Ok, I wanted to do this separately, since the Reliant took me nearly 5 months to finish and I completed nearly three other kits while working on it.

Starting off, the kit, although very well-detailed, is astonishingly poorly engineered. If I had the skills, I could have removed or filled every seam, but this being me, I couldn't. The parts were warped in the wrong places and required clamping to get them to sit right. Even with this, one nacelle is crooked from the other, though it is (thank goodness) only visible from directly below the model.

Pics:

and that's how it sat for about a month.

Now, I hate to complain, but the seams on the..uh...pylons (I guess) where they attach to the ship's hull were atrocious--nearly half an inch wide on one side. How can anyone deal with this? I ended up putting "panels" of plastic card stock from business card packaging (my go-to for hole-filling) over the seams (as in replacement panels placed over battle-damage) and weathered them as such.

For all those die-hard Trekkies out there--I DID NOT do any of that 'Aztec'-type paneling on the hull. In my opinion, it makes no sense to multi-color a military vessel, unless they are panels that have been replaced (that, and according to files I found, not all Star Trek ships had this panel-style, and those that did, according to producer's interviews, only had it for added visual interest on the movie screen; in fact, the paneling is invisible under normal lighting, only showing up under studio lighting). Instead, I painted a random grey shade on different panels.

Pics:

Pre-decals:

And with decals:

I think the bottom came out better than the top.

Comments always welcome.

Next Post--The Enterprise E, customized.

Klik

Sorry for the Triple post, but I have a lot of pics.

The Enterprise-E in 1/2500th scale was one that I got for two reasons: one, it is an awesome ship; two, I wanted to relax from the Reliant for while and test some new weathering techniques on the E.

I marked it as what I like to think of as a "test" ship with only a name (no decals were used-the name was hand-painted).

Pics:

Size comparison to the original Enterprise (SAME SCALE, can you believe it?!!)

Initial weathering. I noticed that the grey paint I had was semi-transparently thin, so I figured that some 'rust-like patina' and dark grey paneling would add visual interest.

1st Coat:

2nd Coat (badly needed at this point):

Details painted and start on weathering/battle damage (what starship would be complete without it?):

And finished:

Close-up of the name:

If any of you recall, this is the same name as the Enterprise-B model that I posted on here several months back. Since numerous Star Trek ships have re-used names, I figured why not make my ship(s) have repeated names (especially since the USS St. Lo is my favorite WWII carrier).

That's about it for the last six months--I also picked up another triple kit in 1/2500th, the USS Reliant (again, marked as a custom vessel--none of that decal stuff with me), a Klingon Battlecruiser and the Enterprise A (second one--this one I intend to use decals on).

[In other news, I also picked up a Zvezda 1/35th Soviet BMP-2D, which I may end up posting as a WIP in the Armor forum. (thus ending my Star Trek kit binge).]

Comments, critiques, etc welcome, and I have more pics if you want them.

Klik

I'm a big fan of Reliant and yours came out damn nice.

Great call on that quick and sensible fix.......

Thanks, TD4438; The Reliant is so much my favorite (since I first saw Wrath of Khan), that I've got the 1/2500th scale one too.

Disaster master, I'm not the only one to have this problem. Another guy posted his BoP on this forum, and called it off because of this sort of problem.

Klik

Wow, how did I miss this post!?! Great work there esp the Protector and Reliant- gee I hate painting anything white and appreciate anyone who does a great job on it!  

Love your Reliant. It's on my list to 'get around to'.

You've done a great job with the details. I did do a kit bash of a Reliant in TOS style.