Mutara Nebula DeBoers Enterprise and Reliant Build

[jwood314]

Shawn,

Thanks for the words of encouragement!

Update #60

More painting and sanding. 

The Good - the 4 nacelles are ready for touch up sanding and then a finish coat of base white, then they are ready for additional paint details.  I need to check light blocking one last time though before I continue with the painting. 

The Bad - I discovered an issue, which will drive a longer paint time on the upper saucer for both the E and R.  I am glad I saw this now and I think my new way of painting will fix the problem, who knows though.  You can see the first light coat on the Es upper saucer section.

The Ugly - The issue was paint lifting at intersections of planes.  Basically, randomly, paint would delaminate from the part and sort of puff up.  On the same part, painted the same day, you would not get consistent bubbling, and I saw ZERO bubbling on flat surfaces.  Guess what I did all of my primer and lacquer paint testing on, large flat surfaces, boo.  So, I went back in and scribe all of the panel lines on the bottom of the E saucer, but this chipped the paint around the scribe lines.  I almost have all of this fixed and repainted.  I have a half a coat to go, tomorrow night, then a light sanding and a visual inspection.  The last pic shows you a bubbling section.  I am going to strip all of the paint off of one of the bottom sensor pieces, I have lost too much detail getting everything cleaned up.  I would rather spend some time removing all of the buildup and redoing the paint to get a crisp looking part.  Bummer, but will be a better model in the long run. 

I need to go buy some super soft cotton fabric to make to piece holders so as not to scratch up the finished assemblies.  Also will need to start working on the masks for the Es nacelles.  I am doing the 5 color refit, so the masks I have bought do not have everything needed for that. 

So making forward progress.  I have collected a large selection of parts and pieces to build out the three shuttle bays that are required.  I also have all of the electronics ready to be installed on the stuff I am painting now.  That will be less than a day.  So huge progress, may not seem like, but the foundation is nearing completion.

Cheers,
James

[Shawn McClure]

Ugh, that sucks about the paint chipping up.  I can just picture your description of resubscribing lines only to have the paint chip up.  What a mess.

I feel your pain.  Hang in there.

Shawn

[jwood314]

Shawn,

I will not quit!  Unless my morale completely breaks, which happened on my Falcon model.  I stepped on the canopy for the cockpit and just put her away, .

Update #61

I figured out what was causing my lifting issue.  Essentially the lacquer based white paint would pool some on the non-flat surfaces and this was causing the problem.  So, lesson learned, lighter coats on the non-flat surfaces.  I also stripped down a part, reprepped it and only painted it with the white, WOW, much better, MUCH better.  I have already started stripping the other 3 parts.  This will drive some work on light blocking changes, but that will allow for a better looking model when done.  I am glad I stripped them.  I am going to hit the bottom E saucer with some sanding, and see if I am happy with how it looks, if not, I think I will strip the whole saucer and start over.  Some more light coats put down on the top saucer.  Progress.

Cheers,
James

[MSgtUSAFRet]

James,

While it may sound very much like a fortune cookie fortune, "Sometimes you must go back to go forward!"

On more than one occasion, I have had to pop seams, unseal, strip paint, and generally undo weeks of work, but the results are so much better!

Stay Strong and keep going. 

Steve

[jwood314]

Steve,

I agree on the step backwards to move forwards.  The final product will look much better, cleaner and crisper.

Update #62

So I stripped the bottom saucer, and the left over top and bottom parts.  I re-sanded the parts.  The top and bottom ad on parts are repainted, will get sanded tonight and 1 more coat and they are then DONE with the base coating.  They look MUCH better now, and I look forward to getting actual colors down on them.  Also, making some nice soft part holders, so I can do work on the electronics without damaging the paint job. 

I tried something new on the saucer, since stripping the saucer was easier than painting it.  I am outlining all of the hull lines with black, then painting 2 coats of white over it.  This will add a little highlight to the lines without standing out too much, and it cleans up the area, makes everything look neater.  The pics do not do it justice, but in person it looks better.  So, going to line the rest of the saucer tonight and get those coats down this weekend, I think, unless I work on the sensor bands.


Cheers,
James

[AlW]

James, I think your idea to backtrack and then highlight the hull panel lines was a good one.  It adds dimensionality to the surface.  Are you familiar with panel line washes?  Tamiya makes a great enamel based panel line wash originally developed for airplane panels.  After first giving the model a gloss or satin finish, the wash is applied and via capillary action, runs down the panel.  It's very effective and the only cleanup is to dab a few areas with a cotton swab moistened with thinner. 

[Shawn McClure]

Looks better now.  Just a pain to have to do that sort of thing, but in the end it will be the better solution.

Shawn

[jwood314]

AW - I went and purchased a pigmented permanent black line to use to fill in the panel lines, no longer using paint, much faster and a better finish.

Shawn - painful, but better!

Update #63

So I finished one of the saucer sections that had primer down first then the white and I was unable to get the panel lines to work out properly.  I am sad that I spent all that effort which is now wasted, but glad I learned some good experience out of this.  So, very happy with how the saucer section came out that was not primed, ALL of the panel lines are super crisp.  I think you can see on the top part of the saucer section the softness of about half the panel lines.  So, off to strip it down.  I will also strip down all of the Reliant hull parts to.  So, I am out about $30 in primer lolol.  For the nacelles, I am about down, and since there are essentially no panel lines, I have not had this puffing up issue with just a few exception, which I can carefully clean up and fix.  The bad, time and money wasted, the good, earned some great experience in working with these paints and getting much better with my air brush and paint sanding skills. 

This weekend going to work on my sewing skills.  I need to make some padding and other holder pieces so I can flip over these base coated parts and install the electronics. 

Cheers,
James

[jwood314]

Update #64

Finished stripping the top saucer, sanded it up to 1500 grit, and lined out all of the panel lines.  I got 2 of the 4 nacelles on their last sanding painting step.  The area being touched up is very small.  Each time I do this, I have about 10% the amount of work from the previous effort.  Started stripping the Reliant bottom part.  I placed another quart of white on order, I am just about out of it now.  I should have enough to touch up the nacelles and 1 or 2 spots on the Enterprise bottom.  I do not have enough to start the Enterprise top paint yet.  Good progress this week.  I am going TDY though for 2 weeks so comms out from me for a while.

Cheers,
James

[Shawn McClure]

Those saucer lines look great.  Looks like it was worth the effort.

Shawn