Polar Lights Star Trek Enterprise NCC-1701 1/1000th
Kit# POL803
(www.polarlights.com)
(www.round2corp.com)

Instructions and Reference Pictures are available

Saw this model at my local Hobby local and thought about it and passed on it. While I do like Star Trek I was never a big fan of the old Enterprise (the NX-01 is a different story), but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to build it. I read the reviews and they were all good they talked about all the options. So I saved a few dollars here and there then waited for the glorious 40% coupon for hobby lobby. I skated out the door 11 dollars lighter. Looks like I made a good purchase.

Open Box Review
I open the box to look at all the parts and I was surprised that it was as small as it is. Not that there is anything wrong with it. I am just used to my NX-01, Reliant, Bird of Prey, and War Bird. They are some of my largest models. This one will be tiny compared to them. I didn’t tear open the bags but the parts look good and seem to no flash. I think the trick for this to look good is make sure I have no seam lines and the decals must be perfect. I have some Mr. Surfacer on order and so it will by my first test to see if it lives up to what everyone has said about it. I will do a gloss coat on it before I do the decals that should help and I plan on using Mr Setter on the decals as well for the first time.. There will not much in the way of weathering as the Enterprise was either in perfect condition or in pieces. Hopefully this will be a quick and fun model.

Spure Shots

Planning
Text

Things I have learned from this kit so far.

Work In progress Shots The Starting Point

6-1-09 The model is a snap together kit, and it did so quite well. I wanted a seamless enterprise so I opted to glue it all together and then putty the seams. I used Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to glue all the parts together. I then used Mr. Surfacer 500 on most of the seams. Many of them were very small and not a problem. But where the support beams connect to the lower hull was bad. Very bad. So I thinned some Squadron Green putty with acetone and keep it an empty testers cement bottle. I laid it on thick to those areas. I let it dry over night and sanded with 500 girt sand paper then polished it off with 1000 grit paper. I even went as far as using my dremel to buff the surface. That really seemed to help the odd scratch from the sand paper. But keep the dremel moving or it will melt the plastic if you are not careful.

6-09-09 I primed the model with Krylon White primer. The seam on the lower hull still showed pretty bad so I sanded it down and use Mr Surfacer 500 on the seam and then re-primed the hull again. It looked a lot better this time. After polling the forums at various model sites I decided on Model Master Flat Gull Gray 4763 to be the base color. Loaded up the airbrush and went to town. I had a bit of orange peel look to it. So took some 2000 grit sand paper and did a light wet sand on it. That took it off and made it look a lot better. I think the Orange peel came from the primer not the airbrush. The hard part about the base coat is how to hold the model so I could paint it. Now that it is dry I am not too sure about the color. I know the studio model may have been this color, but I remember seeing it bright white on the TV. I will have to think about this one. I also primed the radar dish black because it will be metallic when I get done with it. I loaded up Vallejo Model Color 999 Copper in the brush and thinned it with Alcohol only to find out they did not mix well at all. It did spray out as much as spit out clumps. I wiped it down ad best as I could, and added some more copper and thinned with water. It worked better but the dish was still wet from the attempt earlier so it still looked bad. I will let dry and sand it down and bit then retry the copper paint.

7-14-09 The more I looked at it the more I thought it just needs to be white. So I cracked open the bottle of Model Master Flat White 4769, thinned with a bit of alcohol redid my base coat. Now I just need to tape of a few bits and do the secondary colors and then time for decals.

Contact me at josborn@happinessismandatory.com