While I've been working on the DeBoers Enterprise trio, I've also been working on a secondary project at the same time. The DeBoers Reliant is the same scale as the Enterprise and while there are many similarities in building this kit there are a few differences as well. There is not quite as much to scratchbuild for this model because there is no secondary hull. I've been working on this kit for several months. The Reliant is no longer in production and this is one of the last known ones to be worked on. Too bad because it is a fun kit to work on. Like the Enterprise, I will be sending updates for this project when I have them.

I know it's been about 9 months since I've added any updates for the Reliant, but for the most part many of the work that is being done on the Enterprise is very similar to the Reliant as far as some of the interiors go such as the officer's lounge and many of the components for the Warp Engines are very similar as well with a few minor differences. For instance the wiring will be run through the top of the Nacell because the support pylons are connected from the top rather than underneath. The Reliant has some spot lights just like the Enterprise except they are on the top inside front of the nacells facing the saucer. They are also much smaller in size. While I have tested the lighting on all of the engines I did run into a few problems. I had what I called a nacell malfunction when I accidently cracked one of the fluorescent tubes and had to replace it. Carelessness on my part, but everything is functioning within normal perameters as it were. Another problem I've run into is that some LEDs that I ordered turned out to be the wrong color. I ordered some bright yellow LEDs to use for the thrusters and when I recieved them I found out the were not yellow, but Orange. Very upsetting, so now I have to wait for the new ones to come in. I was hoping to have the warp engines all sealed up and ready for some putty work, but this will have to wait for a while. In the meantime I'm preparing the rest of the wiring for all of the engines. I've also found a huge mistake with the warp grills that I will go into next update. There are 13 new pics in The DeBeors Reliant Album starting at pic 18. You should be seeing more updates in this album as I get closer to assembling these kits together.

See you next update,
Mark.