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  #11  
Old 01-12-2025, 05:39 AM
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All come together very neatly. Some effective relief detail at the centres of the saucer.
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  #12  
Old 01-19-2025, 12:50 AM
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The confessing of the sins

So, the warp engine nacelle pylons: I first went to attach the pylons to the nacelles and found that it was unclear how to do so. Is one supposed to leave a slot in the nacelle mounting area (pink arrow), as legal01's final v6 design seemed to indicate, rather than have that piece be solid? If so, why trim the mating edge of the pylon inner structural piece at an angle, and how is that supposed to fit? Where are the tabs on the pylon's surface layer supposed to go? I ended up cutting off the tabs, leaving the edge of the structural piece square, and just stuffing it in the pylon's slot with generous glue. This made the underside of the slot bulge out a bit, probably not what was intended.
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-53.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-52.jpg

Meanwhile, regarding the base of each pylon, changing the angle of the slots in the engineering hull as done earlier was the right move. Again with a generous helping of glue, I stuffed the pylon's base end all the way into the slot...
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-55.jpg
... not realizing that one isn't supposed to do that. Apparently it's only supposed to go as far in as the little extended tab (see the 2nd image in post #6) and no further. This became clear later when the pylon cuffs covered up some of the graphics at the base of the pylons. Honestly though, that teeny little tab doesn't provide enough of a lever arm to withstand the weight and handling forces on the nacelle. If I were to do it again, I'd extend the tab into the full depth of the slot.

As a consequence of all of this, the pylons ended up short, which meant that the nacelles were a bit inboard of and just slightly below where they should be.
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-56.jpg
Also you can see that the nacelles ended up significantly forward of where they should be. This looks to be due to the pylons themselves not being sufficiently swept. (I wonder if it's from the same error in the design that had them at the wrong dihedral angle.) That would be a more involved of a problem to fix, were I to build this plan again, though it would matter a lot visually to do so. As it is, the fronts of the warp nacelles crowd the back edge of the saucer a little. When you look at the Enterprise squarely from the side, the gap that should be between the impulse engine and warp nacelles isn't there.

One detail with the nacelles to watch out for is that the bulkhead/former for the aft portion (orange arrow) should be made of thinner paper to make it less evident. Also there's a concave edge in the main portion of the nacelle (yellow arrow) that maybe should be straight. What it adds up to is that the attachment of the aft portion of the nacelle has a bit of a gap underneath (red arrow).
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-51.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-57.jpg

Apparently due to using proportionately overly thick paper in the saucer, including for the joiner pieces, the impulse engine ended up with a substantial gap underneath it, where it's supposed to meet the blue detail part. Fortunately it's not in a very noticeable spot.
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-74.jpg
The striped band on the back of the neck pylon near the base seemed to be missing in the plans, so I added it, as seen here.

The same excess paper thickness issue came up in the formers for the bridge. Better to use thinner paper for those formers or skip some of them entirely at this scale. In other places around the model I did skip some too-small tabs and backer pieces.

The 118 gsm paper that I used on the engineering hull surface, on the other hand, turned out to be too thin and vulnerable to handling damage. Meanwhile, I managed to get the Starfleet emblems on either side of the deflector dish switched, such that they were upside down, oops. That wasn't gonna stand: I printed out another set and glued those over top of the original ones to correct them.

The plans provide surface relief in some places where the Star Trek studio model (great visual reference video BTW) didn't even have it. For example, there are extra parts for relief on the top of the impulse engine fore and aft of the conical "turbine" area as well as for the yellow saucer thrusters at the 45° points around the edge. It is kind of distracting and I think would have been better as just part of the graphics.

I couldn't get the hangar bay door to hold a good circular shape until I took an extra copy of the hangar floor (blue with yellow stripe) and cut it out as a former. That turned out nicely.
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-54.jpg

For another build reference see the thread by dolza1971.

In any case, I'm glad to have chosen this plan for making an Enterprise model, especially for its representation of those art deco-style warp nacelles. The scale is about right for my tastes: don't think I'd want to try to build this plan any smaller, and bigger would be a lot of model.

Last edited by ReynoldsSlumber; 01-19-2025 at 07:41 AM.
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  #13  
Old 01-19-2025, 01:18 AM
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Display stand

The main display stand supports the model under two bulkheads, with the model's balance point in between. The front support also braces against the details to either side of the deflector dish in order to prevent the model from rolling to the side. The stand consists of four small pieces of thin corrugated shoebox cardboard, colored using a permanent marker. (Some dry dust from the marker started to rub off on the model, though I removed most of it using an eraser. Maybe it's better to not color the edges where the model sits.) This stand, combined with the brass weight in the model and its structural reinforcements, met my goal of having the Enterprise on full display, without extra supports.
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-63.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-73.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-61.jpg

That said, I am concerned about droop over time. To address this, there's a supplementary long-term stand, a "spacedock" of sorts. It's made of three pieces of regular corrugated cardboard with folded-over edges. It supports the front of the saucer and the backs of the warp nacelles at a very slight upward angle, due to the weight of the model. When you take the supplementary stand away to display the model on just the main stand, the structure flexes such that everything is straight and level.
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-66.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-70.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-69.jpg

Cut-back portions of the supplementary stand mean that you can still see the model's features.
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-67.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-68.jpg

The supplementary stand can also be disassembled and reversed if one wants to display the starboard side of the model.
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-71.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-72.jpg

Last edited by ReynoldsSlumber; 01-19-2025 at 02:25 AM.
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  #14  
Old 01-19-2025, 01:37 AM
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Enterprise on display

USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-64.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-76.jpgUSS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-79.jpg

On its way to boldly go where no one has gone before, the Enterprise pauses to orbit one of the planets in Starfleet's home solar system:
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-44.jpg

Another look, unmodified:
USS NCC-1701 Enterprise Refit 1/1000 from Star Trek TMP/II/III-enterprise-45.jpg

Last edited by ReynoldsSlumber; 01-19-2025 at 07:38 AM.
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  #15  
Old 01-19-2025, 04:29 AM
Siwi Siwi is online now
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Well done for completing this, it looks very presentable. Maybe some Star Trek nerds will notice the incorrect proportions of the struts, but not the casual observer.
I think there are some lessons for designers within this build documentation about providing clear and intuitive instructions especially where precise angles and strong joins are called for. Any feature that will involve suspension by a beam or strut should be securely located at both ends using tabs and slots pushed as far into the parts as practical. In this case, a row of formers with angled slots inside the impulse engine assembly and as a continuous part with the warp engine formers would make this location easier, accompanied by a precise thickness to cut the strut formers.
In areas such as the joint with the saucer, building a strong polygonal profile that pushes into a slot cut into the saucer avoids any mismatch of the join. I would like also to see this done in joining wing-mounted aircraft engines rather than the usual solid wing with cylindrical engine profiles that must be cut into and invariably do not quite match the wing without gaps.
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