became too wide. More Apoxysculpt inside the top edges in order to get the correct shape.
*sigh* always more sanding to do, but the clear epoxy works really well as windows.
Test fitting the bridge dome. Looks right to me. Darn autofocus.
Another test fit shot.
Test light.
Ah... the joys of hand-made Aztecing. It turned out very differently than I thought...
After painting, overpainting, sanding and repainting.... ugh
I had better luck down here.
The resin planetary sensor with the center cut out and a slightly ground down elipse in place. A dot of epoxy made the nipple. Er. Ion pod.
Filling in the stock hangar lines which were just too darn wide. It was also too big, so it got sanded down. I chopped the head off a 5mm LED to serve as the shuttlebay control pod.
Getting the angle of the deflector housing juuuuuuust right... without destroying the edge by sanding things down too far.
I spent about half an hour with my dremmel thinning the outer ring, which is 3/4" copper interconnect. My hands were a little numb afterwards. and boy did that copper get hot.
Test fitting the rings
I later filled all the gaps with epoxy and repainted for a nice, smooth surface.
Unfortunately, I cut the inner rings incorrectly. But with the dish in place, it won't be that noticeable... I hope.
Strips of styrene served admirably to increase the width of the control reactor loops. I would later fill it in with green putty. Shots of the 11' model showed that the end tabs sat flush with the surface of the nacelle, so I filled that area in with green putty as well.
You can see how I filled in the bottom of the tabs here. A cheap and effective way of accurizing the part.
Slicing off little bits of round styrene worked perfectly for whatever those little nobbly things are on the ends of the control reactor loops. Shots of this piece on the 11' model showed them to be this shape rather than little buttons.
The bussard domes were beautify and shiny, but after looking at pictures of the 11' production model, I saw that the dome had actually been sanded to frost it. You can see the swirl marks. So as much as it killed me to do so...
Notice the faint Aztec pattern on the collar.
Done. I've constructed a sleeve that will side into the warp nacelles that will contain the fan motors and lights. The collar and the domes slide right over the end requiring no more than a dab of CA to hold them in place.
I built this scaffolding to ensure an exact 88 degree angle on the pylons. It ultimately failed. Badly. It was 88 degrees, but the changed angle meant that the pylons were now too tall. And they weren't centered perfectly as I thought they would be. FAIL.
Some 3mm LEDs for lighting, clear epoxy to hold them in place and gap fill. I then layered colored Apoxysculpt over the top of that for both light blocking and to provide a level hangar floor.
Colored epoxy does the trick.
Beefing up the leading and trailing edges of the neck.
how to get an eggcrate pattern without using the etched brass part.
Apoxysclupt and colored epoxy for lightblocking and gap filling around the edges of the hangar doors. A 3mm LED fit into the hole perfectly to light the main navigational beacon and shuttlebay control dome.
Second stage of the aztecing.
The guts from a flashing top which I ultimately did NOT use for the bussard effects.
You see, it DOES blink!
I enhanced the text on the face of the 555 chip so it can be read. I assumed the pin I'm pointing at is #1 based on the orientation of the text.
I was surprised by how well the bussard collar fit over the inner sleeve. It shouldn't need any glue at all.
I'll eventually take off all the tape.
And as much as it killed me to lose the paint job, I just HAD to correct the shape.
Fill. Sand. Primer. Repeat.
Adding my new and improved Aztec pattern. After gaining the experience the first time around, I used a base coat of Light Ghost Gray and then used my special blend of 3 parts LLG to 1 part white.
Viola
I then applied a misting of the lighter LGG mix to blend everything in.
I later added an Aztec pattern to the rim.
I used a different, slightly simpler Aztec pattern for the bottom.
You can see where there wasn't quite enough spray mount to keep the mask down, and where there was too much. Oh well.
What I used for the bussard lighting. In my next build, I think I'll use two of these.
