2500 Scale Phase II E - DONE!

[Burke]

That's amazing work. As I've just started working in 1/2500 and have done some E-A nacelle work I can't attest to how hard it is. Your skills are very good and I look forward to seeing her finished. Kudos.

[el gato]

Thank you for the kind words, everyone. I do appreciate them, especially coming from people whose work I aspire to achieve.

In all honesty, I do consider myself a better photographer than modeler...

[el gato]

Small updat since I lost about a week due to a bad batch of putty. Aves has never failed me until now, so it picked a fine week to do so. Where we left off I had puttied the sides of the nacelles to sculpt the shape. Unfortunately some parts didn't cure and the warped, flaked off or crumbled to the touch. Saturday all I could do was to glue the two nacelle halves and the saucer/neck to the engineering section. I also whipped up a new batch of putty and began the rebuilding:



Luckily the new putty worked well, so Sunday I was able to sand the puttied sections to shape them. That allowed me to use bondo for the finer, hairline gaps that needed filling:



Everything went well Monday afternoon and was able to get the nacelles how I wanted:






Here are a couple of beauty shots of how it'll look all assembled. I'm still not done with the nacelles since I need to add a few details here & there:









The topside and underside shots make me think the nacelles give my Phase II E "thunder thighs" :





I can't believe it took me three hours to shape the "space-matrix restoration coils" (the little tabs at the end of the nacelle). I'm still not done shaping it and the "RCS thruster pylons" (the little wings on the side), but since I'm going hiking in Yosemite this weekend it'll have to do for a week. The upside is that priming the main body showed I only have minimum cleanup on the seams:

[Moongrim]

Well good quality work takes time.

[FatherRob]

Intriguing work there... I agree about the 'thunder-thighs' comment, but in this scale, I am not sure there is a finer way to approach the matter. I think it still looks good, and can't imagine what you might get to handle it a different way.

I applaud you for taking on such fine work in such a tiny scale.

Rob+

[Moongrim]

Yosemite eh?

I worked at Yosemite Park and Curry Co. nigh on about 25 years agone.

[el gato]

Thank you for the kind words, gentlemen!

The nacelles are almost ready for priming. I finished the enhanced RCS thruster pylons (the wings on the sides) and the little stick that comes out of the grills and ends beneath the intercooler assembly (Captain America wings on the front). I puttied the joints and now they're waiting to be sanded smooth. Hopefully that'll be this weekend.

I seriously hope I could work on this instead of my day job...

Moon - Small world! I've been going to Yosemite every year since 1997 (except 2005) and done some insane day hike since 1999. This year we went on a 20 mile hike in search of Echo Lake. We failed and a squadron of mosquitoes went to town on the left side of my back But it's about the journey, not the destination, right?

[el gato]

So here's the update from the work this weekend. I mentioned last time I was redoing the RCS thruster pylons to make them a little more prominent (straying from the plans a little). This including putting in some bondo to blend them in with the old ones:



After sanding the nacelles and whatnot, I primered them and found all sorts of ugly stuff. Just for the heck of it I reinspected the body and was glad that I did since I found a few pockmarks that I hadn't seen before (you'll notice I reprimered the body with a grey primer after I made the notches on the nacelles a little bigger):



Ahhh... much better:



One more coat of primer and these babies are ready to come together:



And here it is, finally fully assembled. I taped over the front of the nacelles and the deflector housing because I don't want the base coat on them. This is where I'll hand paint the Bussards and the deflectors:















The "hero" shot :



With the base coat:











In the background you'll notice my test prints of the decals. I've spent all day on these and I still can't get them right. So I'll have to work on them over the week, though my Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights are busy. It's going to be a photo finish. At this point I'm not sure I'll have it ready by July 1.

[el gato]

Decals are my downfall. Outside of mastering the airbrush, I'll never be a good modeler if I can't figure out decals. After several tries, I have my decal sheet for this project. I did some prep by painting the "intercooler assembly:"



I had Thursday off from noon forward, so I started the decal odyssey that ended at noon today. I'll explain a few of instances where I took artistic license. First, the inside warp grills would be purple. Second I decided the nacelles didn't look right without a couple of pennants. Because the "photonic spill ports" took practically the entire side, I took a page out of TNG and put them on top. Third, I also decided this thing needed a strongback, so I gave the Phase II one though it is smaller than the refit's strongback. Sort of complements the conference room windows on that side. So here it is next to the new PL refit:







Saucer edge windows and sensor bands:



Fourth design license element, I decided to put a dot on the bottom on the port nacelle. No reason, other than to make it a little asymmetric:



Final shots before a dullcoat bath:





I don't think I ever showed a good picture of my photon torp launch tubes:



Post dullcoat:









At this point I finally removed the tape to show where the deflector dish and Bussards will go. My original idea was to give the Phase II red Bussards like the TOS version. Then I started to waffle and considered making them blue or orange. I have to say that it wasn't until the last minute that I decided what I wanted to do:



And I opted for orange, just to make it different. Here are the Bussards and the deflector housing:







And finally DONE:









On the "Display Stand of the Three Enterprises:"





The divergent paths (the TOS version is getting her decals on):



So judges, submitted for your consideration

[Moongrim]

Well Done El Gato, that ship is looking My-Tea-Fine!