Bakster

Colors always seem to be a challenge with Star Trek builds. I am looking forward to what you come up with. Cool project!

I think it's true of all builds, but perhaps because the ships of Star Trek are so iconic and clean in their look, being a little off can have a disproportionate impact.

My goal is always to have fun.  If colors match great.  If not, then I learned something new!

I ran across this qoute that I felt reflected what modeling is for me.

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

     -Theodore Rubin

This hobby present all sorts of opportunities to elicit the best in our capabilities and there's nothing quite like that moment when the build is finished and can step back to witness the fruits of ours labors.

Apologies for going off track and waxing philosophic.  To many paint fumes from mixing colors. 

Gamera

Oops, somehow I missed your last post...

Oh well, she's looking good! It's hard to judge colour on any sort of TV/movie models considering how they can look totally different under different lighting. I like the blue-grey though, it sounds like it would look much better than the aluminum.

 

Ain't that the truth!

I think the blue grey will go better as well.  The aluminum is just to shiny for my liking.  Thank goodness for artistic license! 

Being male I could also plead color blindness.

Quick tip, having eyeglasses that are tinted to relieve eyestrain from staring at computer screens all day are horrible for painting.  They add yellow to everything.  I learned my lesson and will never being getting tinted glasses for every day use again.

Today has been a day of masking.

I learned the hard way not to brush paint with Vallejo Model Air.  It does not apply well.

Rather than tediously add lots of little pieces of tape to conform to the outside edge of the upper saucer I got the idea to insert a cylinder and then use the airbrush inside it.

Added a some tape around the edge to reduce overspray.

Not sure how well this will work.  Fingers crossed!

Hi!

      Listen Phoenix, It's as close as your workbench! Do you have a Bottle of Glue that's about three quarters used up? Good! Now take as much sprue as you can find. Put it in a large Ziploc bag. Put your hands in there(One to hold and the other to cut)  and cut, The Sprue into 1/8" pieces. One very important thing to remember though.

       Do NOT mix the color of sprues in the bottle. That will give you fits. One color and from one model.That is how I maintain consistancy. Now that done, You can adjust thickness also, By adding more sprue. I keep six bottles of it available. One in Clear, One in Light Grey, one in Black, One in "Daytona Red"A Revell Color that comes from the re-release of the 57/58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham(Now by Atlantis). It's  good color easily matched for continuity. Then White and lastly Moss green. It's a RailRoad color so you may want to keep another color handy.

      I try to keep them Three quarters full, at all times adding a few drops of glue from time to time to freshen it. Stir well every once in a while and the stuff will last! Make sure to Cap the bottles tightly after use(Don't break the cap) but make sure it is tight. Remember, it's cheaper than the Putty, and will definitely do the job. Use the clear to build edges up where the canopy or windows don't quite match up!

      The Clear is the only sensitive one. You Must use the clearest sprue at all times. Hold it to the light. If it is pure it will look a slight bit "Icy". If it isn't, it will yellow slightly in the bottle. This one also, keep in a drawer or dark spot in your work area! Drop as many pieces in the bottles to achieve the thickness you want. Seal the bags and keep the remaining for later. Don't forget to add to the bags from time to time. keep these labeled and in your work area, easy to find and then You're "Good to Go!"

Tanker-Builder

Hi!

      Listen Phoenix, It's as close as your workbench! Do you have a Bottle of Glue that's about three quarters used up? Good! Now take as much sprue as you can find. Put it in a large Ziploc bag. Put your hands in there(One to hold and the other to cut)  and cut, The Sprue into 1/8" pieces. One very important thing to remember though.

       Do NOT mix the color of sprues in the bottle. That will give you fits. One color and from one model.That is how I maintain consistancy. Now that done, You can adjust thickness also, By adding more sprue. I keep six bottles of it available. One in Clear, One in Light Grey, one in Black, One in "Daytona Red"A Revell Color that comes from the re-release of the 57/58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham(Now by Atlantis). It's  good color easily matched for continuity. Then White and lastly Moss green. It's a RailRoad color so you may want to keep another color handy.

      I try to keep them Three quarters full, at all times adding a few drops of glue from time to time to freshen it. Stir well every once in a while and the stuff will last! Make sure to Cap the bottles tightly after use(Don't break the cap) but make sure it is tight. Remember, it's cheaper than the Putty, and will definitely do the job. Use the clear to build edges up where the canopy or windows don't quite match up!

      The Clear is the only sensitive one. You Must use the clearest sprue at all times. Hold it to the light. If it is pure it will look a slight bit "Icy". If it isn't, it will yellow slightly in the bottle. This one also, keep in a drawer or dark spot in your work area! Drop as many pieces in the bottles to achieve the thickness you want. Seal the bags and keep the remaining for later. Don't forget to add to the bags from time to time. keep these labeled and in your work area, easy to find and then You're "Good to Go!"

 

Hi Tanker-Builder!

Time like these I wish I could favorite a single post!  Great tip for using the ziploc bag to keep the cuttings from flying away. 

I'm about halfway through a bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin which now has plans for when it drop to 25%.

Question for you, do you think the Brush in that bottle could be used to apply the sprue glue (goo) or is it better to use something else?

I think the experiment while not a resounding success turned out well enough.

Some minor fixing needed to address where paint bled underneath the mask along with some overspray that's hidden under my thumb.  However, nothing major which is great!

Unfortunately the masking on the lower hull wasn't as consistent as I had thought.  It's always such a pain to mask the line where a curved line meets a flat plane.

However, it's again just some touch up and it should be good.

At the same time I picked this up I also acquired the Reliant in the same scale.  Seeing how tiny this ship is I was really curious to see how the Reliant would match up.

They are both 1:1000.  The Grissom is a tiny ship!

She's looking good! It's a pain to mask a kit that small. 

Yeah, she's a small ship. The old FASA ship's manual gave the 'Gargarin' class ships like her a crew of 78. It's probably been reconned at this point though but still she's a small ship. 

Also she's got a weapons rating of 0.5 as compared to the Klingon Bird of Prey's 21.4.

I agree with Gam. It looks good. Keep at it... 

Gamera

Yeah, she's a small ship. The old FASA ship's manual gave the 'Gargarin' class ships like her a crew of 78. It's probably been reconned at this point though but still she's a small ship.

The included Bird of Prey was a big clue but it just sailed over my head.  Star Trek III & iV pretty much established the size of the Klingon vessel which I think they said was crewed by 15.

Gamera

Also she's got a weapons rating of 0.5 as compared to the Klingon Bird of Prey's 21.4.

With such a disparity in capability it's no wonder she was taken out with one shot.

Of course that got me thinking about the "Undiscovered Country" and Chang and his propensity to quote Shakespeare in the original Klingon.  Imagine what the comm chatter would be like if Chang and Kahn got into a fracas.   I'm thinking Shakespeare in the park, except with photon torpedos and phasers!

Bakster

I agree with Gam. It looks good. Keep at it... 

 

Making the Klingon vessel all dirty will be my reward for being patient with the Grissom.

PhoenixG

The Federation ships always look so darn clean which means I don't get to do my favorite part, weathering.   Making the Klingon vessel all dirty will be my reward for being patient with the Grissom.

Lol. That's the spirit! 

Now that Minmei is done there's more time to work on this pair.

Blocked in a few more areas with color.  Touch ups aren't going as well as I like but hope to get those done in the near future.

Started work on the Bird of Prey.  Lots of flashing to be trimmed and fitting to be done.  Lots of modeled detail though.  I thought pre-shading worked pretty well for the Y-Wing and think it could work well here.  Especially on the wings.

Nothing new to show for the past week.  Everytime I've sat down at the bench, something popped up and pulled me away.

It's been a bit frustrating because the Grissom is so close to decals and finally assembly, but can't seem to get the time for it.

Fingers crossed that this week will be different!  

The Grissom looks great and a couple washes should bring the Klingon BoP to life. I know what you mean, seems something comes up everytime I want to work on something.

The Grissom suffered a warp core containment failure during a test cruise and they had to jetison the core.  There was a flaw in the shielding that wasn't apparent till they attempted warp spped.  It's in spacedock for refit. 

Translation, I tried using Pledge Floor Gloss to prep it for decals.  Rather than going down in nice smooth coats it puddled in globs all over the model.  Never had that happen before.  Setting it aside for now.

While Starfleet is busy repairing the damage to the Grissom the Bird of Prey (BoP) is getting attention.

The BoP is coming together nicely.  Tacked it together for a dry fit and it's looking sharp.  Next up is taking it down to core modules and then priming it.

Just some help here.

Maybe next time spray it all black first, clearcoat it and later mask the area with bluetak. After removing the bluetak, the area should be pretty well defined.

disastermaster

Just some help here. Maybe next time spray it all black first, clearcoat it and later mask the area with bluetak. After removing the bluetak, the area should be pretty well defined.

Hey Disastermaster,

The thought had occurred to me.  I was concerned that painting the dark base color would make the overall model too dark so I went with the method shown.

However, I did something similar to your suggestion for painting the center dish a steel color.  I surrounded it with silly putty.

Was pretty happy with the results.

Started laying out the black preshading and then covering the rest with grey primer.  The hope is it will create further variation in the green and reds yet to be applied.

With having very limited experience with pre-shading I'm looking forward to seeing how this experiment turns out.

Fingers crossed!

They both look good to me. 

The Grissom looks fine in the photos. And I like how the pre-shading is going on the Klingon BoP. 

Gamera

They both look good to me. 

The Grissom looks fine in the photos. And I like how the pre-shading is going on the Klingon BoP. 

 

Ditto. Keep at it. Coming along nicely!

Quick share of a couple of the progress shots.

I like what the preshading did here.  Something I will definitely continue experimenting with.

It looks really good! How did you paint the orange panels? Did you brush paint? Mask and AB? Either way, looks good.

Yeah the 'feather' details on the lower wings looks great! I'd love to know how you did them too! 

Thanks Gamera & Bakster!

To be honest, masking and airbrushing never crossed my mind.  My brain went directly to brushes.

I used a mix ratio of two drops Vallejo MC + 1 drop of Vallejo black wash.  Using the wash was an attempt to get a 2-in-1 benefit.  Create a darker shade of red so it wasn't quite so vibrant. And thin the paint just enough so that it would flow from the brush without brush marks, and not flood the gaps between the panels.  As it was the paint flowed beautifully from the brush with minimal contact to the surface and stayed where it was placed on the panels.

I started the typical way of using the tip to carefully paint each panel but it was slow and challenging to fill in.

Then there was a light bulb moment.

Rather than using the tip of the brush what would happen if I laid it so the brush head was as near parallel to the panels as possible and used the side of the brush to apply the paint. My hope was the brush would only hit the tops of the panels with paint and avoid the spaces in between.   And it did exactly that!  Using small sweeping motions back and forth over the panels it covered only the tops. Doing it a couple of panels at a time, 2-3 quick passes with the side of the brush and they were filled in with a nice even coating of paint.  It made short work of the whole thing. 

The whole process was an inspiration of the moment and luckily the gamble paid off. 

So sorta like dry-brushing but with a wet brush? Looks great, the results came out really well! 

PhoenixG

Thanks Gamera & Bakster!

To be honest, masking and airbrushing never crossed my mind.  My brain went directly to brushes.

I used a mix ratio of two drops Vallejo MC + 1 drop of Vallejo black wash.  Using the wash was an attempt to get a 2-in-1 benefit.  Create a darker shade of red so it wasn't quite so vibrant. And thin the paint just enough so that it would flow from the brush without brush marks, and not flood the gaps between the panels.  As it was the paint flowed beautifully from the brush with minimal contact to the surface and stayed where it was placed on the panels.

I started the typical way of using the tip to carefully paint each panel but it was slow and challenging to fill in.

Then there was a light bulb moment.

Rather than using the tip of the brush what would happen if I laid it so the brush head was as near parallel to the panels as possible and used the side of the brush to apply the paint. My hope was the brush would only hit the tops of the panels with paint and avoid the spaces in between.   And it did exactly that!  Using small sweeping motions back and forth over the panels it covered only the tops. Doing it a couple of panels at a time, 2-3 quick passes with the side of the brush and they were filled in with a nice even coating of paint.  It made short work of the whole thing. 

The whole process was an inspiration of the moment and luckily the gamble paid off. 

 

Gamera

So sorta like dry-brushing but with a wet brush? Looks great, the results came out really well! 

LOL, I hadn't thought about it that way, but yeah.  I'm glad you like the results.

Bakster

Oh Wow. Very cool how you did that. Flowing the paint on seems to be the trick. It looks great PG.  Thanks for sharing your process!

It's fun to share things we've tried out .  Never know what might help.

Thinking about it, brush painting has similarities to airbrushing.  The end result is very much dependent upon preparing the paint properly.

You have to tailor the consistency of the paint to match the tool and the results your looking for.

The decals continue to crumble during application and when trying to fix wrinkles and bubbles they shatter under the brush. 

Didn't scan the decals before starting, so no second chances on what's already been applied.  I"ve scanned what remains and will eventually print them out for applying the rest.  The decals have been so frustrating that I'm setting aside the Grissom, again, to regain my calm.

In the meantime, I'm focusing on detailing the Klingon Bird of Prey.  Added some darker wash in a few places, tried darkening some panels with pastels, and clear coated it all to secure it.

Will share some picks of the Bird of Prey once the matte finish has dried and I've had a chance to drybrush some highlights.