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Chris Ford's Enterprise C |
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Destruction of
the USS Enterprise
NCC 1701 - C
( as she was meant to be... )
The account of the building of the
Enterprise-C model from AMT/Ertl.
by Chris Ford
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I'm certain I was no different to all of
the other Star Trek fans at the arrival of the USS Enterprise - C to the shelves of our local hobby
shops. At last theEnterprise model collection could be completed. And what a model it is! I couldn't wait - so I bought it on my lunch hour and brought it back to work and inspected it then and there. I liked what I saw - but I had to get back to work. Later that same evening I finally got to close-inspect it. This has to be the best "Trek" model for parts fitting that Ertl has ever produced. I was amazed. Each part fit tight, with no alteration needed. Even the warp nacelles are "coded" in a way so as to identify port from starboard. I just had to see it completed. But then I encountered my dilemma. It appears in only 1 episode of "Star Trek - The Next Generation" - that being "Yesterday's Enterprise", where it appears from within a tear in the fabric of time. It has been on the loosing end of a rather nasty dogfight and encounters the Enterprise-D in another time period. It is shown, albeit darkly, very beat up indeed. But I had intended to build the model as if it had just come out of spacedock, "all brand new and shiny". So what should I do ? I decided that most people would probably build it "as new", and also that to destroy it would be more of a challenge, so I opted for destruction rather than construction. Besides, I could always get another model to build later on.
In The Beginning
I
started by examining the pieces and "dry-fitting" them. I was pleased
with the ease in which they fit. I broke down the assembly of the model into various sub sections: saucer (top & bottom), body & engine struts (mounts) and finally the engines themselves. I started with the saucer as it contained the most detailing. I figured if I did a good job on this, I would apply the same techniques to the rest of the ship.
The next thing to do was to watch the Next Generation episode in which the Enterprise -C first appears. However, there are very few close-up, well lit, detailed shots of its damage - only a
few clues as to where to place some smoke damage. All other book sources showed it in one way or another as "brand new", without any damage. When I'm at a loss for anything, I search the
internet. It's a great place to get a wealth of model making tips,
photos, paint colours, etc., etc.. I accidentally found Greg Jein's (the guy who built the miniature for the episode) web page. Before building this model you must check his site out. Superb images!!! (He even has a Yamaguchi site). And it shows in pretty good detail where the damage occurs. It doesn't show the underside of the saucer very well though, so I guessed at this damage. So while looking at the image up on the screen, I took a pencil and marked on the model, where I felt the damage should be. I must admit, I then took quite a bit of "artistic license" and added some more of my own. I decided that if I was going to show this starship as damaged, it was going to look REALLY damaged. Where on the web pages the body isn't, I blew gaping holes in mine. Where the warp nacelles show minimal damage, I maximised mine. "Hey, I'm on a roll here". But I didn't go into overkill.
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Damage
I felt the best way to depict the damage was to make irregular-sized (explosion) holes in the upper and lower saucer
halves, in the ship's body and engine nacelles. I put a pointed soldering tip on my soldering iron and, once heated, traced it around the
pencil marks I had drawn earlier. This wasn't difficult, as by now I was quite used to "cutting up" models. This left me with numerous holes conforming exactly to the shape and location as I had planned
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There was some melted plastic residue on the outside of the model around each of the holes I had opened. I trimmed this away with a
scalpel as I
felt it interfered with the overall look of the effect. I had previously painted the model insides flat black, as not only was my Enterprise going to be battle-damaged, it would be lit as well. After priming the sections, the inside edge of each hole was painted silver (which would be painted/smudged with some black later on) - this was to represent the starship hull being made of metal.
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On the model, the running/collision lights and beacon are represented by small, raised nodules. I cut these off with a scalpel,
drilled them out
and fitted 1.8mm LED's instead. I did this to both saucer halves. Close to but not directly beneath the "splatter-painted"thin plasticard covered holes, I secured 2 self-flashing 3mm LED's, one amber plus one red. These normally run on 9 - 12 volts dc but they'll also work on 6 volts dc, which was the chosen voltage for my model lighting. With the power on and the room lights turned off, viewingthe saucer from above gives an appearance as if some explosions or fires are happening within the exploded area. Cool !!
Explosive Detail
This
now left me with two saucer halves full of patch-work covered holes. I knew in my mind what I wanted the detailing to look like and just prayed that it would turn out o.k. In a number of "Trek"
filmsthat show a main starship coming under fire, I noticed that when hit with a photon torpedo or
some other damaging device, a gaping hole is rarely left with twisted and curled metal at the hole's edge. Rather, the explosion seems to have an "eaten away" effect instead. I based my detailing on this effect (see photo above) as it looks effective and I also thought it would be pretty quick to complete. Boy, was I wrong ! I started by painting silver, some 1 mm square lengths of plastic strip (made by a company called Plastruct) followed by (when dry) a partial blackening with matte black Humbrol. Then, for each hole (on the outside of the saucer) I measured where the circular pattern detail "used to be" and cut a piece of the 1 mm sq. strip to that length.. This was curved slightly with pressure from my hand and glued into place on top of the blackened brass plates. For the radiating lines effect, I measured each section that needed to be added (usually in millimetre lengths), cut it from the strip, and glued it into place. It was this that took the most time
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Numerous times I found myself working with lengths as small as 1mm, and in all cases, it had to be done with a pair of angled
tweezers, good
lighting, a steady hand and a LOT of patience. It took me just over a month to complete the saucer top and bottom explosion detail, working a few hours each night. In some cases I angled and bent the 1mm sq. plastic, giving an effect of twisted metal to the superstructure (see photo to the right). The time it took was worth while as the completed effect was very realistic. It
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appears as if the outer hull layer has been exploded away, exposing the skeletal structure of the starship, and in some cases, even that has
been blown away, all revealing the secondary hull layer.
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This same method of covering the explosive holes with brass splatter-painted metal was applied to the starship body while
it was still in two halves. Once this was done, I joined the two halves with super attack glue with some quick drying araldyte along the inside seam. Once all of this was dry, I was
then able to putty the outside seam. When this was dry I sanded and re-primed it and fitted the warp engine pylon section. This had been constructed earlier, it's seams filled sanded
and primed and had 4 colour coded wires passing from one end of the section through to where the warp engines would sit. (One pair would be used to light the blue EL filament used in the engines
(approx. 117 volts ac) and the other to light the running lights and the Hydrogen collector (6 volts dc)
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Lighting
I had decided to fit fibre optic windows, as opposed to carved
ones. In these cases I would normally fit a fluorescent lamp but the Enterprise-C didn't have enough space. So I used long fibre optic strands, taken from one of those "fibre optic flying saucer lamps" currently seen in many shops. They possess superb light transmission properties with an excellent bend radius and don't react adversely to Super Attack glue, a type of cyanoacrylite glue I use. I had previously drilled out selected windows with a tiny drill bit and inserted a strand of fibre optic material through the hole, attaching it on the inside with a small amount of Super Attack glue. Prior to fitting all of the window optics, I glued down all of the colour coded wiring which I'd soldered to the LED's and gathered them together at one end of the saucer. I did this to both halves, although on the saucer ventral side I cut a hole for all the wiring to pass through. I could foresee that if I didn't, when all of the fibre optic strands were in place, this wiring could interfere with their stability when it came to securing the two saucer halves together. It didn't take long to get all of the fibres in place. I bundled the dorsal fibres together and passed them into a small "pot" (made by Ertl for the purpose) containing a single 6 volt grain of wheat bulb.
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For the saucer ventral fibres, I attached another grain of wheat bulb over the central area which also allowed the lower
dome to be
lit. I gathered these fibres into a bundle and secured them to the front of this lamp using Blu Tak. I used more Blu Tak to seal the lamp from any light leaks, allowing for a small air pocket around the bulb. Once all this was done, it looked like quite a confusing mess of things, but it worked. I gathered all of the wiring together and glued the saucer halves together with super attack glue, clamped the whole set up and left it there to set for 24 hours.
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The starship body was a bit harder to fit the fibre strands as I could only work through the deflector shield opening using tweezers amidst
a maze of
wiring passing through the body and out through the bottom and top. The (engine) wiring needs to be completed before adding the fibre optics. To wire it up afterwards, would result in a good number of fibres breaking or becoming damaged. This too was time consuming, taking four evenings to fit approximately 80 strands. Once they were ready, I gathered the strands together, trimmed them and fitted them into another one of those Ertl pots , made for that purpose. This pot was then pushed into the model body. At the start of this project, I had thought about showing the deck structure of the body having been partially blown away, but when I realised all the fibre optic strands plus the electronic wiring that had to be accommodated within this already limited space, I decided against it. Perhaps it best be left as a future project.
At this point the saucer was ready for painting, but handling it was like picking up a hedgehog. Even just setting it down meant that one or two of the protruding
fibre optic strands got broken. I decided then to remove the protruding fibres.
This is something I would normally do after painting and I would recommend it. By removing them meant I had to paint
around each fibre optic window, which was very time consuming. I got there in the end though. For the starship body, I painted it first, then drilled and added the fibre optic strands afterwards
(pulling them through one by one with tweezers via the deflector shield opening). This was a much easier compared to how I had fitted the saucer section.
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I now had a completed saucer section in one hand and in the other the completed body and pylons (see photo 9). I
wired the
saucer to the body (red to red, blue to blue, etc. - it's why colour coded wiring is used; to make the job easier & more accurate), insulated the joins with electrical tape and used quick drying araldyte to mount the two sections together. At this point, all that remained was to complete the warp engines and lastly, add the deflector shield.
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Warp Engines
I decided to create a few destruction details on the warp engines as well. Hey, I'm claiming artistic licence !
The top pieces were first drilled and fitted with 1.8mm LED running lights (red on the back end for port, green for starboard and amber for both front ends
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A 5mm red LED was used to light the Bussard Collector. Then, using the same technique of "splatter-coated" brass
pieces, I covered the holes from the inside in the same manner as the saucer. I then painted the outer sections because if I tried to paint it while fitted to the rest of the model, I
could accidentally mark or damage the model. I had left 2 holes in the starboard engine uncovered, one on top behind the Bussard Collector and one on the lower outer section.
For
each I built up interior
detailing so when looking at it when lit, you can see right through into the glowing red collector. I detailed the lower outer hole with bass guitar string pieces (to resemble coiled conduit) and broken brass wire.
On the inside, in an upright position, sit six 5mm red LED's with the stems cut off. (They do absolutely nothing). However, in the midst of them, sits a 3mm
self flashing yellow LED which has been wired to the collision lights wiring. Now when the room lights are turned off and the model's lighting turned on, the yellow LED light passing through the red ones creates an orange pulsating colour, appearing as if damaged; not the least that something is going on in there.
The blue EL Filament was finally added, wired up and the two engine halves glued together. A small amount of model putty was used to fill the join, then sanded,
re-primed and painted.
Lastly, the protruding colour coded wires from the engine
pylons were connected to the corresponding wires from the engines and the engines themselves were glued to the pylons using cyanoacrylate glue.
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Deflector Shield
The final detail to add was the deflector shield. I painted it Monza Electric Blue (car paint from Halfords) on the inside
only. I then took a small parabolic reflector from inside a small portable torch. I created a plug from hot glue for the back
end of it, into which was set a small grain of wheat lamp (6 volt) wrapped in a bit of blue theatrical gel material to make an even bluer glow. The parabolic reflector helps to spread the light. A tiny bit of grinding to the reflector allowed it to be easily fit and adhered to the back of the deflector dish, but still allowed the deflector dish to attach to the model via its built - in "guides". The biggest surprise I got was when turned the power on to check for light leaks. There wasn't one, which is a testament to the manufacturers in producing such an excellent kit. To this day, I haven't needed to glue the shield in place. It snapped it easily and perfectly. No ones knows any different to look at it.
Painting
I tried to
follow the manufacturers instructions in painting the model as close as possible, although a lot of the exact paint numbers are not
available in this country. I suppose the box art was a useful guide. I found when I had mixed the base coat (as per instructions), it appeared too dark a grey, so I "invented" my own paler shade of off white. Halfords car paint was used only on the shield interior.
Weathering
All
of the weathering and smoke damage detailing was finished on to each sub-section as it was completed. I discovered on early test pieces, the amount of "smudging" pressure on the pencil
& charcoal markings would probably result in some part of the model becoming damaged. Once the added decals were set overnight, I gave each sub-section a dark but
thinned down wash. This took away the "newness look" from the model's paint scheme. I then took a "B" writing pencil (as opposed to "HB") and lightly scribbled around each of the holes as well as on other sections of the model. I rubbed my finger over this graphite, much the way an artist would shade a portrait using charcoal. This gave a soft, scorched look to the edge of the damaged area, almost airbrush like. I then took an artists black charcoal and repeated the process, allowing some of it to radiate outwards from the hole. I did this all over the sections in various sized proportions. This too was rubbed in and the effect was superb. Very much like air-brushing, but without the mess. However, I did nurse a few finger blisters for about 10 days as a result of all the rubbing. When I felt I had added enough of the charcoal damage/smoke effect, each completed section was sprayed with fixative, which not only set the decals but also makes the charcoal effect permanent. After all of the sub-sections were permanently glued into place, I sprayed the entire model with a semi-gloss protective coat.
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Presentation
A section of brass tubing was secured into the
lower belly of the model and into a decorative wooden stand, with the wiring passing through it. I constructed a black ash effect, glass fronted cabinet 18" x 18" x 30" to house the model in. I'm still working on the background of a "tear in time" (whatever that looks like).
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Presentation Update - Using a toothbrush, I "sprayed" some luminescent white paint onto a black surface installed above and
around the model. This is lit via an out-of-view,12 " ultraviolet lamp. With the room lights out, the effect is amazing. Cool!
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