The Starfleet Museum group build

Finally, here are some pics.

There are things I'm happy about, and things I'm not so happy about.

Happy: the detailing looks ok, the use of pastels to make the cruiser look battleworn was pretty effective, the battle damage from the Romulan Bird of Prey looks all right.

Unhappy: the cheesy window decals silvered hugely, the dullcoate I applied came out of the can sputtering, and pooled on the left superstructure, the kit is basically a poor one, requiring lots and lots of sanding and puttying to get a clean fit.

Overall, I'm unhappy with it, largely because some finishing (the poor decals and the malfunctioning can of dullcote) ruined the final apperarance of the kit. I mostly just left it as is to finish by the end date (ironic when you consider how late I'm posting these pics) -- I wonder if I should just strip it and start over, and just paint the windows on? Is there some way to make silvering go away post application of the decals?

Or I might just give it to my son to play with, and buildup that beautiful little K'Tinga in resin I got on the net a while back ....

On that happy note .... The first pic is a Starfleet Museum-esque shot.

Way to go Larry. Despite the issues it looks to have turned out just fine. Is that resin kit you mentioned the Ravenstar 1:1400 scale?

Thanks. It might be, I don't recall. What I do recall is that it is highly detailed and a beautiful little model.

Very nicely done Larry.

A couple of weeks later, I've finally posted some progress shots on the Torsk-class Le Redoubtable. I'm not that happy with the image quality, but it's the best I could do for now. See them at:
http://groups.msn.com/ModelersAndHobbyForum/starfleetmuseumrevisited.msnw
Comments, critique and suggestions are always welcome.
Andrew

Nice work Andrew

Very nice... If I may ask, what did you use for the main hull elliptical shapes?

Andrew, very nice. ne of these and with more experience I will figure out how to get things look as smooth and as round as you guys do. I can't belive you can do it with sand paper unless it is attached to a lathe of some kind. Again, very nice job on both.

Nice work, Andrew!

The main hull was made from a vaguely egg-shaped pencil sharpener from the dollar store. Go back a few pictures to see one unmolested. I cut it in half and stretched it about a quarter inch by sandwiching a PVC pipe coupler between the two halves. Once that was epoxied in place, I built up the rest of the gap with styrene strip, then the putty work began. It was all done in a motel room, so lathe was involved! The key was alternating colors of putty and primer between sandings to see where the low and high spots were. For example, slather on some Acryl Green and sand. Then some grey primer, and sand again. Anything that is still grey is a low spot. Fill these with red putty, sand, and prime with white. Red and green spots are too high, white and grey are too low. Repeat this a bunch of times, and you WILL have a nice smooth surface.
Andrew

Captain_Mills - I just had a thought about that reducer part at the Secondary Hull (the long larger diameter middle section). How about this, take a wood dowel the size of the larger diameter needed and then in a hand drill or drill press chuck it up and use sand paper or sanding block to sand the proper angle. If it does not fit in a drill press chuck, then use a belt sander or if someone you know has a bench grinder. Then after you have the size make a mold and cast a resin part from it. I think that is one procedure I will use for it. Just tossing out ideas since I am not at the building stage yet, hopefully soon.

Scott

I thought about that too, but I don't have access to a drill press, and my hand drill oesn't open that far.

I thought about this! My mini lathe isn't strong enough for me to lathe acrylic rod that I WAS using, but it is strong enough for me to lathe the butyrate tubing I used for the Amarillo's engines. I could buy different sizes of tubing, and cement them inside each other until I get the right length and decrease. I've already lathed the engines for the Amarillo with the butyrate tubing, and It worked great. So, we'll have an Amarillo, Kretchet, Daedalus, and a Wasp here in about a month, if you folks don't mind waiting that long for me to finish the projects...

Capt. Mills: I'm sorry to be giving you such a hard time with my design! I look forward to seeing whatever you come up with.

What I've done to make a tapering tank gun barrels is to use telescoping section of brass smoothed over with putty and sanded with a big flat sanding block. Would it be possible to stack circular blocks (of wood or plastic) along a central core, then smooth them over and sand to shape?

Andrew, I really like what you have done. You made your hull in a hotel room? Wow

Thanks! I was spending most of my time in motel rooms, and I could get a lot of construction work done in them with a shoebox full of tools and supplies. It just took some planning ahead to make sure I packed everything I'd need. Working on a model sure beats watching "Hitler's Pastry Chef" or some other cable TV pap for the umpteenth time.
Andrew

Okay, I am ready to start my build now. I am always the last one to start anything. I will have all my materials by the end of next week. "Better Late Than Never"!

Woody, it the last group build you mentioned your slurry mix. Do you mix spare sprue with lacquer thinner, acetone, or turpentine? I cannot remember.

Six months to get materials, sorry!

I use M.E.K. which I purchase at Home Depot. A quart is about $4 and makes a great liquid cement as well. Here is a link to my thread about my homebrew putty.
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=21787

Hey, guys! I was hoping to have a page at the museum with all the finished models, but since we only have a few done I think I'd like to post what's done and the WIPs. Please give me permission to post the pictures at the site and tell me how you'd like to be credited (your real name or screen name) and where you'd like the link to go (email or webpage or both). Also, tell me which ship you've built. Thanks.

Hi all, sorry to bump an old dying forum thread ( ), but in between ships I've been building, I've decided to build my very own from-scratch 1:1000 scale Romulan Bird of Prey, from TOS, also in Masao's Museum, but only briefly. The Daedalus and Amarillo are coming along nicely, and the Wasp won't be started until after I finish these three.

Pictures will be posted soon!

Also, I wanted to mention, I picked up a book from the Bookstore yesterday and found some interesting material on the cover and tucked inside. The book is titled "Star Trek: Vanguard" and is a TOS era book. On the cover, it shows the Vanguard Space Station with the Enterprise approaching. Docked at the station are two vessels, a DY-100 and an NX-Type starship. Tucked inside the book is a neat set of diagrams of the Vanguard Station, all credited to Masao himself. So, all in all, I wanted to give kudos to Masao for getting in a book! (I thought it was kool when i noticed the credits on the drawing.) I also thought it neat & interesting that an NX type ship would be docked there... Haven't begun reading it yet, but I will start this week....

Thanks, Cap'n Mills! That was my first and so far only offiical, paying Trek job. It was a lot of fun. I haven't received my copy of the book yet, unfortunately.

By the way, don't base your BOP on the schematics at the museum. They're a bit wonky, especially the angle of the nacelles, which I couldn't figure out at the time. I think I based them on the Agatha Chamberlain schematics from Cult TV Man, so you should go back to them.

Hmmm... a little too late now, but it's no big deal. I like the look of it anyway. I plan to personalize it anyway. I'm hoping to paint it pale green and get some of JBOT's green decals for it. I also want to do a subtle "aztecing" on it. Let me know if this sunds ok to y'all. I'll check out the Culttvman website tonight and see if I can find those schematics... Keep up the awesome work Masao! Thanks...

They're here, on the bottom of the page: http://www.culttvman.com/acstartrek.html

yes, i found them yesterday after I read your message. They are identical to your schema drawings. Thanks for your help anyway!

Again, sorry for the double post, but I seem to be the only one still posting on this "Mostly dead" thread. If it were all dead, there'd be only one thing we could do. Go through its pockets and look for loose change...

Anyway... the Amarillo is looking sharp, the Romulan BoP is nice yet needing work, the Daedalus will be finished next week, the Wasp and Tanhauser (yes, I've decided to build a tanhauser...) will get started next week.

Here are some links to pics of the Amarillo and Rommie:

1:1000x3: http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/Picture_020
Amarillo1: http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/Picture_022
Amarillo2: http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/Picture_023
Rommie: http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/Picture_024
Rommie: http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/Picture_025
Rommie: http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/Picture_026

The first pic, the trio, includes the Rommie, Amarillo, and a Thru-Deck I kitbashed with the PL TOS E for size and scale. I can include a parts list from Plastruct if anyone wants one...

Let me know whatchya'll think!

Very nice work so far Captain. I look forward to seeing that BoP when your done. It has always been one of my favorites.

Looks really good to me. How do you like that lathe?

Actually, the lathe works great. My only beef with it is that it maxes out at 7" and is only 1" from the base. For instance, i was going to lathe the gridlines onto the sphere, but the sphere is 1" radius (2" diameter), and it wont spin since it sits on the lathe base. It works wonders when turning butyrate and styrene, but sucks when turning acrylic. The acrylic is too tough and when I apply any pressure with the carving knife, the acrylic stops turning and the lathe drills a small hole into each side .

Otherwise, thanks for the complements! I was planning on posting photos tonight, but the disk I saved the images on is giving me a "Disk in drive A not formatted" error. I'll email myself the images and try and post them tomorrow evening.

One question for Masao - on the Tanhauser class, there is a hammerhead shark on the front end. Is that something that would appear on each ship, each being different according to its name? (I noticed the patch design on the Vicksburg as well...) If so, I was going to name my Tanhauser class the UES Hastings, CHM-58, and I see the badge has a Knight on it. What would you recommend as a simple decal symbol to put on there? Do you have any ideas? I make my own decals in most cases, so that's why I'm asking... Thanks!

Tanhauser Images for reference:
http://www.starfleet-museum.org/tannhaeuser.htm
http://www.starfleet-museum.org/tannhaeuser-logo.gif
http://www.starfleet-museum.org/tannhaeuser.jpg
http://www.starfleet-museum.org/vicksburg-cgi.jpg
http://www.starfleet-museum.org/hastings-patch.gif

I was thinking of using one of these...




Also...
here are the photos I tried to upload yesterday... see them here:
http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums?page=11
on the bottom of the page... She's ready for primer, paint and decals!

I usually designed a emblem for the class development project and separate emblems for each of the ships. The shark was only on Tannhäuser's individual ship patch, so it would appear only on Tannhäuser.

That knight on the Hastings emblem was taken from the Bayeux tapestry. For a simple decal for Hastings, I think that knight would work (I can send you a larger version). But if you want to use something else, I suggest looking a bit into the heraldry of the participants in the Battle of Hastings, particularly William the Conqueror (aka, William of Normandy, William I). This Wiki page has the arms of the House of Normandy or William I (I'm not sure which). It looks nice, I think. : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Norman_Arms.png

The fleur-de-lis (lily) is a traditional French symbol, so I'd avoid that. The knight you show is too modern, since Hasting was fought in the mid 11th century.

Thanks Masao!

Update Edit:
The Amarillo is finished! Here are the photos:
http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/Picture_027
http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/Picture_029
http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/Picture_031
http://www.teachanddiscover.net/gallery/User-Albums/stockholm01

Hey guys,I have been reading all 23 pages of your projects and have to say you guys are really good at what you do, all your ships look great, to bad i just found all this or i would have jumped in and tried my hand at building one, any way i just wanted to say looks good, cant wait to se them all finished.

Kevin