U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-C

bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
After a whole lot of smaller Star Trek builds, it's time for something BIG. After a long wait, I'm finally starting Clever's Enterprise C. I have upscaled this model to 114% so she will be in scale with with my Rawen starships. This model has no instructions and no supplied reinforcements, so this will be an on-the-fly learning experience for me. I redid all the hull markings in Illustrator to my liking and so they'd be sharp when scaled up.

As usual, I've started with the saucer. At this size, the outer rings of the saucer won't fit on one page, so I printed both sides and joined them together at the front center with a tab glued to the back. I wanted to avoid the overlaping sections look you get with tabs, so they all had to go. Once trimmed, I glued scrap paper to the edges from behind and cut my own tabs. Then I edge colored the tabs and edges and slowly built up the layers. Doing it this way is slow. It took me several hours just to do this part of the saucer. Hopefully, the work will pay off. For scale, the saucer is sitting on an 8.5x11 cutting mat next to my Rawen Enterprise.
 

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Cforrest900

Well-Known Member
Looking nice so far. That's a very difficult model; you've got your work cut out for you. (Pun completely intended). Do you plan on making clever's D and Zousho's E in this scale as well?
 

bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
Cforrest900: Yup. I've already got the files rescaled and repainted for the Enterprise D and E. Clever's Enteprise B and Excelsior are also rescaled and repainted and will be joining the fleet, if I can figure out how to put them together. The Big D clocks in at 36 pages now.:eek:

D-Whale: I didn't know there was a reworked version of this file. Do you have any pics?
 

bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
My models are coming in right around 1:1200 scale. My Rawen Enterprise is about 9.25" when finished. Accepted size of TOS Enterprise is 947 ft. (11,364"). All the ST models I'm building now are in scale with that.

My overall method was to find a chart showing all the Enterprises together. I layered that overtop my TOS Rawen saucer and scaled the chart until saucers matched size. Then when I started to scale another model, like the Enterprise C, I layered the resized comparison chart over the next saucer and scaled the model up or down as needed. It's not NASA precision, but it's getting me the consistency in size I was looking for. Of course, Star Trek ship size is debatable for most ships (especially DS9 Defiant), but the Enterprises are pretty well agreed upon and the sizes I'm getting seem to make sense. For the other models I scale them until the windows on the hull match with the windows on the Rawen Enterprise. That way they look logical:mrgreen: sitting next to each other.
 

bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
BRIDGE

The bridge module is pretty straightforward. I cut out the shuttlebay door and recessed it. I do this whenever I can on Trek ships to add depth. I cut out the top of "C" deck right on the edges and cut out the hole for "B" deck. Then I glued it to another piece of card stock for strength and to make edge tabs. This let me wrap the edge piece around the top for a flush join at the edges and kept the piece fairly straight. The edge piece is a little strange because the join is off to one side of the front, so when I started gluing I centered the shuttlebay and started gluing there. That gave me a reference to keep everything in line. Then I worked my way around.

This is where the idea hit to finally try some real greebling. I've done a little bit, but there are sections on this model I think I can enhance without making a mess of it. So, I printed the parts again, cut out the lifeboats, glued them to white 67lb. cover stock scrap from work, and glued them down. I think they add some nice depth. I repeated this same process for "B" deck, edge colored the holes with silver Sharpie and joined the two decks. 2_01.JPG 2_02.JPG
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
The bridge dome is very tiny, which is not my strong suit. This is also a dome-within-a dome, which makes it even worse. The inner dome is made as one piece and you are supposed to cut sections out, then curl and glue them. That never works for me. It always comes out a mess. So, I cut the sections off, curled and glued them separately just like I do for Rawen parts. I used scraps to make some tabs to glue from behind. For the outer dome I cut it out as carefully as possible and curled the parts with a toothpick. Once I got them in position as best I could with tweezers I edge glued the two parts. Then I put some glue on the inside of the outer dome, moved the inner dome into position with my finger and hoped for the best. It's not very pretty, but it's about all I can manage. Finally, glued the dome down and glued the entire bridge module to the saucer.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
OLD SAUCER BOTTOM

Used the same procedure to build the bottom of the saucer as the top. Cut out all parts, cut off the tabs, glued new tabs on the back and edge colored them, curled and assembled from the base out. The end result didn't look right, but I hoped it would straighten out when the top and bottom were joined. To help, I made an internal frame for the saucer top using a printout as a base. With the two parts together it quickly became clear that the saucer had gone completely off the tracks. The whole thing was twisted and the bottom wound up being bigger than the top, so it puckered all the way around. I'm not the best model builder by far, but I was sure I could do better than this. So, I punched in the self-destruct code and started coming up with a new plan.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
NEW SAUCER

There are modelers in this world who can create perfect domed structures out of paper with no framework whatsoever. I am not one of those people. With the failure of the first saucer it was clear I was going to have to come up with some kind of structure to keep this thing straight. With my old method, I'd assemble one ring and then glue my way around the next one until it joined up in the back. Then on to the next ring. The problem was all that handling caused the paper to twist, so I wasn't gluing level or straight. On small parts that's not really a problem, but on this big saucer it really got bad. After a LOT of staring and planing, here's what I came up with.

To have any shot at a straight build, I needed a solid base. The center of the saucer is where it starts. Since the bottom looked the worst last time, I started there. The bottom base piece wouldn't fit on one sheet, so I printed it on two and spliced them together in the rear between the two RCS thrusters. Since this part is a complete circle it does not curl. To keep it flat, I glued it to a piece of foamcore. That kept it perfectly straight and level. The thickness of the foamcore is almost the thickness of the saucer's center. I trimmed right up to the edge of the saucer, but left the center whole. I drew an arrow pointing toward the front so I kept all the rings centered toward the front. Naturally, I want the front view to look the best.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
The next revision was to build each ring separately and then stack them once finished. No matter how you cut these, the fact is they don't come out perfect circles or join up perfectly. So, trying to hold the part and glue your way around just puts you behind the 8 ball from the start because of all the pushing, pulling and twisting of the paper. I wanted level rings that looked the best they could. I curled and glued the first ring as level as possible, then lightly edge glued it in place, centering it as best I could. I printed out another piece on 20 lb. bond paper and glued it behind the ring. to help hide any gaps that would show up from the next ring. I used bond paper because it didn't make the card twist when I lightly glued it on. This time I did start at the back and work my way around because I wanted to keep the shape I already had.

To stabilize and strengthen the ring, I made a chipboard template that matched the slope of the ring. Then I used that to cut many little braces out of scrap foam core. After a LOT of test fitting, I put some glue on the bottom of each brace and lightly pushed them into position. I did not put glue where the brace touched the ring because it didn't want to chance having a bunch of little "puckers" where the paper might pull in. The end result was a strong, stable, very level base.

I repeated this for the rest of the bottom rings, except for the braces. The smaller rings were easier to place and held their shape well, and figuring out more bracing seemed unnecessary. I still did a lot of test fitting before committing to glue. Sometimes I had to cut the ring apart at the end and reglue it to better line up with the one below. But I was never off by much.

In the end, I got a saucer bottom I'm very pleased with (except for the little spot on the front where something caused the ink to run!) that is solid. Better to have some small seam lines and look good than have it look like a lump of Play-doh.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
I'll admit the saucer edge had me worried. First, I made a jig out of scrap cardboard with a hole in the middle so I could work on the top without crushing the bottom. I made an angled cut into the foam core to match what I should have on the finished product. Then I used an X-Acto knife to SLOWLY start removing foam a little at a time. I'd cut some off, then try to slip the connected edge ring over the foam. It took a couple of hours to do this, but I knew if I cut too far I'd have to start all over. I finally got a cut I could live with, so I colored the edge as best I could with a silver Sharpie and lightly glued the bottom edge of the strip to the foam core. I didn't glue the whole thing flat to the foam because the cut wasn't perfect and it would have warped the whole edge. And I knew when the first ring was glued that would secure the edge at the top. However, the regular glue didn't hold the paper and foam well, so I went back around the outside bottom edge with a very light, thin coat of clear brush on super glue. This basically welded the bottom edges together. Possibly seeing a little clear glue is a small price to pay to keep parts straight in my book.

I lightly glued some bond paper to the back of the strip, colored it with the silver Sharpie, and cut it to make tabs. The foam core wasn't even with the top of the ring, so I cut some 1mm chipboard, lightly pushed it up to the edge and glued it down to the foam core. This further strengthened the ring shape.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
The ring process was the same for the top as the bottom. The top of the saucer is more domed than the bottom, so once the first ring was in position I cut a bunch of pieces of cardboard and lightly wedged them all the way around. Again, lots and lots of test fitting before committing to glue. This reinforced the shape and kept the top very level for the next ring. Like the bottom, the rest of the small rings kept their shape nicely, so I didn't use any further reinforcement.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
I salvaged the bridge from the first saucer for this one. However, the hole where it went didn't mate well with it. There were gaps on both sides. I cut some scrape cardboard and glued it inside to raise the edges where needed before final gluing of the bridge. It worked out nicely. Next was to complete the lower sensor dome. The base is designed to have an impossibly small edge glued around it. Fully aware I'd never be able to do that, I cut the dome base flush and glued it to some 67 lb. scrape white cover and edge colored it with silver Sharpie. That was close enough for me. The sensor dome is designed as one part, like the bridge. So, like the bridge, I cut it apart and curled and glued it the best I could. The Phaser strips I glued to 1mm chipboard, cut them out and colored them on all sides with bronze Sharpie. The bronze looks really good and I think close to what was on TV. I printed out the upper lifeboats again on cardstock, glued them to the same 67 lb. cover and glued them to the upper hull along with the top phaser strips.

I am much, much happier with this saucer. It is as straight and level as I'll ever be able to make it. Not perfect, but very nice. All the additional bracing did add some weight, but it's not so bad that some extra bracing in the neck and hull shouldn't take care of that.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
SECONDARY HULL

The secondary hull is a combination of straight and curved parts, and, like the real studio models, has the problems of supporting the saucer and engines at odd angles in weird spots. These ships are designed to look great on screen, but if you read some of the stories by the the model makers and effects people you'll learn what a nightmare these models are to build and use. So, to combat the weak spots I decided to beef up the hull as much as possible.

The middle pieces of the hull are flat, so I glued them to 1mm chipboard to keep them straight and strong. The bottom piece has the forward pylon edge attached. This wouldn't fold right with the chipboard, so I trimmed it off. The chipboard does curve well and because it's thicker it holds the shape better. Next I cut and glued pieces of chipboard along the edges and inside. These let me square up the hull and keep the parts in position and strengthen what would have been a hollow hull. And, I hate tabbed edge parts because they always want to twist. So, doing this lets me glue down the edge parts as flat as possible. All that chipboard also made the pylon areas really strong which will help when attaching the engines.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
When I shaped the fantail, I discovered it didn't come close to fitting. It was way short and out of scale. Since I rescaled this model, I'm not sure if I screwed it up or if it's off in the original file. And, I couldn't get the corners on either side of the fantail to shape right. So, I clipped off the "Enterprise" section and glued it. Then I printed out more parts at different scales, picked the ones that fit best and pieced it together. It doesn't look bad, but I figured this meant some more scale issues down the road.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
To match the studio model detail, I printed out the squared hull sections, glued them to 67 lb. white cover, edge colored them with silver Sharpie and glued them down.
 

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bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
Now the scaling problem has started to kick in. I can see it's thrown everything off, but not to the point where it all looks wrong or can't be made to work. I didn't want to start over and loose all this work like I did with the saucer, so I decided to just deal with it and hope it comes out looking OK.

The piece for the upper and lower sloped hull is designed as one piece and the flat part of the hull is supposed to slide into the slotted area. My flat part was thicker than the slotted area. And the slotted part I printed would not have fit the white area on the flat part. Again, I printed the slotted part at different scales to get one that fit better. To make my life easier, I cut the bottom and top areas apart and glued them on separately. I used a little regular glue to edge glue them in place, then used some brush on super glue on the inside areas to "weld" them to the flat hull area. My rescaled bottom pieces were now longer than I needed, so I trimmed them to fit. The white end support piece was glued to 1mm chipboard for strength.
 

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