Beyond the rim of starlight...

The U.S.S. Enterprise sails though the stars once more! Finished the model last night, and I'm happy with the results. Given all the mishaps during the building process, it turned out rather well. See what you think.


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Recovering from disaster (again)

After the last mishap, breaking the fuselage, was fixed, I managed to screw up again! Not having applied decals in a while, I managed to rip the ones on the fuselage pretty badly. I thought I would just live with it but decided I couldn't.
So I tried removing them so I could use the stickers in the kit. But the decals were dry and weren't going anywhere. Finally I gave in and painted over them.
Then I realized I had used the wrong set of decals in the first place!



So here is the starboard side with the correct decals gently applied. Oo-rah!
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Damage (And Disaster) Avverted!

As you can see, I was able to keep the broken fuselage from ruining the model. Model Master Light Gray was able to hide the seam where I repaired the break.


All that remains is applying the decals, a clear coat, and mounting on the base.



I have the Klingon ship to work on next. Of course it doesn't use any of the same paint colors!!
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Painting And More Painting

Mostly just painting all the pieces the last two evenings. Useful items at this stage include hobby knife, tape (for masking areas off) Q-tips, tweezers, sandpaper (I use an emory board). Cups or dishes to mix paint come in handy. I like to use one for thinner, so I keep my bottle clean.



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Day 1 - The Saucer Section

OK, I got started on the model building tonight. First thing, I had to go back to Hobby Lobby, since the paint list was not listed on the box, but on the instructions. Here's the list:

I gathered the paints, and realized that they were pushing $20, and that before I bought a brush. So instead I went with a generic set of paints, realizing I can always mix my own colors if I need to. Also, the $12.99 paint set included a brush and thinner. Beyond that I bought the metallic copper paint and the metallic red.

Here's the two halves of the saucer section. At this point, I've only attached lower clear dome and the upper ridge that leads back to the sublight engines:

Here's a close-up of the lower saucer. For a Snap-Tite model, it's fairly well detailed and accurate. My only quibble is (you can't see this) the lower saucer has the Paramount copyright information in ridged lettering. I'll have to sand it off.

Having done models of the Enterprise before, I know that the worst part of getting the saucer done is getting the halves to sit down flush with one another. To that end, I used a gadget that keeps computer cabling together that clamps onto the edge of a desk to clamp the most difficult part of the saucer together while it dries.

One point to note. The upper dome is clear also, but (stupidly) they opted to make the entire bridge section clear, meaning that you have to paint the lower section (without messing up the clear dome). I hate stupid moves like that, but what can you do? I did the best I could, going back to trim paint from the edges of the dome with my hobby knife until it looked (mostly) circular. Also, I think the bridge gray was a bit dark, but I've decided to live with it. For the running lights, I did the red one with a red marker and the green with green enamel diluted with thinner. This way they're still mostly clear.

The Final Frontier

Of late I'm not so into programming. Not sure why this is so, but rather than drive myself crazy trying to code something I'm not into, I've decided to do some other things. For example, I recently bought a small MIDI controller keyboard to play with Garageband. Nothing worth sharing yet, but you never know.

Another thing that I've "resurrected" from my past is model-building. I used to really enjoy that when I was a kid and teenager. Here's an example of a previous endeavor, the Spirit of St. Louis:

So today while at Hobby Lobby for some lights for my pumpkin, I checked out their model section and was surprised to find kits of the U.S.S. Enterprise from the original Star Trek series. On further inspection, I realized that the kit could be used to construct several different versions of the ship, including the ship from the first pilot "The Menangerie," the second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before," and the one used for the rest of the series. Parts and decals are included to also create the I.S.S. Enterprise from the mirror universe in "Mirror, Mirror." They also included decals for the U.S.S. Constitution, U.S.S. Exeter, and the U.S.S. Defiant. So with one kit you can actually make seven different versions of the ship!

Here's the box detail:

Here's some detail from the instructions illustrating the different versions of the ship:

And here's all the parts. They included stickers and decals, so little kids who aren't good at decals and use the stickers
.

I'll try to use my camera to track my progress building the model and post updates here as I go.

A Shameful Display

Tonight, while watching the President's address to the joint session of Congress, I heard something I've never ever heard before. The President of the United States was called a liar from the floor of the House of Representatives.

Republican Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted, "You lie!" as the President stressed that his proposed health plan would not cover illegal aliens.

I have never seen anyone interrupt any President while speaking to Congress, much less do so so rudely. While Rep. Wilson apologized soon after, this incident demonstrates how far away this country has gotten from civil discourse.

Unlike Craig Ferguson, I feel it is not a "good day for America."

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