Did some minor work on the "landing lights" placement using reference shots from film stills. Covering up battle damage for light blocking the two halves. Going for a flat black complete coverage of the interior.
Got some custom 3D printed aftermarket parts for the engines which WILL BE LIT PROPERLY from my buddy Thomas so special thanks to him for these high quality prints!
Next step is light blocking and priming the 2 major halves. Then i'll move on to installing the lighting for the landing lights & flood lights.
Started work on the cockpit, building a console for the pilots based off reference photos from the technical manual. The side of the hull has started getting painted and clear coated with a matte finish to seal in the colour and reduce the shine of the raw paint. I also started soldering and installing the landing lights all along the bottom of the hull.
I find that hot glue works best when i position the LED's to be held in place. There were 3 independent switches installed:
SW1-Cockpit Lighting
SW2-Engine Lighting
SW3-Landing Lighting/Floodlight Lighting
I also attached the 9V battery connector to the model as well for testing of the lights in future.
I finished painting the majority of the exterior parts. All thats left is assembly, touch up paint, and lighting. Possibly some filler for a few gaps but not too many. The dorsal gun assembly turned out quite nice, still needs a bit more paint and weathering though.
The turret station has 3 separate LED’s (all white) that light up the control panel on the side of the wall (red and blue buttons), the top-head light (red for cool effect), and the rear internal ship lights (white).
I finished painting the cockpit basics and removed the strands of fibre optics that were sticking out. The cockpit has a “Star Trek“ style of command center. Added my own twist for this model. There are side pieces that extend on both sides of the main control panel so that they are surrounded by controls. There’s a lot more to add and paint but its slowly getting there.
After i installed the landing ramp, i added 3 internal “overhead” lights to light the path. I found that the last 2, near the top of the ramp mushed together a bit too much. So ill be trying to blend it out a bit more in the coming weeks. All in all, the ramp looks good and requires some weathering and touchup painting now.
I glued the superstructure together but left the satellite dish off while i painted the model with weathering and fine detailing. I felt the dish would get in the way of the stands (toilet paper rolls) i used to hold the model when it was upside down.
There weren’t too many light leaks but they’ve since been filled in with squadron putty and painted over.
I used my “badger 350“ to create burn marks and exhaust streaks. Some areas are more intense than others, but i feel that it adds to the realism of not everything being identical.
I used some “Panzer Grey“ streaking to accent the crevices in the grooves. I also streaked the engine exhaust ports heavily to give a “used and abused” kind of look. I think it came out pretty good in the end.
Top side weathering completed.
As this build comes to a close, i'm glad to see the weathering came out the way it did. I went with "Ammo mig -streaking effects" Panzer Grey. It gave a different more dirty undertone and rusted feel i think. The battle damage has proved to be much easier due to practice with the "Miranda Class" build i did previously. Happy to say there are NO light leaks, EVERY light you see is supposed to be there.
The mold of the model was poor. It didn't fit together in most areas, and in others it was lacking mass entirely.
The subject of this build was a darker, worn out, needs a bloody oil change style that didn't NEED to fit within the look of the movies which i was more than happy to take on. i feel like most ships from "Trek" and "Wars" were too bright, that was due to not being able to see them in darker scenes because...space is dark...i guess? In some areas the 2-tone look made the "pieced together feel" really stand out which was nice.
All in all, a challenging build, great learning experience, and a happy customer. What more could i ask for?
Cheers, and happy modeling!
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