I've been able to acquire a new camera - a Targus handcam.  Fine piece of equipment, best and cheapest on the market.  Too bad they've discontinued the product.. (sigh).  I think you'll agree the picture quality is much better.

     Here's what I've been up to -  I've been applying putty to the construction seams, which has been quite tricky.  I have a cone (nozzle?  attachment?) that I have put on the tube of putty that will give me a 1 cm bead, but it's still too big as I'm going for .5mm detail.  You'll probably want to compare these images with the ones from 4/01/02 / 2.

     I've worked my way from the rear of the ship to the front, bottom to top.  Here you see the underside of the ship - it's been difficult because it has a lot of detail (anti-matter port (where the power plug is!), warp core / spare warp core hatches, etc).  Also, the plastic wasn't even so there was some major re-shaping involved.

     The primary deflector has been complicated as well (Oh Hell, the whole thing's been difficult!) as there are three ledges that all need to be attended to.  The plastic wasn't perfect here either, as the underside's ledge wasn't perfectly aligned with the rest of the hull.  I've had to wing it.

     This gives some perspective to the ship, as well as shows the putting on the nacelles and engineering hull.  To the right you see a magnification of the middle of the engineering section, which has been quite a task to get right.    There was a very large gap in the sides of the engineering section, and getting all the air bubbles out before the putty dried was very difficult.  It had to be perfect, because I needed to scratch in the hull lines through the putty when I was done.  I don't know if it's alright, I'll have to see when the primer is applied.

     The RCS thrusters on the saucer are actually comprised of three different parts - top of the saucer half, the bottom half, and a third piece that is glued on top of the junction.  Putty needs to be applied so that it looks like a single piece of hardware.  This is complicated because the plastic (third piece) simply didn't fit.  Some serious modification was required.

     The front of the saucer (topside) has the auxiliary deflector array.  This was puttied a long while ago, but it's part of the puttying scrutiny so it's included. :)

     What follows is essentially pressing on - the puttying is complete, but not perfect.  Many air holes remain and the RCS thrusters and nacelle struts don't look perfect.  I'm also uncertain about the sides of the engineering section.

     After all this - primer, then refinement before painting, which will be done in my basement and not outside so that no dust or other particulate can contaminate the surface. Since a single speck of dust will totally screw up all the work I've put into refining the hull, I'm going to have to build the presentation case to protect it while it dries.    The case I have in mind will be constructed from lexan plastic acquired from Home Depot, joined at the seams by clear silicon caulk.