Mike Delano Posted October 19, 2009 Report Share Posted October 19, 2009 Well, what originally started out as a conversion of the PL 1/350 Enterprise A kit to a Refit Era U.S.S. Kelvin has since become a different animal... The Constellation class was first introduced in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The distinguishing feature of this particular ship was that it had 4 nacelles. This one has always been one of my favorite kit bashed studio models used in the various Star Trek series... I think this conversion will prove to be a bit more challenging than a Kelvin conversion and will require significantly more scratch building - I wish there were 1/350 conversion parts out there for the Constellation - I was quite surprised that there weren't when I went out searching for them. I haven't dont a whole lot of work yet on it - I began the decal design in Adobe Illustrator. I think for this conversion, I'll use the 'NX' prefix designating the U.S.S. Constellation as the first of its class. This will allow me a little bit of accuracy leeway in terms of the components I'll have to scratch build. I've also done a little bit of body work - I carved the impuls decks out of two upper saucer halves and made the necessary changes to the lower sensor domes. The Constellation studio model was scratch built using two Enterprise A style upper saucer halves surrounded by an enlarged outer ring. The saucer halves arent a problem, but the outer ring will need to be scratch built - I anticipate that being a nightmare in making the proper measurements to make sure the chamfered edge is the proper angle. According to various internet sources, the original studio model was built using parts from an old XB-70 Valkyrie (I really dont want to have to cannibalize my Revell special edition Valkyrie kit) model among others... Decals for the upper saucer registry and nameplate: Cleaned up Impulse decks and lower sensor domes. On the studio model, two impulse decks were used and mounted perpendicular to the axis of the saucer. Lower sensor dome. The beveled edges were cut away. Saucer modifications... The upper saucers will be mounted to each other using Plastruct tube of the same diameter as the mounting guides. The outer ring will then be constructed around that. The saucer half with the larger 'pie piece' cut out of it will be the lower saucer half on the completed model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Aldrich Posted October 20, 2009 Report Share Posted October 20, 2009 Mike, I thought I was a brave modeler for doing a PUMA (IDF Centurion Personnel Carrier)! You are far braver than I. Good luck and keep us posted! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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