Mike Delano Posted March 6, 2010 Report Share Posted March 6, 2010 So, everybody who followed my postings late last year on my 1/1000 Polar Lights Enterprise to TOS style U.S.S. Kelvin conversion now probably know I have an odd infatuation with the 'U.S.S. Kelvin' that was featured fairly prominently in the first 10 or so minutes of last year's Star Trek film. Once I had completed my 1/1000 conversion to my liking, I decided I wanted to go a little bit biger. My initial though was to convert the 1/350 Refit Enterprise, however it just wasn't working out for me. Instead, I decided that since I had a few of the 18" AMT / R2 Enterprise re-release kits in the closet, I'd give it a shot in that scale. Obviously, the 18" AMT kit has a significant number of inacuracies (though I'm glad that R2 didn't rerelease the version that had the horrible grid lines on the upper saucer...), It's still a kit that is very well engineered for conversions. The only glaring inaccuracies I will be correcting will be the lower sensor dome and the deflector dish which will both be replaced by resin parts courtesy of Accurate Parts and Federation Models. I scratch built the dorsal 'neck' out of laminated square tube covered in sheet styrene, the under-saucer cargo doors are sheet styrene as well. Other than the ungodly amount of filling and sanding, this has been an enjoyable project. once I'm ready to decal, I'll be using a combination of the kit decals (which are worth the price of this re-release kit by themselves) and my own custom made decals using the Microgramma font hull numbering scheme made popular by the Franz Joseph Starfleet Technical Manual published in the late 70's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Delano Posted March 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Delano Posted March 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2010 I was very pleasantly surprised to find today that the accurizing parts I had ordered for this project arrived already - I just ordered them Thursday... I struggled with how to do the navigation lights on the upper saucer - I finally realized that with a little bit of modification, some parts from the 1/1000 Polar Lights Enterprise would work quite well! I've still got a bit of work to do on the lower neck where it meets the lower saucer surface as well as some seams in the secondary hull / shuttlebay assembly as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Delano Posted March 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 Finally completed.... except for a few final touches and final coat of Future. The hull color is Tamiya IJN Light Gray spray lacquer. Hull graphics are from the 18" AMT re-release. Registry and name decals as well as the under-saucer doors (some references state these as subspace antennae) and docking ports are all custom made using Adobe Illustrator and printed to decal paper... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewahl Posted March 20, 2010 Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 Mike, You did a really nice job on this conversion. Because of its size, there are more things that can go wrong when compared to the smaller project. I especially like the light/dark window effect on the hull. You said nothing about lighting the model, so I assume you used either white/black decals or paint. It looks great. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Montgomery Posted March 20, 2010 Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 The talent level we see within the membership never ceases to amaze me. I enjoyed the images of Ed's Apollo spacecraft, and its always entertaining to view the finished product. I also appreciate these kinds of threads, for lack of a better term....a "How I did it" thread, to see how the modeler achieved such a great end product. Thanks Mike! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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