I may have broken some universal law by using a Star Wars quote to describe a Star Trek project, but if Princess Leia thought the Falcon looked bad, she would never have stepped foot inside the pitiful Enterprise I’m attempting to build.
I have all but ruined the model by making every type of mistake possible: incorrect assembly order, handling painted parts before they’ve completely dried, horrific seam-filling, trying to glue or fill seams over painted parts, sanding and painting before dry. You name it, I’ve done it to this poor model.
Still, despite the fact that it looks to have been assembled and painted by Katherine Hepburn during breaks on the set of On Golden Pond, I’m determined to finish it and display it, warts and all.
I’m finally through painting-sanding-filling-sanding-painting-painting-filling-sanding-and painting the saucer section and the main fuselage.
It really doesn’t look that bad as long as you don’t get too close.
There were some minor successes among my failures on this project though. For one, I’m pleasantly surprised by some of the detail painting I did, including the deflector dish and array (seen in the picture above).
Some of my paint work on the nacelles (below) turned out better than I expected also. It’s just too bad I marred them so much by trying to fill the seams, which resulted in more sanding and repainting with less than satisfactory results.
Once my final re-spray dries I’ll be able to assemble the ship and start with the decals. Hopefully if I can do a decent job with those and get a nice matte finish on it the ship will not look too bad.
From a distance.
Many thanks to the great folks at the Starship Modeler Discussion Forum for their kind words of encouragement as I struggle through this first project. That is a fantastic community of model-builders always willing to offer advice and tips.
Me? I’d buy a finished one and take credit.