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1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)

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SG:
A most Titanic achievement. Outstanding work!

NemVia:
April Updates 2015


This months update is quite extensive as far as the work done on the Drydock. To begin, I started by opaque-ing the Tractor emitters Flat Black. This took several coats because of the thinness of the styrene plastic. I had to make sure there would be no light leaks. I then painted the emitters Rust. But reviewing some of the Behind the scenes pics of the Drydock miniature and a few other sources I will be updating that color to a light brown color. I was then able to solder the wiring in place and connect it to the main frame of the Dock. All of the lights are working. I also was able to do a lot of touch-up work on all of the added pieces of styrene especially on the light panels and all of the detailing work around the entire panel frame assembly as well as all of the tension rods and turnbuckle assemblies. They are now a uniform Rust color. In addition to this I've also added the completed mark lighting rails that run along the outsides of the panel frames. These were soldered into their circuits and then painted to match the rest of the dock. The test lighting on this came out really nice!

The next part, or parts I was able to work on were the Cryo-tanks or whatever they're called that run along the bottom of the lower tier of the panel frames. There are five tanks per cluster. I scratch built  5 different kinds of tanks with various smaller tanks attached to them. I then used this as a master for making molds. I needed 120 if these tanks for 2 separate models. I cast all of these in black resin then sprayed them a Light Gray primer. They were then detached from their main sprues and put in a pile on my work bench. Then I randomly selected 5 of these tanks for each cluster. These five tanks were attached to 2 mounting bands which allowed the tanks to form a half circle grouping. I then attached all of these clusters to the 6 separate joints along the bottoms of the lower panel frames. They turned out rather well. After I cemented them in place I did more touch up work on all of the tanks.

Another area I worked on was the work crane and work light turrets. These had to be built by scratch. I had purchased a mini-lathe specifically for this project and now I was finally going to use it. I took two wooden wheels that I purchased from Hobby Lobby and put them on the lathe and was able to create the basic shape for the turrets. The turrets resemble mini Jupiter II's from LIS:TOS. After a nice light sanding they turned out perfect, but I found out that they were a bit too large for the scale, so I bought more of the wooden wheels in a smaller size and re-lathed 2 more pieces. It only took about 20 minutes to get the right shape. I then carved out a notch in one of these wheels. This is for the Boom arms that will extend out to the ship. The other wheel was made for the Gangway Docking Port. There are 2 docking ports on this piece and one on the work crane piece. I wanted to add some lighting effects on these turrets so I cast them I clear resin to all I would have to do is opaque the pieces and scrape of the paint where the lighting effect will need to be seen. The castings turned out very good. I am currently opaqueing them and then painting them a light tan color. There are 2 pieces for each of these turrets, this eliminated the need for me casting piece in a 2 piece mold, which is a lot of extra work. BTW there are 5 turrets for the work cranes and 2 for the work lights. I will alos be adding other details later on including the booms for the cranes and wiring and lighting as well as other small details. Most of this will be scratch built.

Another area I've started on are these 6 panels that run along the outside of the dock. There are 3 on the outside of each middle tier. Only 2 of them are really visible in the Drydock scene when Kirk and Scotty are in the travel pod. The only really clear shot of these panels are from a larger scale miniature that was built for a close up shot when the Enterprise is leaving the dock and the little dude is doing summer-salts as he's waving goodbye to the ship. These parts will also have a small but noticeable lighting effect. I started this by cutting up some very thin clear plastic into squares. I used a behind the scenes photo of this as a reference as to how large these panels will be for this scale model. I have added some masking tape for the parts where the lighting will show through. There is some minor detailing that will be added later on, but this too is turning out very good.

Last but not least, I am also working on connecting the armature to the Enterprise. This armature will connect the Ship to the Dock. There will be a lot of tweaking for this armature because of the weight of the ship. It has to sit in the dock very parallel to the panel frames. So hopefully this will be something to look forward to in next month's update. Otherwise there are 33 new progress pics in the April Updates 2015 page.

As always, enjoy the pics, comments and/or suggestions are always welcome. Take care and I'll see you next month.

Mark
http://www.NemVia.net

Rokket:
Beautiful already! What a LOT of work...looking great!!!

NemVia:
Thanks Rokket! There's more to come in about 15 days. Keep Checking!
Mark

NemVia:
May Updates - 2015


Well, this month I wasn't able to get as far as I would've liked to. I had several things I had to redo on the Enterprise model before I could start the wiring. I needed to add the Hanger bay doors to the back of the ship so they are in the open position. I also added a few more lightis to the hanger bay to enhance their lighting effects. But my primary task was to make sure that I was able to get the Armature mounted into the sauce and also make sure it would hold the ship up without bendig or bouncing too far up and down. The Enterprise does have some weight to it so I wanted to make sure the armature was holding the ship at an even keel. I also needed to start the wiring and have it feed through the armature up into the Drydock and down to the control panel base. This is now easy task as there are many wires to run through the ship. If this was mounted from below on the engineering deck it would a lot easier. But this ship needs to appear to be floating inside the dock and this is the only way to do it.

So I spent most of this last month doing a lot of soldering and wire running. Then after the wires were run thorugh the armature I needed to test that the ligthting circuits were working, then lable all of the wiring and the voltage for it's final connections to the power sources. So, I got the Engineering section wired up as well as most of the upper and lower saucer pieces. I am waiting for a shipment of LEDs to complete the thruster wiring for the Main deflector housing. I was able to get the main deflector dish wired up and working. I have lighting tests pics for some of the ship's lighting. By next month's update I will have the Enterprise resting inside her drydock and then I can add the Port side of the dock to the model. Hang in there gang. It's getting closer to being finished. I have 16 pics int the May Updates page. Check 'em out and enjoy! See you next month.

Mark
http://www.NemVia.net

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