[Lou Dalmaso]

It's been a very intense month of building and studying and working at the computer and reworking and studying and building some more, but now I am pleased to show off the results.

What I have here is one of REL's magnificent Sovereign Class Enterprise kits. You really can't say enough good things about this. It's really a sight to see.

Added to that is JWRJr's lighting wizardry (in spite of my best efforts :drunk: ) The lights are buried in there and will be "unveiled" after all of the painting is done. there are 4 CCFLs in the saucer and 1 more in the body with supplemental LED's. also the standard Flashers and running lights.

And then on top is my new painting templates. As you can see, there is still a lot to be done. I'm working on the nacelles right now. and I'l be posting more pics as I make more progress.

But, I promised to have some results to show for myself by today, so here you go. What I plan to do in the next couple of days is to paint a light gray over the whole ship, mask off the areas that will be darker gray, then paint those. Remove the templates and paint in the rest of the detail and then decal.

If you have any questions about these templates, please e-mail me at:

[email protected] so we can keep them off of these boards.

Cheers,
Lou :wave:

 

[Griffworks]

Lookin' good, Lou.

Y'know, every time I see someone else showing off Richard's kit, it makes me wish I'd had at least the cash and the display space for one of those....

 

[REL]

Always good to see another build up, thank you.

 

[nebulaclass269]

Lookin good. Can't wait to get started on mine!:thumbsup:

 

[tripdeer]

Wow, impressive. I love the Refit and Wee-NX masks I got from you, I couldn't even begin to attempt the aztecing without them.

 

[Cougar184]

what step did you do to prevent light leaks Lou? Im putting some reflective tape in the areas that I can but I cant get everything. I dont really think its possible to black the inside out but are you having any problems with light leaks?

just a concern of mine.

cant wait to see the aztec paint pattern you made!

 

[Lou Dalmaso]

Cougar,
Foil tape is my friend. that and several light coats o' paint.

The nacelles are gong to be the real test. those lights are strong in there!

 

[REL]

Yep, foil tape as much of the inside of that thing as you can. The added benefit is it reflects light around better so less LED's. Your build up looks really nice, I know I said it before but it's really exciting for me to see people build the kit.

 

[Cougar184]

I think the main concern I had is this the saucer top piece. there is a ton of windows and the last piece I have to foil up. anyway my should be sealed up in 2 weeks...

 

[jwrjr]

To state the (I hope) obvious, it would be well to check and see that the lighting works properly before sealing it up. Having to re-open a nice model like that would be unfortunate.

 

[Cougar184]

thats part of the sealing up process!

 

[Lou Dalmaso]

last night's progress

Last night's update.

Started off by giving the lady a new coat. I airbrushed on what will eventually be the final lighter gray color. paying special attention to the areas between the hull sections. Because that's where the fiberglass is the thinnest, it's also the most likely place for light leaks.

I was looking around while it was drying between coats and spotted a used sheet of templates where I had plucked out the plating pieces, leaving only the surrounding vinyl and thought "hmmm...interesting..

so I peeled it up and stuck it to a cardboard frame.

I then made up a mixture of the light gray, medium gray and just a touch of chrome silver.

using the scrap of template as a stencil, I sprayed on an added layer of "faux plating" just enough to break up the surface, mind you ...

it's a little strong here, but I was always planning on a blending coat later in the process.

the first pic is the stencil and the second one is the result

Cheers, :wave:
Lou
PS... I did do a quick light check and everything still seema to be working

 

[Raist3001]

Lou those templates look fantastic!!

 

[PixelMagic]

Very cool. Nice job, Lou.

 

[fiercegaming]

Looking amazing lou!

 

[Lou Dalmaso]

another update

Last night I added the dark gray areas and then strted the long template removal process. there is still some clean up to do. with the three day weekend coming up, I hope to finish. Or at least get to the decal stage

Enjoy

 

[Cougar184]

anymore pics?

 

[Lou Dalmaso]

funny you should ask

yesterday I had the day off for the holiday weekend, so I was able to get some major work done on the E-E

I did the gross masking of the darker gray areas of the belly and underside of the saucer. I did the new stencil technique to it to break up the surface a bit.

when that was dry to the touch, I removed the painter's tape and started the labor intensive task of removing the tiny vinyl pieces. At this point the vinyl has been on the kit for a few DAYS and the only places where I accidentally pulled up any underpaint was where I dug too deep with the x-acto. Since I am using Enamels with this paintjob, the paint flakes off of the vinyl when I pull it up, so I have to do a lot of "dusting" with a fairly stiff bristled paintbrush to remove the residue. the specks you see on the second pic are flakes I haven't got to yet.

I'm also starting to expose the windows. these are coming out really well considering how many coats of paint they are buried in.

I'll be continuing this thruout the day, I'm sure. The next big thing for me is to join the tops and bottoms of the nacelles and button up the wiring

Cheers,
Lou

 

[Lou Dalmaso]

Let there be...well, you know

yes, it's still a bit messy and yes there are some light leaks to plug, but I thought I would go ahead and share this.

now we're getting to the exciting part!

Cheers,
Lou :wave:

 

[scifieric]

Holey moley! That's about the coolest thing ever!