Greetings, Mach71, Gamera and iSteve; and anyone else out here in the Delta Quadrant.
Thanks, Gamera. I airbrushed parts of mine tonight with a flat coat. Should be able to finish construction and do the final clear coat later this week.
Results, I think, were rather disappointing overall with this kit--but more on that later in the building sequence below.
Called in Dr. McCoy to assist with sprue-parts detachment.
And others of the crew to show the results of his surgery.
Here's where the first construction gremlins showed up: the warp engines.
They look fine in the photo above, but the "snap-fit" feature of the warp engines was completely unhelpful. The rear of the engines would not snap together tightly, so I ended up having to use glue and then clamp them together to get them near to a decent fit. Even then, huge gaps were left that require lots of filling and sanding around those little fins.
I'd also advise painting the pieces for the front of the warp engines, and then fit the engines around it. I glued the engine halves together first, then tried to fit that front piece in--and it was a near impossible chore.
I didn't take any photos, but when I joined the upper and lower saucer sections, the "snap-fit" feature left them off-center. One side was over the other, and one side was under the other.
I've come to the conclusion that it might work best to cut off all the "snap" features, and just align and use glue to hold the parts together. I ended up doing that with the "neck" structure, and it seemed to work out lots better. The problem witht the "snap" technology is that you can't test-fit the pieces. That's because once you do snap them together, you can't get them unsnapped again without breakage.
Still to forewarn you all--nothing was as mean and hateful as all those decals; but, again, more about those later.
Live long and prosper.