Bren's Star Trek toy customisation and physical modelling [updates pg.3 & 4]

[Bren]

I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place to put this, but I figured it's more of a work of art than it is a trek tech discussion or something that would belong in General.

I've been doing a few projects lately, mainly with toys, spurred on by the denizens of the currently rather quiet TrekToy.com forums.

The first project: (and most impressively)
I've been adding lights (and replacing existing lights with better ones) to the Playmates Enterprise-D from 1992.

I was always disappointed with how many parts of the ship stayed dark when one pressed the buttons, so I did this:



Specifically, I re-lit the starboard nacelle (the original light died, which sparked off this project), with 2 LEDs, one red and one blue.
I lit the main, and port saucer impulse engines, and the deflector dish.

All it took was some unscrewing, a WHOLE lot of prying (that ship is held together in a hilarious number of redundant ways - the screws do more than enough), some experimentation, money spent on LEDs, and some soldering.

It's still very much a WIP. I have to pry apart the other nacelle, and light the remaining saucer impulse engine, as well as tweak the deflector lighting to reduce the light bleed you can see here:




Project, The Second:

In an astounding display of procrastination, instead of mowing the lawn, I started spontaneously aztecing the Playmates JJprise. I felt it was lacking... well... any detail at all, and set out to fix that.

First, I masked off forward saucer with masking tape, and then I set out slicing it up for hours on end.



Something which I thought would drive me demented actually proved relaxing and somewhat meditative. I made up the pattern as I went, so it's not totally canon. Ah well.

Meanwhile, the grass continued to grow

I sprayed sealant over the quarter of the saucer I had done after 2 days, and peeled most of the azteced part off the next day (leaving one sector taped as a guide to the pattern when I continue).



I have a couple more projects on the go, which I will inform you of when I deem them interesting

[CyAn1d3]

ok... first off.... HOLY HELLL!!!!! ... now i gotta change my shorts.
second i have to compliment the idea... now i have to call my grandmother up north and have her ship MY playmates D and my Ent-A model down so i try this...

third, are you using the EXISTING light buttons for this or are you installing new ones?
and is it still battery powered?

[Bren]

Thanks for the support!

The Enterprise-D is still battery powered, using the existing light buttons. I just made sure to buy LEDs that would work with the voltage the Enterprise runs off already.

All I did was open her up and connect wires to the existing solder points in the toy. LEDs seem to draw significantly less power than the mini-incandescant bulbs that were in the nacelles.

The upshot being that I can currently run 1 mini incandescent bulb (in the nacelle I haven't cracked open yet), and 2 Blue, one white (wrapped in red tape, the red LEDs were too dim for the bussard), and two red LEDs on the same system that was previously running 2 mini incandescent bulbs, with NO loss of performance.

If we take that to mean 1 mini incadescent= 5 LEDs (or thereabouts, the reds seem to draw much more voltage than the rest), then I should be able to run 10 LEDs or more with no impact.

I only plan to install 8 in total.

You can read all about the process I went through here and here, part two, if you wish. There's loads more pictures there, too.

As for the Enterprise-A, it depends on which one you mean, the Diamond Select Toys Enterprise-A had the aztec already present, I have the 1701 refit TWOK release, which uses the same mold, and I wouldn't touch that beauty with a knife!

[CyAn1d3]

i cant remember off the top of my head wich Ent-A model it was (or if it was even the refit version, its been in my grandmothers attic up in PA for the last 12 years)... all i remember is that the deflector "screwed" off the front, and that i had issues keeping the nacelle pylons glued on the eng hull.
now that im a tad older than i was when i first assembled it, i have ways around that issue. i THINK it came pre painted, and just needed assembly... it was like a 3 foot long model, sucker was HUGE. if i ever get my hands back on it, i KNOW im gonna re touch it up.... i miss that thing

EDIT: im 99% sure this is the one i have (or its VERY similar)... i SPECIFICALLY remember that stand and never using it...

[ACES_HIGH]

no, that's a new one, it's a fairly recent line released for the 09 movie, and it's fairly small, only about 6 inches long.

Bren, have you read my model thread?  I recently did a project involving an Aztec pattern on the AMT Ent-D.  I used a similar method, I cut up a pattern I had printed up on sticker paper and stuck that on the model, then I airbrushed the whole thing.

[CyAn1d3]

no, that's a new one, it's a fairly recent line released for the 09 movie, and it's fairly small, only about 6 inches long.

Bren, have you read my model thread?  I recently did a project involving an Aztec pattern on the AMT Ent-D.  I used a similar method, I cut up a pattern I had printed up on sticker paper and stuck that on the model, then I airbrushed the whole thing.

do you know wich one im talking about? it HAD to have been released PRIOR to 94.
did AMT make one of that size? it was bigger than the Playmates ENT-D that much i remember...

[Bren]

Sounds like the AMT one, alright. My cousin had one, the Refit, that is. Can't remember much about it. Screw-on deflector throws me a little, though.

It's definitely not the one you pictured, though - that one's about 4-5 inches long.

ACES_HIGH, yeah I read your thread some time ago, back when I found aztecing too daunting to try. I hadn't thought of that technique. The JJprise saucer is kind of geometrically sympathetic, I do intend to do the PM Enterprise D, as well as an Enterprise-E model, and my mind was boggling on how I was going to pull it off!

Your solution sounds simple and elegant (relatively speaking), I didn't understand it when I read your thread first. Thanks

[ACES_HIGH]

I've got the AMT ent-a, it doesn't have a screw on deflector, but it's about 2 feet long, so the size is pretty close, Polar lights did one in an even bigger scale, but that was much more recently than '94.


I got the aztec pattern off of http://www.starshipmodeler.com/, it was meant to be used as waterslide decals for the 1:1400 Ent-D but I was able to get it printed on Stickerpaper instead.  For the PM toy you might need to rescale the pattern to fit, I don't think it's the same scale as the AMT.

[Bren]

Yeah, I've been thinking about that, the proportions are different too. I may need to do some measuring, and redraw the Aztec in photoshop myself... daunting enough. I'll have to study some of the texture tutorials that the masters of modding have made over the years.

Some parts of the ship have scribe lines for the hull panelling (like the nacelles and parts of the secondary hull and pylons), so that should make things a little easier.

I want to base the aztec off the faintly-visible aztec on the prototype toy they photographed for the Playmates box illustrations.

[CyAn1d3]

it wasnt a "screw" on like in traditional sence, you had to put it on and "turn" it to lock it in.

had "L" shaped knobs that achieved this.

[ACES_HIGH]

um, ok, on mine it doesn't really hold the deflector on, as far as I can tell, but I suppose it kinda fits that description.

here's a link to that Aztec pattern I used, it's the third up from the bottom:
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/cz_mask.htm

[Bren]

Excellent, man! I can almost certainly make use of these! Thank you!

Update time!

I've spent the last few weeks making a foil cupola (or as I'm now calling it, The Deflector Reflector!) to push more blue light through the deflector, and keep the light from bleeding through the secondary hull the way it was.

I made it out of cardboard, with tinfoil glued to one side, cut to fit snugly around the top and bottom of the deflector, and taped together at the sides and back.
In the back, there is a small hole to admit the LED (which I removed from the battery compartment because that made disassembly annoying and was an illogical place to put it once the DefRef was in place.)


I mounted the deflector in it and punched holes through for the struts that hold the deflector in the ship.


Then I mounted it, added a little cosmetic brown tape around the edges of the deflector, touched up my "dish" tape, and re-assembled the ship. I pressed a button, and:


I'm not sure if I took a picture of this before, but here's how I wired up the saucer impulse engine.

Yes, it's stupid, I have it wired to the speaker with crappy ceramic-insulation wire from an old electronics kit. It will be re-wired, to the lighting circuit, this was just convenient proof-of-concept work a few months back.

I finally got up the courage to tackle the other nacelle. Using the knowledge I accrued over weeks of nervously cracking open the other one, I had this one apart in about 10 minutes. No sweat - well... not much. It even was so kind as to come apart more symetrically than the last one.


I quickly got to work unsoldering the old wiring, and soldered in my new wiring. This makes this nacelle more advanced than the other one, which is still at dry-run phase. I put a few dabs of glue in and foiled-up the non-black parts of the innards, this is also new for this nacelle.


I added a bussard LED (I've now settled on white LED with brown tape for the best color mix with the red plastic), though I failed to photograph this. I'll get a snap of it soon. It's at dry-run stage, so I'll do a before and after when I solder it. This'll be useful for you guys to see the posing that works best for the LEDs.

Now... PICS!
(see how the DefRef cupola solves 99% of the lightbleed issues?)


See if you can tell, at a glance, which one is the DST ship ...






There's still more to do, plus I think I'll have to trim down the DefRef and redirect some of the secondary hull wiring, as the casing is strained a little with all the extra crunk in it's badunkadunk.

[CyAn1d3]

   :drool:
EPIC

[086gf]

Thats very cool! the DST version is the one on the right btw. The lack of buttons on the back of the neck and a darker hull are a dead give-a-way.

[Bren]

of course - but that was a look! Not a glance! No gold star for you (have a cookie instead)

[Shadowknight1]

Nice work giving that old Ent-D a sprucing up.  And I like the detailing you're throwing into the JJ-Prise.  The day I got mine, I took it out, looked at the box, and muttered, "Highly detailed my ass."   Also looks like yours might be one of the few that has the saucer on straight.

[Bren]

Thanks dude

You mean the upward angling of the saucer? I've got that. I think it's part of the mold, if not the design of the ship itself - not that this model is 100% accurate by any means.

I really must take a crack at that again, and complete the saucer.

[CyAn1d3]

that and write a tutorial as to how you did this... makes me wanna dig MY playmates D out and give this a crack

[eclipse74569]

I really want that DST version LOL Though I'd sand off the raised detail and just paint it like it was supposed to be to begin with...

Your PM Version looks great

[Bren]

DST are re-issuing the All Good Things variant next month, and I'll bet they'll re-issue the regular ship next year, TNG's 25th Anniversary.

If/when you do that, take wip pics and post about technique. I may want to do that at some point, and though I hope to have the PM ship aztecked and done before then, any and all experience and advice is both helpful and interesting ;)

On the other hand, Diamond Comic Distrubutors, parent company to DST, are also importing this:

from Japan, the Aoshima Enterprise-D. It's about the size of the Playmates model, but seven million times more detailed.

It's available in loads of online stores for pre-order, expected in stock in late November.
$149.99.

Cyanide, here's a 6-step explanation of the JJprize aztecking. There's very little to it but time. This is just how I did it, and I made it up as I went along. I didn't consult references or anything, though I wish I had. There's no need to follow my patterns, I changed them a little, if you look closely at the photo, from sector to sector on the dish. You'll need a nice sharp scalpel, X-acto knife, or similar to cut the tape without scoring the hull too much.

1. I covered half the saucer with masking tape. I rubbed it down hard so that it fully sealed to the surface of the hull. There's no reason you can't cover the whole saucer, I just did half for whatever reason. Use DIY masking tape, not electrical tape or anything else. Electrical tape doesn't seal well enough, and capilitary action pulls the paint underneath and you end up with an unholy mess.

Note: these diagrams are not accurate, and should not be used as a template.

The blue-ish area is taped. The grid lines on the saucer should show through, to help show them up, rub a pencil gently over the tape. Cut through the radial (straight ones, spokes on a wheel) lines now, to separate each sector.

2. I cut 4 additional radial lines(red) inside the sector.

I then continued this for all the sectors in the quadrant of the saucer I was working with. You may choose to do it a sector at a time (perhaps a better approach, I found that the tape lost it's seal the longer it stayed cut, and tended to move about in later steps).


3. I start cutting the cross-lines(blue) that will define the areas where we remove tape, or leave it in, to make our mask for the aztec pattern.

Try to keep all the tape in position here, it'll sometimes snag on the knife and want to move. As you work through each section, you can cut through to the concentric (rounded) gridlines on the saucer for the sector in which you are working.

4. Now that the tape is all cut up, you can remove bits of it to form a pattern of your choosing.

This pattern is based on what I did on my ship, but since the diagram is incorrect, it's just an impression of what I did. You get the idea, the white parts are now bare, with no tape on them.

5. When you have completed steps 2 and 3 for the neighbouring sector, and get to step 4, be sure to use the inverse of the pattern you used before, ie, remove tape where you left it in previously, and leave in tape where you previously removed it. Here's an illustration of what I mean:


6. And then just continue on until the saucer is done. I am impatient, so I sprayed enamel paint sealant on after every few sectors, and then left it to dry overnight before continuing to cut, I imagine the results would be better if i had waited to mask the whole saucer before applying the sealant. And, if I had an airbrush, I'd have mixed in a hint of colour to the sealant, a duck egg blue or very light dull green.

FINISHED Leave to dry and peal off the rest of the mask. Sit back, and enjoy tilting it and seeing the light pick out the awesome subtle detail you've added.

If you're interested, here's a "straightened out" image of the pattern I came up with:


And here it is next to it's inverse, just to hammer home that point. Aztecs in Trek are nearly always neighbour-inverted like this:


I bet this image makes a lot more sense now, eh?


Hope that helps

EDIT: Damn, just spent about an hour drawing and writing this up, and then I re-read your post and realised you were talking about the Enterprise-D! That's the problem in this business, too many guys named Pauly!

If you click these links:

You can read all about the process I went through here and here, part two, if you wish. There's loads more pictures there, too.

They'll take you to my wip threads on Trektoy.com, I'm too tired after all that to write up another one right now! D'oh! Sorry.