Sci-Fi Wednesdays - The USS Enterprise E

Manufacture: Polar Lights
Scale: 1/1400th
Kit: # 853

Build Series: Sci-Fi Wednesdays - 1/1400 scale Enterprise E (Completed)

Background

Here is a rhetorical question for you, how iconic is the name USS Enterprise? Amongst all of the sci-fi ship names out there, there are few rivals that carry the same level of admiration or nostalgia as the name Enterprise. Whether you are talking about the TOS Enterprise or the latest TNG Enterprise, each one is iconic in their own right and they all hold a special place in my heart. For my second season of Sci-Fi Wednesdays, I opted to finally build one of these awesome ships and decided on the E variant. I have heard that it can be a challenging kit, but my focus was to build it up and try to paint my own version of azteking! Oh boy, was that an adventure. Let's get into it... 

The Kit

First off, let me just say that I had a blast with this kit. Sure, the parts didn't fit together very well, there were gaps and misalignments around the lower hull and the nacelles, I couldn't get the bussard collectors to fit, and the saucer connection was difficult at best, but there was an allure to this kit and I really wanted to build it. It turned out to be a venerable modeling adventure and since it was my very first Star Trek ship to be on my bench, it holds a very special place in my display case. 

I found that this kit required a great deal more patience and focus then my previous Sci-Fi build, the Moebius Viper Mk. 7. The kit demanded a lot more dry fitting and studying for each part and subassembly and major attention needed to be paid to each and every step of assembly. It was a lot of work and for my very basic modeling skills, it was a trail by fire.

My troubles first started with the nacelles, specifically the clear parts for the bussard collectors. I just couldn't get them to fit! I tried to flip parts around, sand and file anything and everything, but I just couldn't get them to work. Since I wasn't going to light this ship, I opted to just blank them off and paint them instead. It would have been nice if I had gotten them to fit, but more than likely, it was user error. I got it sorted eventually, so no biggie.

The fit on the hull was difficult in places. I had to use a lot of styrene strips, at multiple locations, to not only coverup areas that were terrible or inaccurate, but also to fill gaps in the plastic and to stiffen up certain connections. It was a ton of work, but I was eventually able to get everything together, especially with a good deal of Mr. Surfacer putty to fill in some of the smaller gaps.

Once the putty and styrene was sanded and prepared around the secondary hull and rear shuttle bay, it was painted with an off-white paint by Vallejo. I did this to both prime and provide a base color get for my attempt at azteking. 

Painting and finishing this beast was not easy. It required multiple layers of paint, as well as numerous layers of azteking and masking. The azteking process was basically a lot of very small rectangular strips of Tamiya tape, cut by x-acto knife and positioned by hand, in various combinations around the hull. It was not for the faint of heart, but it did work to a certain extent. I then had to alternate layers of paint and azteking masks, so that it gave the ship a general appearance of having armored plates and layered details. Like I said, it wasn't at all accurate to the movie or studio model, but it was an interesting process to work with and it gave a very different look.

After all of that was done, I added more layers of paint, detail painted the different areas of the kit, sealed it with Future, and attempted to add all of the decals. Those went on just fine and didn't have any major issues durring application. I then sealed it all with Future and got ready for weathering.

Weathering was kept at a minimum, mostly because I had no idea how to really weather a star ship. I used a sludge wash to help darken certain areas of the kit, but it didn't really come across as well as I had envisioned.

For the base, I used the kit supplied parts and added in a photograph of a sunrise over a planet, that I found online somewhere. I edited it and cut it to fit inside the Star Trek emblem and called it a day!  

Conclusion

Even with all of it's troubles, I can't say that this kit is entirely without merit. This is a great version of the Enterprise E and it is very capable of being a real showstopper. If a person can get past the fit issues and some of the lesser detailed areas, this kit will please almost any sci-fi modeler out there. If they have the skills to light the interior of a starship, this one would look fantastic! Since I am not at that level yet, I thought I would just build the model as best as I could and try my hand at painting my own versions of the iconic aztek markings. I can't say that it is accurate, but I accomplished what I set out to do and it was a HUGE learning experience for me. I absolutely love the look of the Enterprise E and this version, although not screen accurate, was a joy to build.

Feel free to checkout my completed USS Enterprise E build over on my YouTube channel!

Thanks for joining me today, stay safe, and happy modeling.

Sci-Fi Wednesdays - Moebius Models Viper Mk. VII

Manufacture: Moebius Models
Scale: 1/32nd
Kit: # 916
Build Series: Sci-Fi Wednesdays - Viper Mk.7 (Completed) 

Background

Battlestar Galactica was such an awesome show! Based on the 1970s television series, the 2004 sci-fi show was a masterpiece of storytelling and I binged that entire series in a matter of weeks. Great characters, intriguing plot lines and of course, sweet looking ships.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a big ship guy. That is one of the reasons why I liked Babylon 5 and most of the Star Trek shows. I just love a good ship and BSG had some nice looking ships! 

Watching the show, I immediately fell in love with the designs of the Vipers, the Cylon raiders, the Battlestars and the Bay ships. They looked great on the screen and I couldn't wait to see those epic space combat scenes.

It wasn't until 2014 that I actually found out that Moebius had released some of the ships as model kits. I saw them in a Squadron mail order catalog and I just couldn't resist. I immediately pick up both the Mk. II and the Mk. VII Vipers and couldn't wait to get started. 

To be honest, I actually wanted to build the Mk. II first, since it was my favorite of the Viper designs, but since I hadn't built a sci-fi kit in ages and the Mk. II was going to require some very careful painting with the color white (a difficult color to paint on any day), I decided to start with the Mk. VII. 

The Kit

This was my first experience with a Moebius kit and I have to admit, I was pleased! The parts were nicely molded, flash free and clean. It does have some heavily scribed recessed panel lines, but it didn't bother me as much.

Moebius supplies a very high quality, glossy instruction manual, printed in color, which is a really nice change of pace. Their line drawings were easy to understand and I didn't have any real issues with assembly.

There decal sheet was well printed, nice and glossy, with all the images in registry.  Moebius gives the builder options for either Galactica or Pegasus versions of the Mk. VII and options for a number of different pilots. Nice touch Moebius!

This kit was well engineered, with very nice fit in most areas. I did have a large seam between the upper and lower fuselage, but some filling and sanding minimized it enough for my liking. This kit comes with both landing gears and an in-flight display stand, so depending on how you wish to show the finished product you have two options. I decided to cover the gear bays and use the stand, but the doors were a little finicky to fit. They seemed to be a bit undersized, so I had to take my time installing them.

One of my main complaints for this kit was the cockpit assembly. The detail was extremely sparse and not very accurate to the t.v. show. I ended up doing a ton of scratch building and after it was all done, I was able to get something that looked closer to the actual design. Honestly, I think a resin replacement would have been a better choice, but I got it to work.

I also printed my own gauges and glued them to my scratch built instrument panels. If I ever build another one, I might go with a lighting kit and replace the entire cockpit with a much nicer part.

I also had some issues with the wings. The overall shape were more or less correct, but the details were not as accurate as I would have liked. The guns were not angled correctly, the wing intakes were not molded in the correct shape and the gun housings were very different then what appeared on the show. Even so, the kit still built up into a nice looking bird, even though it isn't as screen accurate as one might think.

I ended up drilling and adding some additional thruster ports around the nose intake. There were several missing and it was a super simple job to add them in. I also deepened the remaining ports, to give them a bit more impact.

I used a mixture of Tamiya and Gunze Aqueous paints for the basic color. It is probably too dark, but I like how it looks. Decals settled nicely into the panel lines, I just used a bit of Micro Set and Micro Sol for good measure. It all worked well.

I ended up tinting the canopy with some Tamiya Smoke, not only to obscure the cockpit's lack of accurate detail, but to help hide my paint work on the pilot figure. I am just not that good at painting figures, so the tint helped to keep that hidden. 

Conclusion

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this build. The fit was good, the decals went on nicely and aside form a bit of seam issues here and there, it was a really enjoyable build. Like I said, I wished Moebius had spent a bit more time on the cockpit, but if it is a deal breaker for you, it can be replaced with a lighting kit or just doctored up with time and better references.

Despite the few misgivings that I had regarding some of the points of accuracy, I still would highly recommend this kit to any sci-fi enthusiasts. It was a great project of a really cool ship.

Feel free to checkout my completed Viper Mk. VII build over on my YouTube channel! This was my first entry into my Sci-Fi Wednesdays build series, so it was a little rough.

Until next we meet, stay safe and happy modeling.