Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
So..yeah. Over the past 4 months or so, I've actually started building ships again. Mostly, I've been doing stock to get back into the swing of things.
USS Al Keriat, NCC-27391 Dorsal plan, deflector shot, & bridge citadel closeup. 1/2500 Ambassador, stock with addition of extra transporter emitter arrays. An experiment with softer color schemes; basecoat is Testors acrylic RLM 77 Hellgrau, darker two-toning gray is Testors acrylic RLM 63 Lichtgrau, & the blue-grey is Testors acrylic RLM 76 Lichtblau. The navigational deflector is done with a metallic blue or sapphire nail polish, which gives a more "energized" look & feel.
USS Constitution, NCC-31935 Dorsal plan, starboard elevation, & bow closeup. 1/2500 Excelsior variant, totally stock. This was the first of this batch of ships I built, only the second ship I built since moving to PA in April 2001, & the first thing I built for myself. I had it sitting on my desk at work until I lost my job. Basecoat is Testors FS 36495 Light Grey with Testors acrylic RLM 77 Hellgrau as the two-tone. The lighter blue striping is Testors Russian Topside Blue and the darker blue is Testors ANA 609 RAF Azure Blue; again, the deflector is a metallic blue nail polish. The small windows have all been inked in place & they were a bit of a pain as usual.
USS Cleopatra, NCC-81518 Dorsal plan, starboard elevation, & ventral plan. 1/2500 Galaxy, stock with addition of 446 or so indiviually placed sheet styrene lifeboat hatches. Basecoat is Testors FS 36375 Light Ghost Grey & Testors acrylic RLM 63 Lichtgrau for the two-toning. All windows were inked on using the TNGTM & the Enterprise-D blueprints as guides.
USS Shenzhou, NCC-84699 Dorsal plan & ventral plan. 1/2500 Sovereign, totally stock, although with the slight modifications shown in "Nemesis," I'm going to have to add them to both this ship & my Enterprise. I've always used the panelling layout & color scheme shown in the Encyclopedia as my guide for these ships, & they look far better for it. Basecoat is Testors FS 36495 Light Grey with Testors acrylic RLM 77 Hellgrau, Testors FS 36375 Light Ghost Grey, & Testors F-15 Dark Grey as the progressively darker panel colors. Again, I decided to stick with the blue deflector color.
USS Lightoller, NCC-86003 Dorsal plan, ventral plan, port elevation, bow elevation, & stern elevation. 1/2500 Canberra-class light cruiser kitbash. Parts from the 1/2500 Excelsior, Ambassador, Sovereign, & Galaxy as well as the 1/1400 Galaxy & the SFSM vacuform Oberth kits were used to build the ship. Lifeboat hatches & phasers are all sheet styrene. Basecoat is a flattened Testors FS 16515 (well, 36515 now) Canadian Voodoo Grey with two-toning in Testors acrylic RLM 63 Lichtgrau & RLM 76 Lichtblau. I'd been fiddling with the idea of a "single engine lock" design for many years, somewhat inspired by some of the old FASA designs. After toying with different parts, the design just seemed to gel. It's a small ship in length (most of it being nacelles) but huge in volume. A nice thing about this design is that with the same parts, it could be easily rescaled to be a 5- or 6-deck 1/1400 ship. I also realized afterwards that the arrowhead on the bottom is reversed. Oops.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
The Canberra is an interesting design there... nice work!
I've got a Starcrafts Prometheus sitting in my closet that I never finished from last summer... perhaps it's time for me to get back into modeling, especially with the Art Asylum kits coming out in 2003.
I've also got one of the old ERTL 1701-D fiber optic kits that's half-finished (and has been collecting dust in my closet for 7 years now), because I simply don't have the patience to do the wiring, and because the base coat that I spray-painted on sucks. I've never taken the time to figure out how to work with it... though I would dearly love to have a full model of the good old Enterprise-D on my shelves...
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
VERY nice. I love it when people build physical models rather than computer generate them as so much more effort goes into a model. the only problem i have is the way you paint names and registries. decals look so much better man. get in touch with jtgraphics. they make decals how you want them.
Registered: Oct 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
I would also suggest taking more time with the painting. It looks like you're brushing on the paint. You might want to give spray paint and washes of acrylics or airbrushing a try.
It also appears that you're using a felt tipped pen or ink of some kind to do the windows. I've always used black and yellow/white paint and a small, small brush for the windows. For the models where we actually have indented windows, like Monogram's Voyager model, it's a dream. The paint usually fills in the indent almost perfectly. And making some of the windows lit (the yellow paint) it makes it look more realistic. Also, if you mess up, you can always scrape the excess paint off with an x-acto knife.
I like that last design though.
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
I am brushing on the paint. The colors I use don't come in sprays & airbrushes are too expensive & usually too pointless for me; when you're working with 2-inch-long ships....well, yeah. And buying decals for each ship at $7 a pop or so...inefficient.
I DO use ink for the windows & the names, in rapidographs. The problems on Lightoller are less due to the materials & more to the fact that it was done usually late at night during a high-stress time & that there's been problems with the ink nibs. My construction skills rather suck, my painting is pretty fair, but my design skills are mad wack.
I'm glad the Canberra design is getting such a favorable response. It's come to be one of my favorites, just from the "recognizable yet different" nature of it.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
Nice work Shik! I too have been busy modeling and it seems we both had the same idea to build an Ambassador class! http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=1301771&uid=657989 E-Mail me and I'l send you my Illustrator files and instructions for making good cheap registry decals.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
