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Hi all,
I'm building the Round 2 models Star Trek K-7 Space Station kit.
Since it's a fairly simple build, I decided to give pre-shading a shot, and tried my hand with an airbrush for the first time. Was pretty happy with how that turned out for a first go. :)
But when it comes to painting the dome windows, I'm kind of stuck. Usually it's depicted with some lights on and some off, in a fairly random pattern. That looks good to me, but I'm having trouble deciding the best way to do it. Hand painting each "lit" window freehand would be one option, but I'm worried they wouldn't look straight. I could try to mask each "lit" window first, but they are awfully small, and it seems like it might be kind of tough. Also might be able to cut some of them out and put material behind, but the plastic is kind of thick, and that might be even tougher. Perhaps print up custom decals on white-back decal paper?
To you experienced builders out there, if you were doing this, which approach would you take?
Thank you so much for any assistance!
Mark
https://www.amazon.com/Round-Star-Trek-Space-Station/dp/B002UWXREC
Hi Mark,
That's a tough spot since you already painted the rest of it. I would have painted those first then masked them off but that's irrelavent at this point.
Can you cut out the correct size slit shapes from decals from your spares box?
Anyone with a good car don't need to be justified - Hazel Motes
Just get out your yellow Tamiya tape and mask them. It looks like they have straight sides.
Do A couple at at time.
It will go much faster than you think.
Modeling is an excuse to buy books.
SprueOne Hi Mark, That's a tough spot since you already painted the rest of it. I would have painted those first then masked them off but that's irrelavent at this point. Can you cut out the correct size slit shapes from decals from your spares box?
Appreciate the advice!
Thinking back the pre-paint probably would have been the best approach, since masking wouldn't have to be perfectly exact. I briefly considered removing the paint and doing it over, but decided against that.
I was thinking that I had to print exact size decals for the individual windows, which seemed difficult, but thinking more about it from your suggestion, I can just print the entire cone as one decal, and slice out just the windows I want lit. Knowing the circumference of the cone at the top and bottom, along with the number of windows and the separator width I should be able to print a fairly accurate template for all the windows (on paper first of course... there will no doubt be a lot of trial and error).Perhaps more work than strictly necessary, but I'll trust math any day over my "eyeballing"skills.
Thanks!
GMorrison Just get out your yellow Tamiya tape and mask them. It looks like they have straight sides.
Thank you!
I gave this a try last night. The individual windows are so small that I'm not able to mask them properly. I put a solid piece of tape over the dome, pushed it down into the cracks with a stiff brush, and then tried to cut out windows with a sharp hobby knife, but the result still seemed a bit uneven.
I could have pulled out the optivisor, but I had a feeling that paint would have crept out the corners anyway no matter how hard I tried, so I gave it up. I'm too old, I think. :(
Thank you,
Mark - I may be too late here, but there are pre-cut vinyl masks available for this kit.
http://www.culttvmanshop.com/K-7-paneling-paint-masks-from-Aztek-Dummy_p_1441.html
After much frustration, I gave up both the masking and decal ideas. The sections are just too small on the lesser domes.
My solution: A small thickness mechanical pencil used to color in all the windows. The raised areas acted as a template to keep the pencil in the area, and it gave a nice silver sheen to the dome. I'm quite pleased with the result, and will use a gloss laquer on the domes to keep the highlights rather than the matte laquer used for the rest of the station.
I don't have "lit" windows, but I'm rationalizing that away by guessing that these windows would need to have serious radiation shielding and shades on them anyway, so even if the lights were "lit", they might not appear differently from the outside. In any case, everything is very straight and organized evenly, which is much more necessary for my OCD than lit windows. :)
Each of the smaller domes is taking about 2 hours to finish, being extra careful. So altogether, this part of the project will be around 8 hours total.
Thanks for all the ideas.
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