Correcting the Lunar Models 41" Excelsior

[publiusr]

The Jein version had a somewhat more bulbous saucer as I recall

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The photo here is of the pre-Lakota’d original.

 

[Vidar 710]

Hand drafted plans completed...

Scratch building the components to the top details of the Warp Nacelles. There are six sections to make the shape of this assembly. A section was cut out of a 1/2" styrene tube that I saved from a yard sign, then cemented to a strip for styrene to keep its shape. Here the aft tip has been ground away before applying Epoxy dough to fill it in and shape it to a taper.

The base is made into a box. 1-2-3 blocks are being used to keep this assembly flat, and square as the cement cures.

Two of the six sections are complete. The other four will have to wait until a special-order of styrene shapes arrive.
The Nacelle cowl masters shown at the top are not included in that count.

While I wait for those styrene products, I moved over to the Main Shuttle cowl. The vacuum formed part from the Collective version of the kit had more to work with than the Lunar kit cowl. It actually didn't come out of the sheet half bad, but still have some significant detail and shape issues. The resin hanger bay doors are from the LM kit. Note their current shape here. I will have to modify them to get things to pull together correctly.

First off, the doors are elevated on a thin platform. They do not set directly onto the top surface of the secondary hull. Second, material needed to be removed so the Observation Dome slips under the cowling to the proper depth.

... as seen here.

The cowling is decent but still needs work. The pencil lines depict where material will be removed so a more correct shape can be added back on - Note the paper template. The two squares on the top have already been backfilled on the inside surface with sculpting dough and has since been sanded out smooth.

The Main Shuttle Bay and Observation Dome with the paper template correction.

Reference on the NX Dome. Note that the center of the dome is covered by the cowling, and only eight vertical window stanchions are exposed outside the shadow of the cowling.

I think I removed just enough material from the bay door parts to get it to look right. To give the thin vacuum formed cowling some strength, I applied a thin layer of epoxy dough to the inner surface to give it strength and hold its shape - as well as allow me to sand out that pair of nasty raised panels that do not exist on the studio model. Once it cures, I'll remove the forward sections at the pencil lines and install the corrected shapes.

Hopefully the styrene parts will be here before I return home from my next set of duty days up in New York, and I'll finish that top nacelle master.

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

Wrapping up the top master to the Warp Nacelles, and more progress on the main hanger bay doors and cowl...

Here the 3mm x 3mm styrene strip outriggers (for lack of a better word) have been added to the bottom box. I would later decide to stack a 2mm x 2mm styrene strip on top because it looked better to the eye from the references I have.

The box with a sloped side has been added to the front of the top assembly.

I had to search the world for 5mm quarter styrene dowel. I found some in France at a Doll House company. To my frustration, they rolled the dowels up like a rope and stuffed it on a small bag to ship. It took some time heating it up in hot water to get it somewhat straight again. (Who does that?!!!)

5mm dowel cemented to the bottom box assembly. 1-2-3 blocks keep it flat as they cure. I cemented 2mm x 2mm styrene strips on the inside 2mm from the top to use as a gluing surface for the top assembly.

Top assembly cemented into place. The front and aft ends are still open. Later I filled them in with epoxy dough to seal them off. This master will be molded so I can slosh cast two top assemblies for the nacelles.

Top assembly complete after filling and blending all the sub-assemblies together.

The 3D printed part placed in it position...

New extension cemented and blended into place.

Re=enforcements seen on the inside. I also slathered a thin layer of thinned epoxy dough to strengthen the cowl so it will better hold its shape.

Original part to the left with a modified part to the right.

Other differences...

3D modeled and printed Trans Warp dome with the solid resin Warp Models offering.

Bottom nacelle blister comparisons. Warp Model's resin offering to my scratch-built blister.

More details to be added to the hanger bay doors...

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

Here's the front end of the nacelle top master before filling it in to show the layers of scratch building.

After getting the new extensions on and blended them in, I discovered this subassembly is based on the original shroud that matched the original incorrect shape of the secondary hull. Since my secondary hull has been corrected, the shapes here are considerably off.
You can see here that the sides are too flat, and the door deck aggressively bends inward to the stern of the hull.

After sculpting in light weight material to the outer skin, layers of filler are added to smooth the surface. Note the new continuous gradual curve of the assembly throughout the outer edge of its base.

The original Lunar Models solid resin bay doors have been filled in and re-scribed in at their proper shapes.

Before all the above, I also discovered some serious symmetry problems in the original shroud part as well - particularly at the overhang of the bay doors.

The new bay door deck I added was thrown off centerline due to the asymmetry above, so sculpting clay was added to re-shaped the crest to centerline.

After layers of fillers and primers, I'm really happy with how this sub-assembly matches the contour of the corrected secondary hull.
This was taken before the build base was cut away.

The 3D modeled hanger bay dome came out as a near perfect success. However, due to printing limitations at Shapeways (at the time), The inner surface was going to cause a distortion problem for lighting.

The base of the dome required to approve the print was too broad. The inner radius of the base caused a vertical wall straight up into the inner surface of the dome right at the window level. This caused a seem line to develop horizontally all the way around the inner surface right through the middle of all the window panels. The fix was to grind away the material until there was a smooth inner dome shape that went all the way to the base.
This is the inner dome surface being filled and smoothed out. After primer, the dome will be ready to mold, then be cast with crystal clear resin.

Other than adding the raised panel greeblies located at the base of the shroud and on the bay doors, the main shuttle bay subassembly is complete.

Here's how the Warp Nacelle Top master came out after a few coats of primer...

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

Adding the Greeblies to the skin of the hanger bay shroud, and doors. Hand cut squares and stretched spue shorter than a mm... My eyes hurt!

I'll apply a thin layer of primer to protect and lock them in and the Main Hanger Bay assembly will be DONE.

Tracy

 

[edge10]

Really wonderful work as always Tracy!

 

[stevielewis]

That is nice work!

 

[Vidar 710]

This is where I make several templates on both card stock drawing paper and translucent tracing paper for the secondary hull. There are recessed details, raised panels, and junctions to other sections of the ship that need to be plotted so they can be cleanly transferred to the vacuum formed secondary hull part during assembly.

The traced shape for the top of the secondary hull will be used as a template to create the upper deck/surface of the secondary hull. It will be cut from 3/8" thick clear acrylic. This upper deck will be re-enforced with two clear acrylic stripes to act as armatures. The inside of the dorsal seen below has been traced out to depict where material will be removed from the acrylic deck to allow for wiring of the lighting kit to pass from the saucer into the secondary hull.

Recessed details are being traced in-scale so that they can be transposed to the surface of the vacuum formed secondary hull part. These openings in the bottom surface will be cut away so that the scratch-bult recessed panel details can be cemented into position at these openings.

Checking that my scaled image matched some of the 3D printed parts.

Top details placed in position to again check for scale and determine their positions for the assembly phase.
Note: this is where I discovered the hanger bay shroud is too short.

The Top surface...
Determining the size, shape, and positions of: The two large-raised plates forward of the warp pylon blister, and the aligned position of the warp pylon blister and where their holes will be drilled into the acrylic plate for the brass tubing armatures. This also helped me to realize, I needed to modify - once again - the main shuttle bay cowl. Note how close they come to the warp nacelle pylons.

The bottom surface...
Positions of the plate for the aft torp launchers, and where the position of the two recessed square trenches are.

Here, new modifications to the main hanger bay cowl have been made. The extensions were too short. You can see how short they are a few images above. The ends were nipped off for a flat gluing surface so 40mm more material could be cemented on to lengthen them to the correct profile - as depicted by the tick marks on the template. Filler has already been applied and awaiting to fully cure before sanding and blending in the new extensions.

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[Vidar 710]

First panels made from the new templates are the two big, raised panels on the top surface of the secondary hull forward of the nacelle pylon assembly up to the base of the neck.



Even though I drafted out both plates, I decided to choose the best between the two to make a single template for both plates. That way they are exactly the same shape and maintain symmetry.

 

[Vidar 710]

WAAAY back in the day when I was doing this to the original shape of the secondary hull, I did this - which is wrong.

This is what I did to fix it... It's not 90deg.

Had to grind out the proper angle in the 3D part and alter the vertical stanchions of the scratch-built cradle to meet the corrected step angle.

Whew! Glad I found this before I cast the secondary hull buck in plaster for vacuum forming the secondary hull shell.

 

[Vidar 710]

Small update...
The template that positions all the cut and drill points into the top deck plating of the secondary hull have been established on the paper lining of 3/8" thick clear acrylic.
Carefully trying to determine how to cut into to this material without making a molten mess. Three sheets, three tries...

Scenes n film to come!

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[Vidar 710]

Sorry for being away. Lots of work, then my entire household went down with viral bronchitis/pneumonia. Just now getting over it after almost a month!

If you go back to page 3, I've been working on a complete re-build of the neck/dorsal assembly. While it looked "OK" from a distance and at the right angle, I have never been happy with how the spacers aligned between the larger plates - they look like bad dental work. That jig idea was a bad one.

In addition, I failed to get the proper 30 deg angle to the assembly. I've remedied that and will be posting my progress soon.

Regards,

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

I have finished the rebuild of the dorsal assembly and have a series of photos of the In-work progress, but for some reason, I cannot upload photos to my Photobucket account. A query is in to Support, and I hope to have it resolved soon.

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

A completely new rebuild of the dorsal/neck section was needed. I was not happy with how the spacer plates did nit align, particularly at the rear corners where they are most noticed. I came up with a more restrictive 3-tube jig to ensure everything aligned during the stacking of the plates.

Here all the cut plates are stacked on the new jig.


The center section is where the torp launcher recesses are as depicted by the penciled markings.


All three sections loosely stacked on the jig.


All the plates finally cemented together.


Here the adapter to the bottom of the saucer is started... This is the larger plate with an additional plate layer to match the topography of the bottom of the saucer. Spacers are strategically added to maintain a constant thickness throughout the adapter.


The smaller plate to the adapter is cemented into place. This plate also matches the size of the large plates in the dorsal assembly.


Free Form Air Epoxy Dough is pressed into gaps and sculpted in to form the surface and shape of the adapter section.


The trench fillets are cemented into place before sanding to final shape.




After the final shape is achieved, a couple of layers of putty and sanding is done to level the surfaces.


Final check to ensure the adapter section fits to the bottom of the sauce properly.


Everything is cemented together.


A couple of sessions adding Mr Surface 1200 and sanding each layer smooth is completed.


A unifying application of Mr Surfacer 1500 is added. Gloss black with go over the top before adding the metal finish not only to the neck, but the other sections that share this characteristic at the base of the Warp Pylon blister junction and the plated patterns in the warp nacelles.





After being able to upload images into PB again, now I'm seeing PB water markings on all my images. I'll try to get this squared away now.

Tracy