DeBoers Enterprise

[NemVia]

(05-06-2011, 04:46 PM)dbhs Wrote: I ran into a similar problem when I glued the 2 halves of my Colonial One back together. I used 20 minute epoxy and practiced my set up but still barely got them together before running out of time and having the epoxy making a mess. I found that masking off around the glue joint helps keep the glue that always oozes out where you don't expect it from ruining the adjacent surface. I did this on the BSG Shuttle and it really saved me big time. If those nacelles are flexible enough to do it in stages that's great.

It's looking great so far.

Yes, there is some flexiblity with the pieces. I have been using the 5 minute epoxy, so there is even less time. I've even used the taping method and that does work out very well. What I do for this technique is pry apart the seam with one exacto knife, just slightly, and then trowel the epoxy into the split, pull out the other knife and then clamp them together. I found alos that rather than mixing the epoxy on a piece of cardboard and/or plastic I use an old glass candle base to mix the epoxy on. This way I don't have to waste pieces of plastic or cardboard. When the stuff on the glass hardens, I just scrape it off with an exacto knife and start on the next mixture. You can pick up these candle bases or plates for just a few dollars at a Walmart or like store.

Now for my update....
WARP NACELL UPDATE FOR - 06/11/11
It's been a crazy month for the Reliant and Enterprise. The Nacells are quite a job to get just right. The problem is with the seams on the top and bottom of the nacell. They do not join together in a nice straight and even seam unlike an injection molded kit. I've had to do a lot of sanding on almost all of the engine pieces. Remember that there are 8 engines total for 4 models, so it's a lot of work. I've only been able to opaque 3 of the engines so far and am still working on the final sanding for the other 5 engines. I do have 4 pics in the Enterprise Album, #'s 129-132 and 3 new pics in Reliant #'s 34-36.

As I've stated in my last updates, there is a problem with the grills on all of the models. The filming miniature has 5 lines of lighting effects on the warp grills whereas the DeBoers only has 4. The Polar Lights model has 5 grooves rather than 4. To me this is a huge mistake that would take a monumental amount of work to fix the problem so I'll just have to allow for the difference. Also, the pictures I have of the Warp grills show that the lighting effect only goes back so far on the engines and not all the way to the end of the grills. There is a little bit of difference in opinion as to which part of the grill actually lights up. I'm sticking with the deep grooves since it matches up with the movies stills I have. It's too bad this error is so obvious, at least to me. But what can I do. It will still look sharp when they are finished.

By my next update I should have the base colors started on the engines. See you then!

Mark.