10/31/02

   I have finished phase 2, working on phase 3.  I've made some modifications to the paint, and found a part that I thought should be painted differently.

     Per this magazine cover, the nacelle pylons (is that the proper term?  Hmm...) are brown in front.  There is a closeup image at right. 

 

     I'm not able to duplicate this precisely because the scale model simply doesn't look the same, but I made the best approximation, per the photo at left.

 

     Phase 2 calls for the upper torpedo bay, bridge elevators, bridge windows and some parts of the bottom to be painted the secondary hull color.  I didn't think this stood out enough (almost blended right in!) because of the changes I made to the primary and secondary hull colors, so it needed to be modified too.  I darkened it with dunkelblau.

     I find masking to be incredibly hard, especially irregular shapes.  I have to use very small ( < .25" ) pieces of tape to get the curves right, so it took me over five hours for this step alone.  

     I also had to figure out the subtleties of airbrush shading using light grey to accent the secondary hull color.  The shuttle bay doors on the underside of the saucer don't look exactly like the picture, but I think I approximated it okay.  Over all, it isn't perfect but I believe it'll be alright.