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USS Player To Be Named Later

Project type: Resin model

by John Lester - images & text © 2008

I got this model of the Guardian-class battleship from Chris Lynch of Ravenstar Studios several years ago. It's a solid, heavy casting purportedly in 1/1400 scale. I was geeked to build it when I got it, but one thing or another got in the way until it ended up being relegated to the "someday" pile. As I was cleaning out my workshop prior to painting, I rediscovered it. With most of my stuff headed to storage while we get the house ready for sale, it's a simple project that I can do with the tools and supplies still on hand.

Image: Some scribing issues, mold seams and that toe-in

Image: Uneven windows

Image: Crude detail for the warp nacelles

Image: Lumpy contours

Image: Soft detail and more lumps

Image: Soft windows and look at those torp launchers...

Image: Uneven saucer rim

Image: Bubbles

Image: Soft and uneven rear detail

Image: Getting started

Day 1

First off, I do not get a lot of time to work on models, given the demands of family and making a living. This model - it's not really a kit as it's just one, heavy piece - is perfect for that situation. I can work on it a little at a time over the course of the day. As it's already "assembled" I can skip ahead.

The first thing to do is see what needs fixed. To get a clear picture of this, I sprayed the entire thing this morning with a rattle-can of generic grey primer, propped it up against the spray booth and went to work.

After dinner, dishes and bedtime stories, I brought it up and grabbed the digital camera. I find that taking pictures from all angles helps me spot more problems more easily - I see things in the images that aren't as apparent to the naked eye. Since it's digital, I don't need to waste film or waste time waiting for film to be developed. Once the problems are identified I can develop a plan to fix them.

It's a nice model overall but it does have it's problems. Right off the bat I see that the rectangular extensions from thesaucer that flant the central hull - let's call them the secondary engines - toe in towards the hull. There's no really good way to fix that, so I'll have to live with it. Other problems:

• Mold seams will need to be removed. Thankfully there appears to have been no slippage in the molds, so there are no steps or ridges to fix.
• Scribed lines are uneven in places. Some just trail off, and others are crooked. Putty and rescribing will fix this.
• The windows inset into the forward edge of the saucer are uneven. Some are taller than their neighbors and some are crooked. I'll fill them in and use decals instead.
• The warp nacelle grilles are ... well, they are not pretty. The borders are soft and crooked and far too deep. This requires some thought.
• It's readily apparent a LOT of sepoxy pitty was used to make the contours of the master for this model. Unfortunately, most of these contours are lumpy and ill-defined. This is especially (glaringly) evident on the underside after the primer coat. Lots of careful sanding and spot putty will be needed.
• It looks as if the master got a heavy coat of paint before it was molded. The edges of a lot of the raised panel details look as if they were painted over with gobs of housepaint, they're so soft. More careful sanding ....
• All the square indents - lets call them torpedo launchers - and the deflector tunnel underneath are ragged. I'll either fill these in or rebuild them.
• The forward rim of the saucer is uneven. More careful sanding....
• Pinholes adorn the bussard scoops like freckles. These scoops also suffer from the "lumpiness" of the rest of the model. Pinholes are easily fixed but getting the bussards' shape to look good will be a challenge.
• The model's master obviously started as an AMT Enterprise B. A lot of raised detail has been scabbed on (phaser strips, what may be lifeboats, etc). Some of it looks decidedly overscale. This will need to be shaved off.

It sounds like I'm bagging on the model but I'm not. It's got decent "bones"; all the problems are readily fixable (except that toe in) - though some will test my creativity. Just beforebed, I spent 5 minutes with a sanding stick and sand paper, and attacked one small corner. The mold seam disappeared with a bit of effort and the high lumps in the area have been erased.

Time spent today: about 1 hour.

Day 2

Not a lot of time to work on this today.

I started with a sanding stick and sanded down all the mold seams I could reach. I used a new one with a medium grit. Sanding sticks, especially the ones with the foam cores, tend to bow over time so if you want the straightest results you need to use a fairly new one. Carefull sanding around the lower sides of the warp "nacelles" removed the high points, soing a lot to mitigate the uneveness there. A little spot putty in the remaining low spots will even things out later.

I finished by mixing up a small ball of Aves epoxy putty - I like the blue color for this because it's easy to see against the kit's resin. I then grabbed a hobby knife with an old, dull blade. Suing the flat of the blade, I smooshed the putty into the windows on the upper saucer, doing my best to make the result flush with the saucer's surface. I then set it aside to cure and went to bed.

Image: More putty work

Image: After sanding.

Day 3

While looking over the model I decided that it had too too many phaser strips, and that removing about half would make it look more pleasing - to my eye, anyway. So out came the chisel and a small hammer. I could have used my motor tool and a grinding bit but I felt that I'd have a bit more control with the chisel.

Of course I was wrong.

I managed to put some fairly significant gouges into the hull in the process of removing three of the strips. Fortunately, these could be fixed with spot putty. I use Bondo automotive spot putty for small blemishes (pits, holes, scratches, etc where the surface just needs to be smoothed out; I use epoxy putty where I need to rebuild detail or have some strength). While I was at it, I filled a few depressions elsewhere on the model.

Bondo dries pretty quickly, and I was able to sand it out in short order. We'll see how good a job I did when it comes time to prime this thing.

Time spent today: 45 minutes.

Image: The tunnel and deflector will need some work. Looks like those phototorp launchers will need replaced.

Image: Aft and underneath - more work

Image: Putty.

Image: Not sure how I'll fix this.

Day 4

We keep finding everr more things in the house that need fixing or packing before we can put it on the market - and it's getting in the way of my building time. I was able to finally devote more time to this project at last, and turned my attention to the belly of the beast.

The aft end of it looks fairly good. Some crooked panel lines will need to be filled and rescribed, but that's a simple thing. A bit of sanding over the aft torpedo launchers shows they are not symetrical or straight. I can probably find some channel or rectangular tube to fix this, though.

Moving to the front, I see more work looming. The windows along the forward edge of the secondary hull are crooked and uneven in depth. These I'll fill with putty and replace with decals. The deflector and its tunnel appear to be more involved: the deflector dish is chipped and a tad uneven, and there are dings in the edge of the tunnel (no doubt from getting knocked around on the shelf all these years. I think I and drill out the dish and replace it with a new plastic piece, but I want to think on this a bit. Meanwhile, out comes the spot putty.

The one area I'm not sure yet how to tackle is the edge where the bussard scoop meets the underside of the saucer. This ... will be hard to smooth out while retaining the adjoining detail. What to do, what to do....

Time spent today: 1 hour.

Day 5

While waiting for paint to dry in the upstairs bedroom, I was able to do a little work on the model today. I decided to fill in the depressions on the inside face of the warp "nacelles", then file both sides to they are straight and at the same angle out from the hull. Black CA glue was spread into the depressions, thn spritzed with accelerator. Within 5 minutes the CA has fully cured, so I could then attack it with a file. I used plastic lable tape at the "corners" to both protect the adjoing surface from slip ups and to help guide the file.

Time spent today: Half an hour.

Image: Bubble gone

Image: Lots of carefull sanding later....

Image: Sand this off and I should be able to move on to the other nacelle

Day 6

The clowns from the cable company cut our feeder line, which took out our internet service. Since I could not do any work, I started sanding. I focussed today on the underside of one nacelle and the area where it joins the hull. Carefull sanding stripped the high points off the model's surface; any grey areas left would need to get putty to even them out. I spent a good 20 minutes with a big metal file squaring off the corners between the nacelle and hull, and straightening out the rear edges of the impulse engine arrea. I also found a big bubble in the impulse engine, but that was easily excised with my trusty microchisel.

Time spent today: 1 hour.