2500 Scale Phase II E - DONE!

[el gato]

Earlier in the year I had an old B-C-E Enterprise set that I assembled (can't say "finished" because I have to put the decals on them). When the movie set came out, I used that to assemble the Refit E. Then the TOS set came out so that's where I got my TOS E. So I pulled out an old TOS/E-A/E-D set and I am in the process of building the Galaxy version. That was my original idea for the contest entry. Then it hit me: What am I going to do with the inaccurate Refit and TOS kits from the set?



A friend & I were talking on Facebook about the Phase II Enterprise and it hit me I should use that as my contest entry instead. But which one? The Phase II filming model was never completed (we've all seen that picture). Add to it that the existing Jeffries plans for Phase II are also incomplete. So I searched the web and came across these plans that I liked, for the most part:

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/en ... rogram.php

I also liked the images of this Phase II render:

http://scifanatic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.c ... 000_st.jpg
http://scifanatic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.c ... 001_st.jpg

So I combined the two in my head. My Phase II will not be like the Jeffries in that the nacelle grills will be convex instead of concave. It will be like the rendered picture in that it will have rectangular Bussard Ramscoops instead of the Refit grills plus the TOS deflector dish. I didn't like the rectangular photo torp tubes in the plans or the pig-like snouts of the render. I had also seen a mono-tube on other buildups and drawings that I didn't like. So for the photon torps I decided to create my own. Everything else will be like the plans.

So here we go:



First thing I did was to putty the photon torp tubes since they will be reshaped. I also puttied the bridge superstructure because that will have to be reshaped to be more round and for the decks to be less stair stepped in profile. This technique worked when I reshaped my TOS bridge:



I puttied the underside of the saucer to remove those bloody dimples. I will also remove the raised concentric circles. I noticed that the engineering section looks, for the most part, like the one on the Refit except for the neck and the tail. Those looked more like the the TOS, so I hacked away:



It's not very clear in the photo, but I also sanded off the Refit intercooler assembly, so now the front side of the nacelle is smooth. That allowed me to mark and cut out the Captain America wing-like intercoolers of the Phase II:



Here is the assembled - body minus neck - and the nacelles plus the new intercooler inserts. I don't know if you can see it well in the pic, but the photon torp tubes are now more round from the top view. They are a little bit rounder from the side view as well:



Here is a profile of the engineering section with the neck. Notice that the engineering section's tail in profile now looks more like the plans:



Tomorrow I plan to smooth out the engineering section and reshape the bridge superstructure.

[Steam235]

Wow, that's quite ambitious. I've seen several phase II ships done with the ertl 22in and the TOS cutaway. I've even seen some done with the 1/1000 kits. But I do not think I've ever seen one done in 2500. I mean those intercoolers you cut out must be tiny. Will you throw some pennies in a few shots for scale tomorrow?

[el gato]

Thanks for the compliment!

lol. Hadn't thought of that, but yeah, I'll add a penny in the next shots. In the next few days I'll be working on the nacelles almost exclusively because I have to figure out how to do the curved grills ("photonic spill ports") plus the rounded housing ends. I think I have the housing figured out by cutting beads into quarters, but the grills.... Man, I've been looking at various plastic thingies hoping to find something that could be suitable. Any suggestions are welcomed. I can do a rounded grill with a decal if I have to but I'd rather have texture.

[Moongrim]

Ambitious Indeed. But utterly fascinating as well. I wish you the best of luck in it's completion.

[DouglasGlenn]

That'll be cool. You may want to check out the Star Trek: Phase II website.
"www.startreknewvoyages.com"

They transitioned from TOS to Phase II recently and there is a vignette where 1701 comes out of drydock after the Phase II refit. I think their drydock is based on some pre-production art for Phase II or ST:TMP. It might have even been a McQuarrie painting, but I'm not positive. It was the one in the asteroid.

[el gato]

That'll be cool. You may want to check out the Star Trek: Phase II website.
"www.startreknewvoyages.com"

They transitioned from TOS to Phase II recently and there is a vignette where 1701 comes out of drydock after the Phase II refit. I think their drydock is based on some pre-production art for Phase II or ST:TMP. It might have even been a McQuarrie painting, but I'm not positive. It was the one in the asteroid.

Yes! Thank you! This is the clip. I saw that scene when it first came out but I forgot where. I liked the look of the rectangular Bussards on the Refit nacelles. But I didn't see that type of Bussard until I found the render I posted earlier. I'm not crazy about the blue glow of the render or the orange glow New Voyages put on the Bussards, so I'm going with good old fashioned red.

I forgot to post this last night. Here is a front view picture of the neck mated to the body. I think I got it reasonably straight. It's a bit longer than I wanted, but it was an inadvertently good thing. When I dry fitted the saucer, the neck was sufficient long for the photon torpedoes to clear the lower sensor dome!

Ambitious Indeed. But utterly fascinating as well. I wish you the best of luck in it's completion.

Thanks man!

[el gato]

Update from the last couple of days. So Friday I marked the bridge superstructure for reshaping:



I also intended to round off those stair stepped decks plus ensure the (I'm guessing) conference room in the back had the right angle. Notice I already took out the turbolift shaft:



Here are the results. The lower saucer is nice, smooth and dimpless and the bridge superstructure is more round. You can't see it well, but I also took out the impulse coil:



Friday night I drilled a couple of holes into the superstructure and added the new "My Favorite Martian" turbolift shafts. The second shot shows you the more rounded shape of the superstructure:





Sanded down the turbolift shafts and added the new impulse drive coil:



I finally had good luck with shaping the engineering hull so that the TOS shuttle bay end looks at home with the Refit body. On the pylons, I cut out a little notch near where they merge with the nacelles:



Now for the new grills... I cut 4mm beads into quarters and marked the nacelles where they would go. Because of the way the nacelles were manufactured and where they need to start, the fronts of the inside grill will not match with the front of the outside grills. Luckily, the interior grills match with each other and the same goes for the exterior ones:



It's hard to tell, but here are the beads on the nacelles:



At this point, I was concerned about how far out the grills were going to extend relative to the nacelles:



And yeah, the nacelles will look goofy. The front is skinny but the back three-quarters will be as fat as the TOS nacelles:



This is a just-for-kicks picture of the TOS saucer with the Phase II version and how different they are:



Here is the new grill between the bead quarters. It sort of looks like a miniature halogen stick...





And here are the complete nacelles, with the new Phase II intercooler. I still have to putty the back third, but for now:



I encountered a minor setback Saturday, just before dinner. The neck just snapped off. Grrr... I decided to see it as an opportunity and glued & puttied the pylons. It'll be easier to sand off and smooth it out without the saucer. Notice I removed the raise "spine" from the pylon part since the Phase II E doesn't have the same spine as the Refit. The neck was glued & puttied on the lower saucer section (not pictured):



I finished off the impulse coil housing on the saucer, drilled a hole where the deflector dish will rest on the engineering section and I started puttying the back third. You can't see it in this picture, but I also made the bridge dome higher:



And this is where we are now on this fine Sunday. The neck is now glued with the lower saucer. The plan is that Tuesday after work I'll sand the joint smooth and glue the two halves together. Wednesday and Thursday I'll work on the pylon/engineering section joint. Today I finished puttying the nacelles so that they dry & harden for the rest of the week. Next weekend I'll sand them down so they look better and smoother. The goal is that I can assemble and prime the ship next weekend and start fixing flaws:

[Moongrim]

My eyes water from the strain of imagining the amount of squinting I'd have to do to replicate that fine work.

[Gmeister]

There are some us that can replicate them

[el gato]

lol Thanks Moongrim, but I could only wish I could still do this with the Mark I Eyeball. Unfortunately, we all get to a point where we need some help:

http://www.micromark.com/deluxe-lighted ... ,7844.html