PURCHASED:


BEGUN:


COMPLETE:

CONSTRUCTION LOG


Parts List
2 CCF Tubes, blue (warp engines)
Numerous leds.
IC chips


061022
At 1/350 scale, this thing is HUGE! It is fully two times the old Ertl version. It is so well engineered, the pices simply lock together and holds its own weight (barring the primary hall). Amazing! 

This engineering provides for NO seams whatsoever!  Though, there is one spot that many other builders have noted on the port engine base.  The pieces don't quite fit, but considering the voerall structure -nearly flawless!!!  This is the way all kits should be engineered! Can Is ay enough about how well this ship is engineered?  Probably not, but I'll limit myself here (for now).

I've primed black all the internal sides to kill future light leakage. This is the kit that convinced me to go for lights. (The Falcon Cutaway is going to be the guinea pig). It is also the kit that convinced me to go for a full-out awesome paint job -- thereby requiring an airbrush.

Next steps:
1. finish saucer priming.
2. lights.
3. subassemblies with putty and sanding.
4. touchup priming.
5. paint subassemblies and decal.
6. glue
7. final paint and gloss and matte.

That nothing more can be done until I've run the lights is frustrating. It's just as well though. Reliant #1 will be another test bed for this monster.

Meanwhile, I can fully paint and decal the shuttle bay, the Arboretum and the officers lounge.

070425.15
Over the last month, I have collected numerous amounts of electronics.  I finally had a few evenings to get some layout work done.  Of the stash, all the CCF's have been distributed w/a  few to spare, some EL Wire has been assigned, a few LEDs, 1 sound module.

I've assigned two blue ccf tubes for the engines.  These were the most ciritcal and obvious lights to go in.  The rest will mostly be white leds, though I do need a couple red/orange/amber ones, as weill as at least one green and a blue or three...

CCF: I will likely have to round the cube bases down. They should just about fit length-wise.  I will also have to mask off (black paint the tube itself?) the lights to kill any spill.  I'll have ot do that for every light module - fitting a number per compartment and completely sealed after major parts-assembly.

I'll break this one out soon enough.  I have to tackle a number of other kits first and get a bunch of testing and prelim work needed for this one to be successful.

I do wnat ot test fit the lights and look her over again.  It's been while in the box now.


070609.04
The other week I bought a 2nd of this kit.  This evening I decided to proceed with an initial notion -Class Conversion.

The obvious conversion is to a Scout from Cruiser.  Tug was considered strongly, but withdrawn. 

The remaining body I thought I would hold out as greeblies for other kits.  However upon consideration, I'm keeping them all and showing mid-construction of an Enterprise Class Cruiser. To build the Dry Dock holding this frame will be a task!

The newer kit purchased will be the Enterprise.  This takes pressure off this build as it becomes more of a practice scenario for the 'real' one later.

So I need a new name and registration...
Scouts are NCC-xxx.  Now an appropriate name...

Top Contenders:
NCC-642 (580-700)
USS: Kepler, Copernicus, Cassini, Beagle, Galilei, Drake, Spray, Triton, Magellan, Victoria, Elizabeth, Sagan, Tombaugh.

For now, I'm going with Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto. (Just as Jupiter, a Gas Giant, is a planet, so too Pluto, an Ice Dwarf, is also a planet.)


080113.12
I went through the Trek box for the hell of it today. Mostly it was just sorting. I pulled out the secondary hull and one nacelle as they are extraneous to a Scout class. I left all the windows in the box for now. I'm going to sell the extra parts on eBay at some point; also be throwing in spares from the Drydock Project. And freeing up all the space, I consolidated drydock and Reliant into this one box as well.


080221.22
I bought a can of Tamiya pearl white. I used all of it on the upper saucer alone and it's not enough for one, even coat! Have to sand this coat down and do more!