Here is the real part with the properly spaced and sized holes.
End cap on the nacelle was turned on a lathe and styrene ribbed sheeting used. The holes are just drawn in free hand for now. I’ll have a PE part made for those. The holes are just two small. A decal would work too but the PE will be nicer I think.
Steve
Lots more done today. I used finishing glaze to make exact negatives of the pylons into the neck and the nacelles. They fit exact no drooping. This should make the kit easy to assemble as they will be part of the castings.
Also started the end cap on the secondary hull. The holes aren’t drilled yet or the hanger bay cut out. Just marked loosely with a sharpie for looks.
Hopefully I’ll get to work a bit on her through the week in the evenings.
More to come,
Steve
Here you can see the glazing putty inside the neck. The neck will be solid cast with a aluminium tube running through it fot wiring. Smae with the plylons.
Getting things nice and level. Glazing putty to create the sockets for the pylons.
Here we go. Some real progress today although you have to count yesterday as I spent the whole day on research and driving all over town getting materials. Even had to go back to Kit Kraft a second time. An hour drive.
Got the secondary hull cut and lathed the cone section. Cut the whole to except the neck and pointed it up with glazing putty. Make a good enough hole. PVA up the neck and butter the inside of the hole with glazing putty. Shove the neck in and using a level surface and a square line it up. Trim the putty away as soon as it gels with a Exacto to get the clean edges easy and it’s a done deal.
Cut the nacelles to the right length. And I cut the ball to except the neck and used a styrene tube it just fits inside and mounted it to the inside of the ball. When all this is molded that parts will be plug and play. All the parts will be hallow to as I’ll make cores. Lighter, easy to light and drill out those darn windows.
I’m basing this build mostly from the Greg Gein photos as you asked for a replica. However this will be a clean, up and personal model.
The lathed parts have to be sealed and primered. Then pointed up but then you all know that by now.
More tomorrow,
Steve
Trying to decide the scale but this will be a resin kit of the early designed Star Trek Star Ship the USS Daedalus.
With the help of Doug Drexler and Greg Gein’s model for reference this will be a smaller scale model than the big Enterprise.
I’ve always liked this ship and she will look great all light up.
More on her later,
Steve
Click on image for larger picture and click again to enlarge
So here’s where things sit right now. The BR is stuck together with tape for now. Engine section done. Starting on the rest of the structure leaving the middle part open until the lighting kit gets here. Lots of strings inside to pull the eventual wiring through.
SD has a lot of holes drilled already and I opened up large areas under the super structures for access to stringing the fiber optics.
Trenches came out nice and straight. Heat gun and a flat surface. Same on the hull. And when I glued in the trenches I did it while the lower hull edge was pressed against a flat surface. Then I clamped the top ion and heated it again and tweaked by hand with gloves until it was nice and straight.
More tomorrow.
Steve
So a lot of clean up on both models today. Then I gor the engine section all assembled for the Blockade Runner.
Since a custom lighting board is being made up by Randy at Voodoo EFX lighting it will be a few days before I get it. I didn’t want to stop building to wait on the lights so I used an old RC airplane trick of running string through the engine section that I can later use to pull the wiring through.
I also drilled out the LEDs 5 mm holes in the engines themselves. The end caps aren’t glued on yet so I still have access to the engine tubes.
Randy Cooper said in the instructions that I’d curse his name. Well I didn’t. But I did have to use his technique of Bondo Pressing to get the parts to fit as there were large gaps from shrinkage. There was no templates to align the 11 nacelles that I could fine despite what it said in the instructions so I eye balled it using a level and a square. They look straight to me.
All this took about 6 hours. Not so bad as he warned you but he was right about getting this part out of the way first.
When you do the Bondo Press use a finishing glaze and as soon as it gels take a knife and cut off the excess. For mold release on the nacelles I used good old water soluble PVA.
Two coats worked well and the nacelles broke away cleanly.
Then I did the clean up and glued the nacelles back one at a time with CA.
Tomorrow I’m going to glue on more parts to the SD and start drilling fiber optic holes. Lots of them!
Steve
I have the RC BR and the Anigrand SD to build for two different clients. I figured I’d do a first for me. Build both models at the same time.
And so far, so good. Got those warped pesky hull parts together on the SD. Second I got the engine section of the BR started. Holes are all drilled to fit the wiring. They are actually square and true to one another. I’ve been over the instructions and pictures from Randy many times. The DS is a joke when it comes to the instructions but I can wing it.
The SD is clamped together over the engine bulkhead for truing the shape and to get a look.
More tomorrow,
Steve
Today worked on preening and finishing off all the small part masters. Tomorrow I’ll clean up and finish off the nacelles. What that means is the masters are done. Next weekend I’ll start making molds.
I am so glad to be at the end of this phase. Molds go quick so we’ll be building and actual model very soon.
Steve
After nearly 4 weeks of work the NX-01 is finished. Dave or FuseNova had me add a bit of weathering and battle rash. I went back over her several times today and called her done. Most definitely camera ready.
So here’s a whole bunch of pictures and video for you to enjoy. As soon as I finish the molds for the big Enterprise I’ll be building mine. IK learned to really fall in love with this hip after getting to know her! Great design Doug!
Steve
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So I looked at the Bussards and said to myself…nah!
Got a lathe now lets build a better Bussard. So I did. And I made that last part. I have clean up to do on the Bussard tomorrow and then nacelle clean up and hanger bay clean up. Steve
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