I've cleaned up Capt Christopher and painted him with Tamiya clear paints.

Mach71: Sorry to hear about the nacelle strut but looks like you've got it repaired without any issues. Paint looks really good, going with a lighter shade does make sense not only being smaller but also being the atmosphere the sunlight would probably make her look brighter than the darkness of space. 

CMK02: Sounds cool, I'm seen some really nice models from these kits. And gee friggin' whiz- all the same scale! Way better than AMT's old box-scale kits there. 

For the Enterprise I went with MM cammo grey. Its lighter than the "real" color of the big E, but with scale considered I think it looks good. 

The F-104 has no pilot figure, so I made one.

I found a 1/48 scale pilot in my stash and decided to have some fun.

A bit of resin later:

Very attractive little starship, mach. Can you please post what color of paints you've used?

I picked up the Deep Space 9 set, which I hope to get working on later in the year after some other GB comittments. There's a lot of variety in 1/2500 now.

I've seen publicity for a set of all seven of the various Enterprise's, said to be released in March or April, in 1/2500. Only drawback may be the markings--which will be stick-on's rather than waterslide decals.

Just a quick update.

Detail painting on the Enterprise. I expected to be farther with this but this morning I noticed one of the pylons was broken off! I had to fix it.

Thanks, but looks are deciving, The camera hides a lot!

I'm only going so far with this kit, it has so many flaws.

It's just Tamiya gloss aluminum out of a rattle can. 

I'll go with MM metalizer on the Hasegawa kit when i build that one.

Great smooth finish on the F-104. NM is such a pain but your's looks flawless. 

Here is where I'm at.

I'll start detailing the Enterprise tomorrow and final contruction

on the F-104. 

Not much to report. 

I've got a few coats of paint on the F-104, White wings and aluminum fuselage.

I put a coat of camo grey on the Enterprise. I'll hit it with gloss coat tomorrow and then decal it.

It's winter here and painting is becoming very hard.

I've also picked up a really nice Hasegawa 1/48 scale F-104 that puts the old 

Lindberg kit to shame! I think I'll build both!

Impressive projects, falcon and mach.  It'll be "fascinating" to watch the progress.

Falcon: Whoa, that's awesome! Love your planet killer and that Enterprise will look fantastic lighted. And gee, I was thinking the 1/1000th kit was too small to wire up! 

Mach71: She's lookin' good so far. 

Sound interesting. It should make a nice display.

Not much new, priming/filling/sanding on the F-104

I'm going to make new engine supports from aluninum tubing flattened to a oval then run the wires throught them out to the support that will suspend it in front of the DDM.

Wow! lighting the Enterprise! 

I'm working on the same small 1701 with my F-104 kit and I can say I'm 

impressed! 

How will you run the wires?

And I love your printed DDM!

falconmod

Ok, here's what I got so far.  Going to make a small diorama with lights inside the doomsady machine.    Helps when i work for the leading 3D printer company!

John

 

I think you're right, Gamera, cuz I heard/read the same thing about the Stardates in the original series.

And then, in the eighties, along came shows like "Hill Street Blues," "St. Elsewhere" and others that had a "story arc" over several episodes or a whole season; and then it became important to broadcast the shows in sequence.  Self-contained episodes were no longer the norm.

By the time "ST:TNG" came along, they were keeping the Stardates pretty consistant.

Yeah that's pretty cool.

And yes Star Trek Online is a game and a pretty good one. I've been playing for about three years off and on.

And I'd seen the version you posted CMK02.

I think I saw somewhere that the Stardates used on the original series were just made up numbers they just grabbed out of thin air. So in some cases they didn't really match up from episode to episode. I have no idea about TNG and later series.

Thanks, Beans.

The only method I was familiar with is to take the last two digits of the year (20)17; use the number of the month:  February = 02; then put in the day of the month.

Stardate:  1702.03

which leaves two digits after the decimal, and I don't remember that really happening in the Trek universe.

checkmateking02

Thanks, Beans.

I do have the USS Reliant, also in 1/1000--plus PL's aftermarket decals.  When I'm ready to face them again, I'll build her--hopefully before the GB ends.

Maybe, like Nog, I need to listen to Vic Fontaine's singing.

And:  how are you calculating the Stardates?  It's pretty neat!

STO Academy (Star Trek On-line). I think it's an on-line game site.

I simply Googled "Stardate calculator" and picked one.

That's my story.

Here's the link.

Their words:

"This calculator allows you to convert normal dates and times into a Stardate. The Stardates are based off of the Star Trek Online game. Whatever date and time you enter, this caluclator will give you the same Stardate as Star Trek Online. This does not work for the television shows or movies. It is only for Star Trek Online. It is accurate between plus and minus 5 minutes."

I believe that if someone were to calculate "real" stardates to today's date, it would actually be a negative number.

Anyway, I thought it'd be cool to post a stardate.

If anyone knows a "real" stardate calculator, let me know.

Cheers...

Thanks, Beans.

I do have the USS Reliant, also in 1/1000--plus PL's aftermarket decals.  When I'm ready to face them again, I'll build her--hopefully before the GB ends.

Maybe, like Nog, I need to listen to Vic Fontaine's singing.

And:  how are you calculating the Stardates?  It's pretty neat!

checkmateking02

Thanks, Beans.

Since mach71 said he liked it, let's go with the first photo.

And thanks again for hosting the build.  It's been years since I built any Star Trek kits, and it was good to complete one again.

Done.

The GB goes until September 8, 2017, there's plenty time to build a few more Trek kits. Just sayin'...

Thanks, Beans.

Since mach71 said he liked it, let's go with the first photo.

And thanks again for hosting the build.  It's been years since I built any Star Trek kits, and it was good to complete one again.

Thanks, Gamera.

To add to what I said about the dish, I painted it a dark blue, then used a lighter blue shade, and finally white in the middle; then finished as described above.

Thanks, mach!

I painted the deflector dish from the outside using my airbrush.  One of the side-effects of the snap-together technology is that, if you do paint clear parts from the inside, you often get to see the tabs and stuff that make the snap-together hold together.

I intended to use decals to color those little radial lines, but couldn't get the decals cut narrow enough without cracking, so I painted them with a brush and acrylic paint. Then, a damp brush allowed me to clean up any paint that strayed.

Nice work there, checkmateking02 and quickly done dispite setbacks. Your build inspires me to get in gear and finish my kit.

I know it'll be a difficult choice but which photo do you wish to be posted on the Wall of Fame?

CMK02: Whoa! Brilliant job there!!!  Despite your problems with the decals from the photos everything looks flawless! I too was wondering about the deflector dish. 

Mach71: That's pretty cool. I'd be almost tempted to chuck the old Lindberg F-104 and use the decals on a better quality kit though. 

Checkmateking02 I love the 1st photo. With the shadow it has the look of being in space.

Also the deflector dish looks outstanding! Did you paint it or is it a decal?

Thanks very much, mc and mach.  Been a pleasure being in a GB with you!

That look great! I have one in my stash, seeing yours makes me want to build mine!

Very nice job!