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By E. James Small
With Round 2’s re-release of the original 18” long AMT Starship Enterprise kit, I thought this would be a great time to throw one together as there is now a refreshed supply of them in the local hobby shops! I decided, however, to build the model as the “Constellation”, seen in the Star Trek episode, “The Doomsday Machine”.
Round 2 has also cleverly replaced the completely inaccurate original decals with new, super detailed and accurate versions, so this was a great opportunity to have a lot of fun with this classic model! This newly created decal set offers many possibilities to build, including the production version (which I used in this buildup) as well as the designs for the first pilot (“The Cage”), the second pilot, and the Mirror Universe versions as well as names and numbers for 12 different starships. You can now build an entire fleet!
The interesting thing about that episode is that the visual effects team actually used one of these AMT kits as the battle-damaged Constellation. Despite the slight inaccuracies of the kit when compared to the large 11 foot long Enterprise miniature, this kit is actually a 100% accurate studio scale model of the Constellation! Therefore, it is a perfect subject to model instead of the common Enterprise version.
Construction:
To build the kit, I started with the four basic sub-assemblies as per the instructions (two engines, saucer and secondary hull). Remember to glue the shuttle bay doors to the bottom of the hull BEFORE gluing on the top of the body! You can also glue the power unit domes (or Bussard Collectors) to the detail part 17 but don’t glue the domes to the warp drive nacelles yet.
When the glue is dry and the joints are cleaned up, you will also need to sand off the scribed lines and windows from the bottom of the saucer section and the sides of the body so the decals can be put on. Also, use some putty (you can use automotive spot putty) to fill in the three indentations on the bottom of the saucer. When finish-sanding, it’s best to use fine grit wet sandpaper (that’s the dark grey stuff with the green backing) soaked in water and a drop of dishwashing detergent to break surface tension (the soapy water helps keep the paper from clogging up). Then glue these assemblies together so you have the whole ship built EXCEPT for the following parts: Part 20 (thruster), clear domes 101 and 102, control reactors 19, power unit end caps 21 and dish antenna 9. All these parts will be glued on after painting and decals have been applied.
Painting:
TIP: First of all, it’s important to know that there are many ways to paint a model and many types of paint to use. All modelers have their own preferences and combinations based on any number of reasons. For the novice builder especially, I recommend Tamiya brand acrylics available at most well-stocked hobby stores. Tamiya acrylics are wonderful because if you screw up the paint job, you can simply wash the paint off, even when dry; by using rubbing alcohol or methyl hydrate (found cheaply by the gallon at hardware stores) which won’t damage the plastic parts of the kit. When the parts are washed off, just start over again. There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes, especially when those mistakes can be corrected so easily! Also the paint can be thinned using methyl hydrate too, for use in your airbrush.
So, the first thing to do is spray the entire partially assembled model overall light grey. There is a lot of debate as to just what color to use, but the original Star Trek miniature was reportedly painted a light grey “with a greenish tint” and not white as it appears on screen. It looks white due to the photographic and lighting processes used. However, for the example shown here I used Krylon brand “451606 Pewter Grey” spray paint put through my airbrush after having first applied the plastic parts with a grey primer coat. Most common spray paints contain chemicals that are too aggressive for styrene and will damage the surface (called “crazing”) unless you carefully prime it first.
Once the model is sprayed overall grey, you can then pencil on the panel lines of the saucer section. Round 2 correctly removed the embossed panel lines for this release of the kit, but the fact is, the lines ARE supposed to be there, but not embossed. The lines should be very subtle, barely visible, and with a slight weathering pattern to them.
Use a compass with the center point on top of the bridge and draw six concentric circles, evenly spaced on the top of the saucer. Divide the saucer into 28 evenly spaced pie shaped wedges, drawing lines from the center out to the edge. The bottom of the saucer is similarly divided into pie-shapes, but look at the photos to see how to make the concentric circles, as they are not evenly spaced. This one’s a judgment call…
You will need to use an airbrush for this next section. Once your panel lines are drawn, you can use painter’s tape to mask off the lines as shown, then “draw and edge” along the tape using your airbrush with a slightly darker gray paint than the base coat. This will create the “weathering” effect around the panels, helping to accentuate the idea that the ship is made from multiple plates instead of a single solid piece. This technique is shown heavily exaggerated here (fig 1) for illustrative purposes. For the concentric circles, cut an arc into a small card, like an unused business card and hold it against the edge of the line, Aim your brush at the area and apply a small burst of paint to create the effect. Repeat this pattern around the model until the desired effect is achieved.
For other parts, such as the body and engine sections, wrap tape around the areas and apply the paint the same way to create a paneled look (fig 2) until you achieve a look similar to that shown (again heavily exaggerated) in (fig 4). Note: if you do make your weathering too dark, don’t panic. All you need to do is lightly dust over the area with the base color again to tone it down (fig 6). We want the weathering to be very subtle.
Note: The original Enterprise 11 foot miniature as it is displayed today (in the Smithsonian) was greatly over weathered during its restoration process, and is not the way it was seen when filmed. Although the pictures of the model as seen today show accurate weathering patterns, it’s just too heavy handed. So in order to create a more “as filmed” look, we need to be more subtle with the “dirtying down”.
Okay, so we have the model paneled. You can now add streaks of paint to other areas to suggest the ship’s streaking through space. Wave your airbrush quickly back and forth across areas around leading edges of the model to produce these streaks. (fig 3 and 5). Practice on some scrap paper if you want to develop your technique. Finally, you should end up with something as shown in figs 7 and 8.
Now, spray the entire model with a clear coat, giving the model a base for the decals to stick to. Decals will not stick well to a matte or flat surface (air gets behind the decal and creates a “silvering” effect), so it’s very important to make sure that your model is glossy for decal application.
Now you are ready to do all the detail painting, most of which you can do with a brush or you can mask and spray, whichever you are comfortable with doing. Paint the sunken inner sides of the Warp engines dark grey and the grilles silver. Paint the grilles on the engine support struts silver or dark grey (depending on your preference). Paint the impulse engine thrusters and the top of the neck section (top of saucer) as well as the rear engine caps dark grey with white hemispheres. Paint the warp engine “Bussard collector” domes, the sensor dish and the rings behind it all copper. The clear domes on the top and bottom of the main saucer can be painted white, as they are supposed to look “lit up” like many of the windows. Part 19, the “control reactors” are painted the same as your main grey base coat and weathered to match.
EjIMBo.
E. James Small
Excellence In Model Building
www.smallartworks.ca
All photography by E. James Small
