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(click on the date for event details)
The Gimp
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7/14/01 - The model was purchased.
I realized what I had done at approximately 3:00 pm.
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7/15/01 - Visited the
local hobby shop, acquired initial materials and Enterprise-D
"hack" model
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7/16/01 - Began assembly of
Enterprise-D
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7/17/01 - Assembled hull,
did a LOT of filing, some serious gluing.
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7/18/01 - Assembled first
nacelle, Stardrive section. Filed much putty.
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7/19/01 - Glue tricks,
tricky glue, and introductory airbrushing
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7/20/01 -
Milestone! The Voyager model arrived
today!
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7/22/01 - Gotta be careful
with that putty! Practiced airbrushing, read the Voyager instructions.
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7/26/01 - Caulk, Caulk,
Baby!
Main Engineering
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7/28/01 - Lights, Camera,
Actio.... Wait a minute - what was that about lights? I think it has
Windows, too...
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7/29/01 - Comparing other
people's efforts - changed the lighting method and discovered...blinking....
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8/01/01 - With a little help
from my friends (1am)
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8/06/01 -
Milestone! I came, I saw, I begged
for help and fortunately for me I got it. Circuit board is done!
The Gimp, Part II
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8/09/01 - Mixed paint
colours, came up with hull colour combination
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8/10/01 - Learned about
decals (or, "How to Perfectly Apply a Colored Film Thinner Than
Your Cornea to Plastic").
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8/13/01 - Ramping up to
begin construction of Voyager, working out some details
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8/18/01 - Continuing to
work out some kinks before I begin
The Beginning
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8/19/01 - I've begun
working on the Voyager - saucer section
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8/20/01 - Upper saucer
section - decals
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8/23/01 - Putting putty
on the auxiliary deflector base, masked the windows, mounting the LEDs
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8/26/01 - Hull
repaired, moving on - polishing fibre sucks!
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8/28/01 - Found new
cement and paint-on masking material, placing large fibres (tedious,
at best)
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8/29/01 -
Finished placement of larger fibres, painted crew quarters
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9/7/01 - Not
gonna be possible to mask all those tiny windows perfectly -
movin' on..
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9/13/01 -
Milestone! Completed running
the fibre through the upper saucer section - what a chore!
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9/16/01 - Begun
work on the bottom half of the saucer section
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9/20/01 -
Decaled the windows, drilled the crew quarter and running light
holes, and mounted a fibre that's too short.
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9/25/01 -
Finished the halves, painted the insides black.
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10/5/01 - Took a
little break while I figured how to light the bay windows -
those things are a bitch
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10/14/01 -
Milestone! The saucer section is complete, all parts
tested and confirmed, moving on.
Drive Section
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10/21/01 - Have
begun work on the warp drive section, this will be pretty
tedious.
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10/26/01 -
Figured out how the warp nacelles will be built - matched colors
for interior paint and identified LEDs for lighting / wiring
method.
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11/21/01 - Takin' a break - probably pick up
again after I find a job.. :) I've been working through
how I'm going to do the warp nacelles, more complicated than
they look.
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11/23/01 - Figured out the Nacelles - masked and
painted them in preparation for LED placement
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11/24/01 -
Milestone! Busy couple of
nights - finished all LEDs, including the mini-drivers I'm going
to use for the port / starboard indicators
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11/25/01 -
Installed the electronics into the nacelles, grooming for final
assembly
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12/13/01 -
Mounted the bussard collector plastic, filled the resulting gaps
and papered the blue LEDs
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1/04/02 -
Milestone! Took a break due
to the season. Finished the warp nacelles! These
puppies were hard to assemble, but I managed to pull it off.
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1/06/02 -
Figured out how to create fore and aft impulse lights in nacelle
struts
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1/08/02 - Plugged bussard light leak in the
nacelles, did a ton of filing so as to create channels for the
wires.
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1/09/02 -
Milestone! T was feeling
ambitious - 20 hours later, the drive section is complete!
The Shuttle Bay
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1/14/02 -
Trying to figure out how to do the shuttle bay - how much detail
will fit in something the size of a quarter?
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1/30/02 -
Finished the back wall, got the parts for the rest of the bay.
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2/01/02 -
Inserted platform, installed supports
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2/02/02 -
Milestone! The shuttle bay is now
complete. Placed decals (damn hard), created ceiling
Central Hull and Closure
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2/06/02 -
Milestone! The three pieces have been
joined into one - working on wiring, electric mechanics
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2/23/02 -
Setback.. The circuit board interfaces are all great..
with the exception of the port indicators, saucer section..
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2/26/02 -
Making progress. Figured out what was wrong with the
LED's.
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2/27/02 -
Milestone! The electronics are complete,
and they all look good. Next is installation of windows,
fibre
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3/2/02 -
Installed the bay windows, figuring out the number of crew
quarter lights (mini-fibres)
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3/4/02 -
There's a bump on my ship..! Figured out where to plug it
in, and what to do with the bottom running light.
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3/18/02 -
Filed away the holes necessary for the power plug and the bottom
light - harder than it looked..
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4/1/02 -
HUGE Milestone! I've spent the last 14
hours closing up the ship - the final internal assembly
was horrific!!
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4/4/02 -
Painted primary deflector, the hull is now complete, and all the
lights work perfectly. Time to move on to puttying...
Puttying and Masking
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4/29/02 -
Been puttying, it's very detailed work - 3/4 finished.
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5/03/02 -
Pictures! Putting completed, but not perfected.
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5/27/02 -
Caulk is only useful for specific locations, otherwise tape
makes a better mask.
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6/05/02 -
Milestone! Masking complete, case
complete - ready for primer.
Priming and Preliminary Painting
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6/07/02 -
Primer applied - good spots, bad spots - not as perfect as I
would like -I guess that's what primer's for.. :)
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7/15/02 - Life got in the way - no progress.
:(
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7/31/02 - Moving along. The hull was
re-sanded and minor mistakes corrected. Ready for second
application of primer, then we get to apply the colorful paint.
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8/2/02 -
Working with primers in preparation for the hull coat.
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8/6/02 -
Milestone! Priming complete and primer
dry - painting bay windows, then primary hull color
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8/7/02 -
Windows painted, primary and secondary hull colors mixed and
ready.
Painting
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9/29/02 -
Setback.. Paint
problems. Okay - fact is it's taken me over a month to
come to grips with my screw-up...
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9/30/02 -
Sanded the bottom of the hull. Also - extending
appreciation to my friends for their support!
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10/15/02 -
Continuing to sand, working on the topside.
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10/16/02 - I
upgraded my airbrush today - I expect a small upgrade will make
a huge difference.
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10/17/02 -
Sanding complete. Painting the Gimp to make sure I can use
the new airbrush, then we'll try again...
10/23/02 - Painted some
of the spine, took pictures to show the process and results. 10/29/02 - Showing the
paint testing I'm doing, and the phases I'm painting in - phase 1 is now complete. 10/31/02 - Phase 2 is
now complete! Made a couple changes to the recommended colors here... 11/6/02 - Phase 3 down,
moving on to phase 4! 11/7/02 -
Setback.. When painting the
phaser strips, the adhesive on the masking tape came off! What a goopy
mess.. 11/9/02 - Deep
appreciation to my girlfriend, who helped me keep my inspiration - the
phasers are painted, moving to phase 5. 11/10/02 -
Photo Album. Before tonight, it was five months and four days that I've seen the
primary deflector. 11/13/02 - Milestone!
Deflector emitters complete and ship painted with gloss lacquer -
ready to apply decals.
Decaling
11/20/02 - Working on
applying the decals. At this point, over halfway done! 11/24/02 - Milestone!
Decals are complete, ready to laquer (seal) them on, then do any
refinements prior to the final lacquering of the ship! 11/25/02 -
Setback.. Lacquering the
decals caused them to haze, just like the manual said they shouldn't...
Finishing
11/26/02 -
Setback.. Applied a mist of
the primary hull color (or the closest proximity thereof..), and a decal
blew off! 11/27/02 - Project
complete! Photo Album coming soon, Voyager Party in the second week of
December!
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