Even though it may have been a challenging build I think you did an amazing job.  The photos of it are impressive.  There's so much goodness going on I didn't even notice the seam! 

Thanks for sharing the final results!

She looks good! I think Scotty would approve!!! 

At least you got her built, like Gary I've got the same kit and she's been sitting there in the box for years now!  

Double Post

No matter what pain it put you through, it look good from here.  Glad you persevered!

Now what did I do with that Enterprise model I started back in 2013...?

Gary

This kit has caused me a lot of anger and hatred, to be honest, but I did finally complete the SOB.

I made so many mistakes while building this dog. 

• The little rings that are located on the nacelles right behind the bussard collectors are backward, which necessitated removing some plastic from the plates along the underside of the nacelles that cover over a portion of the rings.  
• The lighting kit was dog doo, but came with a bunch of clear parts that I didn't inspect fully before installing the standard gray plastic bridge.  There is a great decal of a Klingon warship on the viewscreen, as well as other displays, that would have been back-lit had I just paid closer attention to the parts before I dove into this thing last summer.  Consequently the bridge is dark, big miss on my part.

Fit was not great on this turkey.  The clear bussard collector covers did not slide fully into place.  I didn't want to put too much pressure on them in fear of snapping the nacelles off the hull.  The neck didn't want to slide all the way into position, but that might be due to all the wiring running through this thing.

As I said, the lighting kit was not good.  I ended up using only some of the colored parts for the bussard collectors.  I did not use any of the lights, although I did use some of the wiring.  The lights are a mish-mash of different LED lights - individual bulbs that light the interior of the nacelles, the bulb on the underside of the saucer section, and those red / blue lights on the top of the saucer.  Everything else is LED light strips with connectors, all wired together and run out the bottom of the hull into the metal rod and to the stand.  The stand did not come with a switch, but I had a spare switch sitting around that I was able to install into the base.

I know the TV series Enterprise did not feature the blue lighting inside the nacelles, but I did read that was always the intent, but they ran out of money in building the model and that is what they cut.  I liked the look of it from later Enterprise variants, and the kit does give that option.  I should have frosted all those windows, as the LED light strips are rather bright.  

But to be honest, this kit was a beating on me, and I just wanted to dang thing done.  I don't think it looks great - big seam line along the saucer section, ugh, that resisted all my efforts with putty, scraping, and sanding to make it disappear.  The paint job also leaves something to be desired.  It is Tamiya aircraft gray overall, with some neutral gray and brass as well.

This thing took me half a year to build.  I didn't work on it every day, but most kits take at most 1 month when I actually have time or good conditions to work with.  Summer here in the SE Texas area was brutally hot, so that limited my bench time just out of self preservation.

Now I'm taking time away from the bench for a while to do some wood working projects.  When I get back to my bench, I'll be doing a 1/48 F-89C Scorpion, a Cold War aircraft I've never previously built.

Light strips for the nacells?  The original series Enterprise only had lights in the forward end.  

There are plenty of windows on the saucer and hull and one thing you might want to consider is to find a way to reduce the lights for the windows.  I have seen some ships with the lights on but the intensity of the light was too high.  Maybe try to frost over the windows with dull coat or sand down the interior side of the windows to reduce the glare.  There are other things that should be available for this.  I found some old frosted material where I worked that was used for things like this and it worked rather well.

Sorry to hear that the ligthing kit has so far been a bust.  Hopefully it will be something simple like an accidental reversal of polarity in an LED preventing power flow.

Gamera

I don't know whats going on here. All I can do is cross my fingers. 

I generally don't buy lighting kits but tend to just buy a bunch of LEDs and fiber optic cable and do it myself. But with the spinning bussard collectors on the TOS Big-E I think I'd have to buy a kit too. 

Good luck friend! 

 

Those bussard spinners were the only motivating factor in getting the kit.

I had bought a kit for a Republic Star Destroyer that ended up being junk and a complete waste of money.  I spoke with a couple of other posters and got some good tips on how to do it myself, and ended up with a Star Destroyer full of fiber optics and several LEDs that looks really good.

I'm hoping the motors are not the problem with the Enterprise lighting kit.  If they are not, then I should be able to hook them in without any problem with everything else that I'll run through there.  The lighting kit also included LED light strips that I'll research how to use, again provided those are not problematic.

I don't know whats going on here. All I can do is cross my fingers. 

I generally don't buy lighting kits but tend to just buy a bunch of LEDs and fiber optic cable and do it myself. But with the spinning bussard collectors on the TOS Big-E I think I'd have to buy a kit too. 

Good luck friend!