Thoth conversion (Pic Heavy)

[mophius]

Started this gem a few weeks ago. Not seriously but it has taken that sort of tone now.
This is the MMI Thoth Class Scout conversion for the AMT Ambassador kit. Kit consists of two parts. One nacelle and neck moulded as one and the other is the bussard cap for the nacelle. You need a saucer from the AMT kit to make this conversion kit.
Basically it's the Lost Era version of the Saladin/Hermes scout.

And so it starts.

I glued the saucer together after slicing down the locating pins a little so it would sit together right.

I then turned to the neck/nacelle. There was a little bit of what I am guessing as pour spout. Anyway there was excess resin on the tip of the neck so i decided to trim it off. Oh dear!

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As you can see there was a little bubble under that excess. Not to be down hearted I got the Tamiya White out and plugged that gap.

I then had to wait for putty to dry before any sanding or shaving took place.

Thoth class scout has taken a large step today.
I sanded all the grid details off the saucer and have some deep gouges that have been filled. I will sand those tomorrow at some point.

The neck has been filled and filed and I have also filled and sanded a bit on the bottom of the nacelle which I didn't get a picture of.

I am not sure what to do with the bridge lifeboats. Do I leave them on or sand them off?
Your thoughts...

Lol. I got lazy with the narration there. I am going to do it again too

Thoth got some attention this week and I only just remembered to take some photos.
So I sanded off the detail from the saucer, going a little over the top by taking off the lifeboats too and the windows from the bottom. Top windows are still there but more subdued than usual.
You may see where I gouged the lifeboats from the ventral face and then had to fill the trench.

Neck and nacelle have been filled, sanded and primed too.
May need a little more sanding on the bottom of the nacelle and some filling around the bussard collector but happy so far with it.

I told ya. ha ha

Here is a picture of the top of the saucer now it is dry. I thought I would leave the bridge area alone. The Thoth is my first foray into TNG ships so if it doesn't look right when it is finished I will know to do the next Ambassador or variant different.

I got lazy with the narrative but had to link the photos in again.
I also noticed in the last few photos that the tab to locate in the saucer has broken off the front of the neck. Luckily it still sits snuggly on the saucer without the tab but some sticky stuff will make sure that it stays put.

Today I put some Tamiya Light Ghost Grey all over the ship and it does look fetching. I almost left it as primer grey but thought it was a little too dark. The roughness of the primer could have been subdued with some 400 or 800 grit paper.
The ghost grey is more in keeping with the era though and does look good.

Next, detailing which will come soon.

[RogueWolf]

That is a nice looking build!

[mophius]

Thanks RW.

For names I am going to decide between
USS Minos
NCC-55805
or
USS Odin
NCC-55804

Not far away from the Thoth that is in the pack and maybe more apt with the name as this is meant to be a Destroyer/scout. Odin is the Norse God of War. Minos is a Judge of the Dead.

[mophius]

Small update.
Engine pre-glow in the form of copper. Bussard and Impulse done.

I did alot of research on this today.
First was the name, who or what was Thoth. Who has a similar role in other religions and has that name been used yet. Also the registry numbers, I just kept them close to the one in the conversion kit for ease.
Secondly was the colour scheme. What colours and where. Not many of these out there and only two stood out. Not many colours left to go on now though and then it will be decals.

Then tried making decals and wallpapers all of which will need alot more work. I was going off the AMT kit scan that AST has a copy of and also a copy that I have of the Absolute Models decal sheet. I prefer that one because it has the windows on and the AMT one doesn't and this because I sanded off the windows from my ventral saucer face.
I just tried a print on standard paper but both were wrongly sized. I will work on that. Absolute one I will also have to remove the registry from as it has Enterprise on but at least I could put my name in its place while I print it.
All things for another day.

[mophius]

Bussard and the grill behind it got their first coats of paint. Also one on the Impulse exhaust.

I am not overly keen on that yellow as it seems too bright. I may play with that by darkening it slightly next time round.
EDIT
I may go over the yellow with copper to see what that looks like

[mophius]

Some small detailing tonight. Neck, Impule and shuttlebay doors got some slightly darker grey. This was a mix of my own but it was only half mixed on the palette so I could get the right shade. I had to touch in some on the neck after a while as I kept touching it with my fingers so hopefully it doesn't show up differently there.
I have also tried putting silver on the blue glowybit. OK, the field coil. Just to see if it makes it shine a little like the bussard does.

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I also tried putting copper over the yellow on the forward part of the nacelle but I don't like it so will go back to the yellow tomorrow.

[mophius]

Thin layer of blue on the warp coils. I will probably do a darker shade next to tone it down a little. It may even be more of a wash.

[mophius]

OK, warp field coils got a coat of slightly darker blue which doesn't look too bad from my point of view.
The yellow part just behind the bussard collector I have coated in a yellow/copper mix 5:1 which again doesn't look too bad. Also used this mix for the thrusters at the back of the nacelle.

[mophius]

I took so long on the Excelsior last night that I forgot that I added the phaser strips on the saucer.

I really need time to sort the decals out. I have already spent around two hours just scanning and test printing. Need to arrange how much coverage I want, if I want windows and what colours I will use.

[Tesral]

I have one of these and I'm really torn. It's a beautiful model, of a design I don't really like. On one hand I would feel like someone painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa by kit bashing it. On the other hand I think the Excelsior has serious flaws I what to fix.

I shall sit back and see what you do.