1/100 TOS Enterprise Mega Build

[Ekuth]

Incoming image transmission:
Starfleet Shipyards

Chief Construction Engineer's Report
USS Constitution Construction
Stardate: 2045.4.3.14159265359

Damn materials clerks. Sent me inferior beams. First lot had clear cracks across the subatomic structure of the steel. Bloody amateurs. Don't they know I'm on a schedule here? New lot finally arrived and I set the crews to work installing them on the underside of Deck 8 where it connects to the Neck Pylon to the Secondary Hull. This should help take some of the stress when the damn captain decides to takes us from a dead stop to Warp 8.



At least the crews are efficient. On review though, I decided to add additional decking plates over the supports. I don't care if it's not to spec. It's in and there's not a blessed thing they can do about it now, can they? "Engineer, take that out immediately!" Ha. Not likely.



Took a shuttlecraft out a bit to get a good overall on the construction progress. At least she's starting to look like a starship. Bloody draftsman actually knew his trade. Computer: make note to conscrip- er, transfer draftsman of blueprints to construction team. Where was I? Hmm... Deck 8 is looking a little saggy. Well, that'll straighten out (haha) when the walls and bulkheads are installed.



Work on the Neck Pylon is almost complete. Good. We can begin finishing and fitting of interior fixtures soon.



One more for the report...



Alright, crewman, swing the shuttle around under the Saucer section so I can get a good look at the support structure. Aye, she's looking grand indeed.



Damned raw edges. I don't like it when my craft aren't all polished up and clean. Well, soon enough. The bulkheads are all in place, now we can make her pretty. Should cheer the boys up.



Well, Commodore, there's your progress report. If ya kept outta mah hair insisting on all these damned updates perhaps I could get more done, eh?
Court martial me if ya like. Who else are you going to get to build this thing?

End Report : End Transmission

Alright, here's the rest, because they didn't fit my clever little narrative above.

Top of the Neck Pylon (Deck 9). You can see where I've had to offset/notch the top of the walls to compensate for the steel bracing. So much of putting these decks together is custom fitting.



Closer view:



One more, showing more of the curves of the Neck Pylon itself. Rather elegant, actually. Not a direct match to the Enterprise, but then that's why I'm building the Constitution...



So yeah, I know my last couple of updates have been on this area exclusively, but if you have been following you can see there's been substantial build progress.

Once we're done with the pylon here, we'll be moving back down to flesh out the Secondary Hull deck by deck- touching up/updating what we've already done, finishing already started work/decks and of course filling in the new decks where only structural walls are in support at the moment for fitting. I want the Secondary Hull finished before fitting the Saucer section, although my preliminary weight tests on the bracing indicate that with some final adjustment, it will be more than adequate (I hope).

Oh, also... we have a proper (if unfinished) stand now.
I need one more crossmember to run under the bottom of the hull (where I currently have a dixie cup for support) and it will be 'free' flying in air.

Well, that's it for this time. -E

[rifleman]

love it , love it , dam fine report awaiting up date

[Vermin_King]

Outstanding work ... and report

[Muttleyy]

At the stage where it is, this project is already worthy of awards in any contest. When it's finished it will certainly be one of those models that will enter the hall of fame of the papermodels. A simply incredible job. Thank you for sharing this work of art with us.

[Ekuth]

Thank you gentlemen. Just something to keep my hands and mind busy.

[Ekuth]

Edged Decks 13 and 14 because I wanted to see some of those ugly edges go AWAY.

Since these are small decks in the Neck Pylon, I thought I would just finish them off, furniture and all.

Oh yeah. Re-fabricated my tables, beds and chair templates.

Switched from 6/0 glass beads in white for the base of chairs/tables to 8/0 (smaller) glass beads in gold (for chair bases) and will continue to use the 6/0 beads for table bases to maintain proper height.

Also installed warning edging along stairwell and installed stairway on Deck 14 leading to Deck 13.

Pic 1:

I decided to put walls around the turbolift shaft areas now that I know where the support brace runs through. I didn't like the idea of leaving those open. Didn't look right. Still need to create a turbolift door overlay.



Pic 2:

Much nicer with all those ugly cut edges covered up. Close view of the viewing/rec area with chairs and tables.



Pic 3:

Closer view of the chairs and tables. The chair backs/seats/bottoms measure exactly .5 cm. Oval tables are 2 cm x 1 cm. Triangular tables are .5 cm along each side. Even at this scale I've put in details, like the three triangles on the back of the chairs. The front back and seat I went with dark bluish, more of and ENT feel. It just... felt right.

White chair and table bases are 6/0 glass beads. I haven't liked the look or height for these, so I went looking for smaller size black beads... which was the only one Hobby Lobby was out of stock on. So, I figured I'd go with the 'bling' factor and get some Metallic Gold 8/0 glass beads for the chair supports. Will still use the white 6/0 beads for the table supports, since this gives the proper height with the chairs. I'll detail the construction of the chairs in the next post and give you a look at the blanks I've (re) created.



Pic 4:

Top down view of Deck 13. I edged D14, but haven't filled in the details/furniture/ect yet. I figured a safe Star Fleet is a smart Star Fleet, so that stairwell got a red warning border.



Pic 5:

Even closer view of the chairs/tables. You can see why I switched to the smaller gold bases.



Pic 6:

Closer view of that stairwell...



Pic 7:

Which of course leads down to Deck 14. I wasn't sure about the inclusion of stairs... but they're on the blueprints and I have to say I do like the look.



Pic 8:

And a nice side view showing both decks and connecting stairway.



Pic 9:

Showing a tad more of the back.



Obviously, still TONS of work to do, but I wanted to reward myself with some finished sections for inspiration. You can only put in so many walls before you start to crack.

That's it for now, more soon.

-E

[Ekuth]

Chairs. Chairs... CHAIRS!!!! (insert insane cackling)

As promised, here's a look at the chair building process from pattern to finish.
Yes, that's a metric *bleep* ton of chairs, and that's just ONE PAGE.













So, who wants to build chairs for me?

*crickets*

Yeah, that's what I thought. Moving on...

[Ekuth]

Alright, let's put all those chairs (and tables) to use, shall we?

Deck 14:
Inner 'ring' is leisure. Outer is storage. I had to create angled cargo containers to match the slope of where Deck 14 meets Deck 13. You'll see these shortly.



Speaking of cargo containers... these are square ones. They come in single, double and triple lengths. Also color coded to standard TOS era colors/deck colors.



Closer look. I love/hate high resolution cameras, because this actually looks far better in person.



Top view of Deck 14. Beginning to fill in.



Aft to fore view. Chairs, tables and the red thing on the floor is a stairwell.



Closer view from aft to fore. I had to create custom skins for the turbolift doors and standard doors. The open 'slots' I've been cutting just... suck. Alot of unnecessary work when I can just cut the ones I want for the 'door is open/opening' effect. Don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. Ah, well.



Another look. Again, inner is rec room/area. Outer is storage.



Next...

[Ekuth]

So, I decided for practical and structural reasons that I'm going to glue the neck pylon decks to each other rather than leaving them separate.

This will provide additional stability in this area- which is where much of the weight of the saucer section is centered.

Plus, these decks are so small they can be easily seen from the sides without a top down view being necessary. So, they get glued to each other once they're finished out. These puppies are actually incredibly stable/solid once put together.

Top to bottom: Deck 12, 13, 14. Obviously 12 is not finished at this point.
Here you can see the angled cargo containers I was talking about above.



You can see how these really fill out the curves and sides of Deck 14.



Closer look. Wait... are those crewmen in there? Must be your imagination.



Side view. You can see that decks 12, 13 and 14 are now finished.
What's that hanging off the back, you ask? Hmmm.



Aft to fore view. Oh, did I mention I made work terminals/stations. Yeah. More tiny details to build.



Aft view. Various machinery at the back of Deck 14 and aft workstations on Decks 13 and 12. What? Ignore the wire. And the bundle of hot glue sticks.



Round the other side. If you look closely, you can see the stairways leading from Decks 14 and Deck 13. There are actually stairs all the way up the neck pylon, which makes sense, if you think about it.



Same side, Fore to Aft view:



And one more closer view from the same(ish) angle. Note the workstations in the bow area. I've had to custom fit walls/covering for the turbolift/shaft area that I'm running the support bracing up. Its a PITA, but it actually strengthens and aligns everything nicely once done. Lots of touch up work, but these are the compromises we make...



What? Will you stop going on about that wire?

....

Fine.

[Ekuth]

Fine. Yes, I'll show you.

Remember waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in this thread where I said this model would also be lighted? Well, can't seal one deck to another without installing the lighting, can you?

So here's your sneak peek at what the entire ship will look like when lit.
I'll spare the chatter between each pic and just let you gawk.













Wipe up the drool, please. I don't like splotches on my models.

-E