USS Enterprise

By Paul Taylor

This is my build up of the great new Revell 1/500 Star Trek Enterprise model kit from the 2009 & 2013 movies directed by JJ Abrams, which I sold to a client. This took me nearly six weeks to complete working 2-3 hours most evenings. It is fully lit up with correct navigation and strobe lights. All the Aztec panel detail was done using airbrush and making my own paint masks; these masks took allot of elbow grease to make, and I won't be doing these again anytime soon I thought I would start with the warp engine bussards as they look fantastic, but the kit does not come with any spinner fan blades so I made some up and then I thought "why not have them rotate?" So I got hold of some micro motors like the ones from a mini r/c helicopter and used these. They are very smal - just 10mm long x 4mm wide - and I ran them off 1.5v each with gearing so they don't spin to fast. For the clear dome parts of the bussards I have used Tamiya smoke paint to give them a darker appearance rather than use clear blue paint. Behind the kit parts G55 and G43 is a bright blue 5mm LED to give it a nice blue glow from behind the blades like in the movie. All the bulbs used to light the model are LED's - 39 of them in total - and the power supply is 9-12 volts. The inside of the model was primed in black paint then I applied silver foil tape to reflect the light and stop all light leak/bleed. I also made up a wiring set/harness with tiny micro connectors which made the final assembly much easier without having to mess about soldering in the final build stages. Some other modifications include drilling out the kit's impulse engine grill as Revell in their wisdom did not produce this part in clear plastic. Other parts like the sloping part that goes from the back of the bridge to the impulse engine crystal which I had to drill out along the lines then file out and fill the gaps with clear resin to allow light to emit from it as well the VIP lounge (if that's what it is). All the hull lighting and the navigation and strobes are made from fibre optic cable mounted to LEDs.

I also made my own bridge with chairs, control consoles and 1/500 scale figures. Other little things like at the back of the shuttle bay doors are 8 square soft lights and below the blue deflector dish there are some lights too. There are other modifications but the list goes on. The model is detachable from the base/pole via a surface ham connector with a screw thread. Image: Bussard Image: Engineering Hull Image: Left Image: Main Hull Image: Rear Image: Rear Left Image: Bridge Image: Bussard Spinners Image: Holes Image: Wiring

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