DeBoers Reliant - WIP

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NemVia

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While I've been working on the DeBoers Enterprise trio, I've also been working on a secondary project at the same time. The DeBoers Reliant is the same scale as the Enterprise and while there are many similarities in building this kit there are a few differences as well. There is not quite as much to scratchbuild for this model because there is no secondary hull. I've been working on this kit for several months. The Reliant is no longer in production and this is one of the last known ones to be worked on. Too bad because it is a fun kit to work on. Like the Enterprise, I will be sending updates for this project when I have them.

I know it's been about 9 months since I've added any updates for the Reliant, but for the most part many of the work that is being done on the Enterprise is very similar to the Reliant as far as some of the interiors go such as the officer's lounge and many of the components for the Warp Engines are very similar as well with a few minor differences. For instance the wiring will be run through the top of the Nacell because the support pylons are connected from the top rather than underneath. The Reliant has some spot lights just like the Enterprise except they are on the top inside front of the nacells facing the saucer. They are also much smaller in size. While I have tested the lighting on all of the engines I did run into a few problems. I had what I called a nacell malfunction when I accidently cracked one of the fluorescent tubes and had to replace it. Carelessness on my part, but everything is functioning within normal perameters as it were. Another problem I've run into is that some LEDs that I ordered turned out to be the wrong color. I ordered some bright yellow LEDs to use for the thrusters and when I recieved them I found out the were not yellow, but Orange. Very upsetting, so now I have to wait for the new ones to come in. I was hoping to have the warp engines all sealed up and ready for some putty work, but this will have to wait for a while. In the meantime I'm preparing the rest of the wiring for all of the engines. I've also found a huge mistake with the warp grills that I will go into next update. There are 13 new pics in The DeBeors Reliant Album starting at pic 18. You should be seeing more updates in this album as I get closer to assembling these kits together.

See you next update,

Mark.



 
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I've added a couple of pics on my site for the Warp nacell assembly. Although there are only 2 pics to look at, there has still been a lot of time put into these babys. These nacells are much easier to assemble than the Enterprise nacells because there is no bottom lip that connects the engine to the nacells. For the most part it's a straight shot when applying the epoxy. These pieces fit together much better than the Enterprise nacells as well. By my next post, I should have all of the seams filled in, sanded sown and ready for opaqueing. All of the electronics are working fine, so that's a big relief because once everything's sealed that's it! We're done! I Should have a few more pics soon. See you next update.

Mark
 
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CDW

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Just had a look at the site, some impressive work Mark.

The 8ft Original series Enterprise is, errrrrrr, awesome!!! .... this size to scale must relate to something like 1/72 (ish).

Will be keeping my eye on any updates you offer ...definitely :smiling3:
 
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:winkingshades:Why "Thanks" goes to you my friend.

Ahh... The 8' monstrosity. Someday I will get back to that one. I was going full steam on that scratch build when all of a sudden I discovered the Polar Lights refit model. I really had to put all other projects on the side for that one. Then I had an offer to build a DeBoers refit, then the Reliant, then one thing led to another and now I'm in the middle of these intense builds. Hang in there though. Eventually I will bring that model out of moth balls and finish her up.

Mark.
 
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WARP NACELL UPDATE FOR - 06/11/11

It's been a crazy month for the Reliant and Enterprise. The Nacells are quite a job to get just right. The problem is with the seams on the top and bottom of the nacell. They do not join together in a nice straight and even seam unlike an injection molded kit. I've had to do a lot of sanding on almost all of the engine pieces. Remember that there are 8 engines total for 4 models, so it's a lot of work. I've only been able to opaque 3 of the engines so far and am still working on the final sanding for the other 5 engines. I do have 4 pics in the Enterprise Album, #'s 129-132 and 3 new pics in Reliant #'s 34-36.

As I've stated in my last updates, there is a problem with the grills on all of the models. The filming miniature has 5 lines of lighting effects on the warp grills whereas the DeBoers only has 4. The Polar Lights model has 5 grooves rather than 4. To me this is a huge mistake that would take a monumental amount of work to fix the problem so I'll just have to allow for the difference. Also, the pictures I have of the Warp grills show that the lighting effect only goes back so far on the engines and not all the way to the end of the grills. There is a little bit of difference in opinion as to which part of the grill actually lights up. I'm sticking with the deep grooves since it matches up with the movies stills I have. It's too bad this error is so obvious, at least to me. But what can I do. It will still look sharp when they are finished.

By my next update I should have the base colors started on the engines. See you then!

Mark.
 
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NemVia

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Warp Nacell Update for 07/31/11

For the Reliant project, I don't have any more than 2 new pics to show you because I haven't got to those engines as of this update. The masking patterns will be similar to Enterprise though. Right now I have those Engines opaqued, they have their base soat of FLat white and the first of 4-5 colors painted on which would be Light Gray. I will be making these Aztec patterns a littl more subtle rather than having them jump out at you but you will be able to see the different colors the closer you geth to the models. Hope you enjoy these updates. I'm really looking forward to adding the other colors to these engines just to see how they'll turn out. More updates coming soon! See you then!

Mark
 
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Today I just finished the 1st of 3 maskings for both of Reliant's Warp engines and I'm now ready to airbrush the 2nd of 4 different colors. The next color to be added will be an off white, which I used on my PL Enterprise and it came out beautiful. There are not a whole lot of reference pics for the filming miniature that show, in very clear detail, all of the engines and support pylon details. I took a look at the decals for the Ertl Reliant kit and while I'm using it for a reference, I don't think they're completly what I wanted to do. I also have some pics of the Reliant when it was at auction at Christies, but of course there aren't any clear ones of the nacells. So, I'm using some of the pattern that I have put on the Enterprise engines and am beefing up the width of some of the maskings to help suggest that this starship is a little more heavily armoured. As for the pylons, the pics I have suggest that the patterns are more verticle than horizontal. This really is a milestone for this project because there are 8 warp engines total that are being detailed so to have this part of it finally complete is very exciting. For the next masking it won't be as much work because I will be adding masking to the masking... get it? Well, By the next update you'll see what I mean. See you then!

Mark
 
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NemVia

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For the last month or so I've been doing nothing but masking and painting the main Aztec pattern on the warp engines and the support pylons. It can be very repetative work but the end results are worth all of the trouble. I don't have any good clear pics of the actual filming minature's engines so I tried to do what I could with the fuzzy pics that I do have. Although I didn't use any pearlescent paints for this paint job, I got the effect that I wanted out of the paints that I did use! In the next update I will have the Flush vents, intakes, strobe light covers and other details added to the engines as well as their decals. Then I can move onto the roll bar and torpedo launcher area and get thoose started. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Mark
 
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NemVia

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I have finished much of the detailing paintwork on the nacells and pylons, just a few more things to add to complete the engines, I've added 5 new pics to the Reliant photo album. It took a lot of masking, but it was worth the work. I've also added a few things to my site to make it easier to navigate to the pics. Let me know what you think!

Mark

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OKAY EVERYONE!!!!! Big update this month! I have added 12 new pics to the Reliant album! A lot of energy and work have gone into these engines and I'm happy to say that other than a few pieces that will be added later on, the Engines are all basically done!

For the Reliant update, I've finally finished these engines as well! I've had to tone down the Aztec patterns by spraying them with a very light coat of off white and then add the 4 decals that go on either sides of the engines. These engines are now finished and I can start moving on to other areas of the this ship. The new pics for Reliant are in the Reliant Album on page 2 pics 63 - 74!

See you next update!!!!

Mark

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DeBoers Reliant 057.jpg
 
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Last update for this year...

Hi everyone!

It's been quite a challenge building 4 models at the same time and even though Enterprise is getting more attention at the moment, I've still benn able to work on some of the Reliant

There are some re-casting of some of the parts on this model like the super phaser cannons that will go on the roll bar. These are being cast in a clear resin to allow for some future lighting effects. I'm also adding a new travel pod port to the rear of the bridge with it's own lighting effects. The other things that have been cast are the torpedo tube housings for the front and rear tubes and also the small strobe dome covers for the flashing light effects. Some of the pics for the Reliant Build a reused from the Enterprise build, but the work being done on them is basically the same. The new pics are on page 2 pics 75-82. Enjoy!

Well, that's it for this update. Please be safe everyone. I will see you in 2012!

Take care, Mark

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This has been an extremely busy month. All of my work has centered on the Secondary Hull and the Strongback detailing. There are 4 different colors added to the Aztec pattern on the engineering section and then they were oversprayed with the final off-white color that will be the ships signature look. The Strong back was a little different though. I used about 6 shades on this part as well as the deflector dish housing. Although the final colors are not on these parts, the Secondary hull is now completely Aztec-ed. There are 26 new pics in the Updates For April page on my website. I mounted the engines on the hull as well as the saucer to get an idea of how everything will look together. Check out the pics and let me know what you think. I will be finishing up the Strong back as well as the front part of the Deflector dish for next month's update. I will start assembling the Hanger deck, the botany Deck and some of the wiring for the engines. I will also finally begin to work on the Saucer section. So stay tuned and I will see you next month!

Mark

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Updates For May 2012

The latest pics are now availible in the "Updates for May 2012" page.

For Reliant, I have begun working on the saucer section as well. I have cut out all of the thruster pieces and have replaced them with clear recast pieces. I have also added the bridge piece to the top hull and the lower saucer has the dome in place. These pieces are now epoxied in and ready for the painting process. The hull will have to be sanded down, then opaqued, and then I can prime everything up and begin the Aztec process on this model. I am not making the Aztec pattern the same as the Enterprise model, which I have seen a few others do. I had to take a reference pic of the filming miniature, make it into a negative picture and do some enhancing to help define the Aztec pattern a little better so I can make my own masks. There are in fact 2 different Aztec patterns on this ship. I posted a pencil sketching of what the patterns look like and then I have also begun creating some of the masks of one of the patterns of which I have posted a picture of what it looks like in this month's update. The other pattern will be started once this one is completed. Now that I've started on the Saucers of all of these ships I can see the finishing up of these models on the horizon for now. I am also looking forward to starting on the Drydock as well. I have also started some blueprints of the Drydock scaled to these models so things are progressing nicely. See you next update!

Mark.

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I have added 15 new pics for the June Reliant Update.

For Reliant I've finished lower saucer dome piece, I've sealed it from the inside of the hull and removed the excess resin so it will be easier to work on the lighting and wiring later on. I have also added the lower saucer detail pieces and epoxied them into oplace from the inside as well. I've had trouble centering the upper piece to the lower one, so I added some edging guides to maker sure the pieces fit together smoothly. you can see this with picture number 4 in the June Updates. The holes for the hanger doors have been widened a bit and a hole for the impulse engine piece and the warp crystal have been cut out and the pieces are now epoxied into place. For the bay doors I've masked off the areas where the lighting effects will come through and I have a couple of good pics (# 9 & 10) that show how masks look. I had to view a few shots in ST:TWOK to find the lighting pattern both from the bottom and the top of the doors. Next I was able to Opaque the pieces using Flat back to cover the entire model to block Light leaks. The next step was to start on the next color for the darker details which in this case is a Light Neutral Gray Paint. I've been able to start the masking of the upper saucer as well. I should have at least one of the next colors added on as well as the two different Aztec patterns that are seen on the filming miniature.

Hope you enjoy this update and I'll see you all next month.!

Mark

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Updates For July 2012

Greetings everyone! June has been an extremely busy month for me. We had visitors from out of town for a few weeks, so I did not get as much done as I would have liked. I was going to begin Aztec patterns on all 4 ships, but found that it would just be easier to concentrate on Reliant for now. So, all of the updates for this month are soley for Reliant! Sorry to those who are following the Refit Enterprise build, but next month will be mainly for Enterprise! Now because there are 2 different Aztec patterns on the saucer section it was just a lot easier to get this done and out of the way first.

I am pleased to say that even though I had a slight mis-hap with the painting, I was able to salvage the work in a unique kind of way as you will see in this month's update pictures. The entire bottom of Reliant's saucer is now completely Aztec-ed and now I need to add some of the other details, such as the hatch doors, the positioning thrusters, lower dome details and some hull detailing for the engineering section, the impulse engines and the hanger doors. It's starting to look real sharp and I'm very happy with how things are looking.

I've also started work on the top of the saucer and these details should be completed by next month's update. I may even have some of the decals added on by then. There are 18 new pics in this month's update. Hope you enjoy! Comments are always welcome and so are new Memebers! See you next month!

Mark

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August Updates

This months update is very picture heavy!For the Reliant update I've decided to tackle this model's Aztec Pattern first because there is a difference in the pattern from the Enterprise Aztec Pattern. Not only that but there is far more detailwork that needed to be done with the upper saucer section than with the Enterprise models. In fact the detailing on Reliant is the most detail work that I've ever put into any single model EVER! I was very pleased with the way it has turned out. I was also able to put on most of the Decals in this update. The one thing I didn't realize when I recieved this kit was that other than the markings around the hatches there were no red stripe decals that came with this model, so I decided to paint them all on myself. I was able to use Insignia Red as the color of choice and it turned out to be a good choice. There is very little difference between the Decal Red and the Painted on stripes as you will see in the pics. For the shoulder part or rear of the upper saucer there is a grid pattern that can be seen on the filming miniature, so I had to put this on the model first. It can be seen as very thin blue lines of masking tape. Then I was able to add all of the different shapes of pre-cut masking tape to the insides of each of these grid boxes. The results came out excellent when the tape was removed. I've also painted up the top and underneath aft section which at first threw me as to the color. A picture of the original Reliant revealed that some of these sections appeared to be a light blue or gray color. But when I reviewed ST:TWOK a saw that all of these details were dark. So, before I messed this part up I began to decide what this color was. It was very difficult to determine on the screen. I happened to have an AMT/ertl Reliant kit and was just curious to see if the instructions had any hints of wjat colors to use. In this case it suggested Intermediate Blue, which I had never heard of, but I looked it up on-line and found that Model Master Paints did in fact have this color, so I tried it out and then compared it to the pictures I have of the original filming miniature and sure enough, it was a very spot on match which was a complete relief to me. I also realized at this point this is a common color used on smaller parts of the ship such as the torpedo launchers and some of the Interior parts for the hatches that I am putting into the Enterprise builds. So with a big sigh of relief I can move onto to other parts of this model. I put a color comparison picture of both my build and the Filming miniature in the update so you can decide for yourselves wether or not the build looks as close as possible to the filming miniature. Let me know what you think.For the Enterprise update, unfortunately I was not able to get too much accomplished on the Aztec Painting because of spending so much time on Reliant. But it has been started and is going good as well. Although the Aztec pattern is different from Reliant I am still using the same painting technique. First I've sprayed the entire saucer sections, top and bottom Neutral Gray and now I'm in the process of masking of smaller areas of the hull to create the first color of the Aztec pattern. These maskings will then be removed after spraying the next color "Light Gray" and then lightly spraying over that to soften up the harshness of the Neutral Gray color. Then for the final Aztec Pattern I will overlap different parts of the first color with the masking and painting to give the hull the appearance of several different shades of color in the Aztec pattern. There are 5 new pics of this process in the August updates. As of this update I have two of the Enterprise upper saucers masked and ready for painting. By the next update I should have all of the base colors finished.See you next update! Enjoy! And as always comments and New members are always welcome!Mark Home - NemVia Productions
 
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Updates for September 2012

Hey everyone! There are 26 new pics for this month's update! Please check them out! Comments are always welcome. For Reliant, I've been so busy with the Aztec work on the Enterprises that very minimal work has been done on Reliant. I have started working on the Roll-bar and torpedo housing. The tops and bottoms have been epoxoed to their respective pieces and now I can begin the painting and Aztec-ing of these pieces as well. Everything is coming together and the models will all be finished pretty much at about the same time. So, that's all for this update. I will see you again next update! Take care,Mark Home - NemVia Productions
 
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Updates For January 2013

Hi Everyone! Sorry this update took so long to get uploaded. December was a very rough month for my secular work so very little was done on Reliant. I have 22 new pics in the Updates for January page

For RELAINT:

In this update I was able to add the LED spot lights on both the upper and lower parts of the saucer. All of the LEDs are now in place, I'm just waiting for some parts to come on for the flashing and strobe light effects. I've also been able to add the interior lighting to the saucer and main body of the hull. There are (8) 4" tubes and (4) 8" tubes being used to light the ship up. This does not include the (2) 4" and (2) 8" tubes that are in the nacells. They all run off of ballasts, 1 ballast for every 2 lamps. I have a nice lighting test shot of Reliant with these lamps on. I also focused in on the landing bay lighting which came out very nicely. I still need to add the flashing and strobe circuits to this model for the lighting effects, but I'm waiting on a few parts before I can add those in. In the meantime I will be working on the Impulse engine lighting effects as well as some additional lighting that is needed around the aft end of the ship including around the landing bay doors.

That's all for this months update. We'll see you next month.

Mark

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