Kearsarge: Thanks! Great clip there. I do wonder why they didn't use them more often as the main ships in DS9 episodes instead of Excelsier and Miranda class vessels. 

Steve: Ouch! I picked up a bunch of JT Graphics decals from Federation to replace some of my kit decals but haven't used them yet! Thanks for the warning, hopefully if I spray them with some decal fixer maybe they won't come apart too badly....  

Thanks for all the information about the decals.

Has anyone built the movie Enterprise in 1/1000? Are the decals also a problem? I haven't opened the box yet to see what's inside.

You'd think after so many issues, they'd have fixed them before this.

I built the PL 1/1000 refit a while back (well its not totally done yet ) and my decals went down surprisingly good, the whole model is basicly covered in decals.

Good to know, Rocky.  That's the one--the refit--I've got for the GB.  Thanks for the information.

glad I could help, the kit actually goes together pretty good, except for the clear parts they are a bit wonkey and if you paint them clear (as the instructions state) you can see the mounting tabs, which looks awful.

I ended up painting the clear parts from the outside with non clear paint to hide those obnoxious mounting pins and had a decent final result

That kit works remarkably well, especially compared to some of the earlier kits. As I recall the fit is quite good and the decals went on well. Solvaset may become your new best friend!

Ken

I am moving ahead a little here. The kit came with transparent nacelle caps and inner parts for the Bussard collectors (or at least I think that's what they're called- the little spinning thingees on the nose of the warp nacelles). I painted the collectors with gold streaks on the outside and with metallic red auto paint inside. The insides of the nacelle caps I painted with translucent red. I hope it will look decent when finished. 

Gamera

I am moving ahead a little here. The kit came with transparent nacelle caps and inner parts for the Bussard collectors (or at least I think that's what they're called- the little spinning thingees on the nose of the warp nacelles). I painted the collectors with gold streaks on the outside and with metallic red auto paint inside. The insides of the nacelle caps I painted with translucent red. I hope it will look decent when finished. 

 

Hey now, that's coming along nicely there Gamera.

Gamera, 

Your Enterprise is looking real nice! If you need any reference photo's let me know. I've been to see the refurbished filming model at NASM in DC a few times. I'm happy to share them.

Sitrep on my BOP.

I was planing on lighting the nacelles and ordered some LED's last night from China.

Today I started trying to figure out the details. The reality is that the wings have

no room for wires, both halfs fit flush.

This is a small kit as you can see. 

The feed stubs are huge in relation to the kit.

The engineering on the kit is outstanding! all the flash/sprue attatchments are well

placed and clean up nice.

Fit is outstanding. This is the wings snapped in without any glue.

The last photo is the wings/body glued together and the nacelles are just dry fit.

I'm going to let things dry overnight and then start cleaning up the seams. given 

how tight things are fitting I don't expect it to take too long.

Rocky:  that's something I hadn't thought about:  mounting tabs inside clear parts.  I'll have to watch for that.

Ken:  I've never used Solvaset; Micro-sol has usually worked well enough.  I've read that Solvaset is pretty strong stuff.  If the decals are that unresponsive, I suppose I'll have to get some.

Thanks for the information!

Nice progress, mach.  Looks very Romulan and threatening.  Good to see how well it's going together.

Good work, Gamera.  Enjoying seeing your progress.

Hey thanks guys! 

Mach 71: Looks like a nice kit. Gotta buy one for myself. I did think about lighting my Big-E but thought in the end first just get the thing together and maybe think about lighting another one later on. 

As to wiring the nacelle lights on your BoP if you keep the wires apart you don't really need the insulation. You might consider just striping it off making the wire much, much thinner and then running one wire up the front of the wing and the other in the back. 

And thanks for the offer of help, in fact I was about to go looking around for the right colour to paint her. I'd like to get some confirmation on the colours Polar Lights listed. 

Over at hobbytalk Gary Kerr has posted the actual color chips that the restoration

team used for the Enterprise. They discovered these through some acheology and finding 

the original colors as overspray in hidden areas.

The consensus is.......

Grey!

Ok, anticlamatic. The exact grey is a medium grey with a VERY slight green tint.

This is my PL Enterprise I built over 10 years ago.

It's ghost grey and a shade too light and a bit too tanish.

Here is a a side shot from the NASM taken last month.

The lighting is bad, and it's shot through glass but you can get the idea.

The top of the saucer is the same color tinted with a light green varnish.

I'm painting my big enterprise Tamiya INJ grey. It's very close. It just needs a 

slight tint of green.

I hope this helps.

Everyone's TV has a slightly different shade of grey for the E. You can make your self neurotic fretting about getting the precise shade.

Gamera, Mach71 nice work.

Just saw the remastered TOS episode where the Romulan BOP made it's debut ("Balance of Terror"). The remastering really did the design justice. 

Hey wow, thanks guys!!! 

I was thinking of going with USN ghost grey but trust me I got plenty of IJN around! I'll check those colour chips since actually Mitsubishi IJN grey was slightly different than Nakajima IJN grey.  Guess that's one of the perils of reading too much about Japanese aircraft...

Mach71- beautiful job on the old gal there. If mine comes out half as well I'll be delighted. 

Kearsarge: Lol, I used to watch the show on a old Philco that's smaller than my monitor growing up. And even if I watch the remastered HD episodes the old fuzzy grainy look is how I remember it in my mind..... 

Thanks. That was my 1st model I built when I started building again. I think it was 

2004? 

I sanded everything and got a coat of white primer. 

Here it is at the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy.

The instructions call for the main body to be silver. It always looked 

grey/white to me.

Very good looking, mach!

Yeah, you're making great progress there Mach71!

I painted my 1/1000 ISS Enterprise hull with Tamiya paints, 75% jn grey XF-12 and 25% flat white XF-2 and I think it got pretty close.

I will post pics as soon as I figure out photobucket

hope this helps, Rocky

Hey thanks Rocky, great to have another option there! 

Today I sanded, filled some seams, sanded, and put a coat of grey primer on.

Tomorrow I'll do a light sanding and see what what.

I was planing on painting it light grey, but I looked at some screen caps

of the original effects and it looks like it might have a metallic tint.

From the great bird of the galaxy:

From Trekcore

I'll have to decide soon.

Looking to see if I figured out how to post a picture. If this works I'll put more of my progress

Ok it seemed to work, Kinda... Does the link work? How do you make the picture actually appear in the text instead of just a link?

I'll go ahead and post these.

I am replacing the C/D deck with the one I got from federation models. I first removed the old one with a fine tooth saw.

Here's the new one just set in place. I have to remove the bottom flashing.

I traced around the base and cut it out with a dremel

I put a handle on it to avoid dropping it into the hole and worked the edges until I had a good fit

I glued in thin styrene tabs to help support it as I glued it in place. Since the base is thicker than the saucer, the thin tabs have enough spring in them to be able to adjust the new piece

I used superglue to attach the new decks and began puttying, sanding painting, puttying, sanding.............

I was going to cut the window ports into the b/c deck before attaching it, but getting clean cuts into the resin or whatever it is made of was getting a little crazy, so I think I will use decals for those. Next is to cut in the windows around the saucer edge

OWOF, Your photo links require logging into your account.

I hope it gets worked out, I would love to see your photos.

Yeah, OWOF I'm getting broken link icons and a message to log onto your account there to view your photos. You might want to check the Forum Technical Assistance forum for help on getting them posted.  

I sanded the ship today. I think it's ready for a topcoat.

I decided to try rustoleum titanium paint. I figured a dull greyish metal would work.

I was wrong. 

Way too shiny and the metal flecks look bad.

I'll re prime tomorrow.

Yeah, just a little out of scale

mach:  in space, anything is possible.  Looks kind of alien, and interesting.

Maybe something like Testor's Metalizer paints:

http://www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/model-master/metalizer-lacquer-paint/bottles