"Star Trek TMP Space Dock " Topic

Quite interesting WIP here.

Main page
nemvia.com

Amicalement
Armand

Neat

Glad you enjoyed it my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

Thanks Guys!
Have new updates on the February page you can check out!
Mark
NemVia.com

I can hear Jerry Goldsmith's majestic score as I look over these pics – incredible stuff!

Excellent!

Amicalement
Armand

March Updates:

For this month's update I was able to get a lot more wiring done for additional lighting effects. I have 25 new pics in this month update page. On the outsides of the dock there are 2 rails with lights on them that run the entire length of the dock. They are more accent lighting than anything, but they are there. I've also built 2 more rails with lights on them that run along the bottom sides of the dock. These are more visible in the movie. I have also started building the Mooring Tractor Beam emitters which steady the ship while it's inside the dock. There are 4 of these that are seen in the movie and they are located on the bottom of the dock as well. There are also a few more details that need to be built before I actually mount the ship inside the dock. These include 6 outside mini panels (For what they are used for I have no idea, but you can see a great shot of them when the Enterprise leaves Drydock and the little dude is seen doing flips as the ship goes by) and I will be starting some work on the work crane and work light assemblies. These will be far different from the ones I made for the 1/350 scale dock. I will be making a master mold for these crane pieces so I can save some building time. I will also start work on the Gangway docking platform as it needs a lot of detail work on that. This piece might have to be made into casting mold as well. She's starting to come together even more and I'm hoping this will wrap up in the next 3 or 4 months if there are no more delays. Keep checking for the latest updates and I'll see you again in a month.

Mark
NemVia.com

Superb!
Congrats my friend!!

Amicalement
Armand

April Updates 2015

This months update is quite extensive as far as the work done on the Drydock. To begin, I started by opaque-ing the Tractor emitters Flat Black. This took several coats because of the thinness of the styrene plastic. I had to make sure there would be no light leaks. I then painted the emitters Rust. But reviewing some of the Behind the scenes pics of the Drydock miniature and a few other sources I will be updating that color to a light brown color. I was then able to solder the wiring in place and connect it to the main frame of the Dock. All of the lights are working. I also was able to do a lot of touch-up work on all of the added pieces of styrene especially on the light panels and all of the detailing work around the entire panel frame assembly as well as all of the tension rods and turnbuckle assemblies. They are now a uniform Rust color. In addition to this I've also added the completed mark lighting rails that run along the outsides of the panel frames. These were soldered into their circuits and then painted to match the rest of the dock. The test lighting on this came out really nice!

The next part, or parts I was able to work on were the Cryo-tanks or whatever they're called that run along the bottom of the lower tier of the panel frames. There are five tanks per cluster. I scratch built 5 different kinds of tanks with various smaller tanks attached to them. I then used this as a master for making molds. I needed 120 if these tanks for 2 separate models. I cast all of these in black resin then sprayed them a Light Gray primer. They were then detached from their main sprues and put in a pile on my work bench. Then I randomly selected 5 of these tanks for each cluster. These five tanks were attached to 2 mounting bands which allowed the tanks to form a half circle grouping. I then attached all of these clusters to the 6 separate joints along the bottoms of the lower panel frames. They turned out rather well. After I cemented them in place I did more touch up work on all of the tanks.

Another area I worked on was the work crane and work light turrets. These had to be built by scratch. I had purchased a mini-lathe specifically for this project and now I was finally going to use it. I took two wooden wheels that I purchased from Hobby Lobby and put them on the lathe and was able to create the basic shape for the turrets. The turrets resemble mini Jupiter II's from LIS:TOS. After a nice light sanding they turned out perfect, but I found out that they were a bit too large for the scale, so I bought more of the wooden wheels in a smaller size and re-lathed 2 more pieces. It only took about 20 minutes to get the right shape. I then carved out a notch in one of these wheels. This is for the Boom arms that will extend out to the ship. The other wheel was made for the Gangway Docking Port. There are 2 docking ports on this piece and one on the work crane piece. I wanted to add some lighting effects on these turrets so I cast them I clear resin to all I would have to do is opaque the pieces and scrape of the paint where the lighting effect will need to be seen. The castings turned out very good. I am currently opaqueing them and then painting them a light tan color. There are 2 pieces for each of these turrets, this eliminated the need for me casting piece in a 2 piece mold, which is a lot of extra work. BTW there are 5 turrets for the work cranes and 2 for the work lights. I will alos be adding other details later on including the booms for the cranes and wiring and lighting as well as other small details. Most of this will be scratch built.

Another area I've started on are these 6 panels that run along the outside of the dock. There are 3 on the outside of each middle tier. Only 2 of them are really visible in the Drydock scene when Kirk and Scotty are in the travel pod. The only really clear shot of these panels are from a larger scale miniature that was built for a close up shot when the Enterprise is leaving the dock and the little dude is doing summer-salts as he's waving goodbye to the ship. These parts will also have a small but noticeable lighting effect. I started this by cutting up some very thin clear plastic into squares. I used a behind the scenes photo of this as a reference as to how large these panels will be for this scale model. I have added some masking tape for the parts where the lighting will show through. There is some minor detailing that will be added later on, but this too is turning out very good.

Last but not least, I am also working on connecting the armature to the Enterprise. This armature will connect the Ship to the Dock. There will be a lot of tweaking for this armature because of the weight of the ship. It has to sit in the dock very parallel to the panel frames. So hopefully this will be something to look forward to in next month's update. Otherwise there are 33 new progress pics in the April Updates 2015 page.

As always, enjoy the pics, comments and/or suggestions are always welcome. Take care and I'll see you next month.

Mark
NemVia.com

May Updates – 2015

Well, this month I wasn't able to get as far as I would've liked to. I had several things I had to redo on the Enterprise model before I could start the wiring. I needed to add the Hanger bay doors to the back of the ship so they are in the open position. I also added a few more lightis to the hanger bay to enhance their lighting effects. But my primary task was to make sure that I was able to get the Armature mounted into the sauce and also make sure it would hold the ship up without bendig or bouncing too far up and down. The Enterprise does have some weight to it so I wanted to make sure the armature was holding the ship at an even keel. I also needed to start the wiring and have it feed through the armature up into the Drydock and down to the control panel base. This is now easy task as there are many wires to run through the ship. If this was mounted from below on the engineering deck it would a lot easier. But this ship needs to appear to be floating inside the dock and this is the only way to do it.

So I spent most of this last month doing a lot of soldering and wire running. Then after the wires were run thorugh the armature I needed to test that the ligthting circuits were working, then lable all of the wiring and the voltage for it's final connections to the power sources. So, I got the Engineering section wired up as well as most of the upper and lower saucer pieces. I am waiting for a shipment of LEDs to complete the thruster wiring for the Main deflector housing. I was able to get the main deflector dish wired up and working. I have lighting tests pics for some of the ship's lighting. By next month's update I will have the Enterprise resting inside her drydock and then I can add the Port side of the dock to the model. Hang in there gang. It's getting closer to being finished. I have 16 pics int the May Updates page. Check 'em out and enjoy! See you next month.

Mark

NemVia.com

As ever I am just completely floored by your work – that deflector dish is amazing! Please keep the updates coming :)

Agree!

Amicalement
Armand

Wow Thanks guys!I should have my next set of pics posted in about 15 days or so. I've been working on the armature connection tower adding details to cover up the wiring and other things. Since I've been waiting for some parts to come in for the Enterprise I've put this part of the build on the side once again so that I can continue working on the Port side of the dock. I've added the front panels and did a few lighting tests which came out very good. and now I'm adding the lower lighting bar and the mooring tractor beam assemblies. Then I will start on the tension rods for the entire port side. I will have to leave off two of the top tier panel frames so I can fit them around the armature tower. Once the model is in place I can then add the last two panels in. The reason being that I have to cut out a section of the panel frames to make it fit into the tower and make it look like these two structures actually belong together. The detailing on the tower will match the detailing of the rest of the dock. For further references on this you can look at the 1/350 scale dock I built on my site to see how I will accomplish this. The 1/260 scale version will be similar in construction. See you in a couple of weeks.
Mark
NemVia.com

Nem,

this is stunning work to say the least. May I link to your site from our Metal Express homepage?

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Please do! Thanks for asking!
Mark

June Updates – 2015

Hey Everyone!

It's good to be back! We just came back from a week long cruise to the BAHAMAS! A much needed and relaxing vaca! Enough to recharge batteries and enthusiasm to get back to the task at hand.

Anyway, I was going to set up the June updates before I left, but I ran out of time, so here we go….

I needed to wait for some other parts for the model so I had to divide my time on working on the gangway/interface/armature and the port side detailing on the panel frames.

I first had to feed all of the wiring through the armature and feed it up to the top of the armature so I could add the gangway and tower details around the wiring. This will hide all of the wiring and make it appear as though the ship is under it's own power. I built the gangway on this version of the model the same way I did it for the 1/350 scale version of the model. I first started at the hull of the saucer section and work my way out to the tower section then build the actual tower section on three sides and detail it. By only building it up on three sides allows me to add any last minute additional wiring that might be needed. When I'm sure I won't need to add anything I can then seal all of the wiring in and paint all of the details. I was also able to add the three hydraulic lines that are seen in the movie. I used an enhanced screen cap to follow how these lines hang on the sides of the gangway.

In other areas I've added the lower tier mark lights as well as the port side mooring tractor beam turrets. So more soldering and wiring were needed. Also, I began working on the tension rod assemblies for the port side panel frames. I started with the mounting nuts then added the washers and bolts then cement the turnbuckles into place. Next I cement only one end of the tension rod into one end of the turnbuckle and leave the other end to slide in and out of the turnbuckle. This helps keep the rods from bending when I assemble the panel frames to the overhead modules when the weight of the structure shifts.

The last pieces I've worked on in the last month are the outside panels that are seen when the Enterprise takes off from the Dock. I just added some small details. I put some c-channel pieces as well as some tanks on either side of the c-channels. I will be adding an LED to each of these panels later on to add some more lighting effects to the outside of the panel frames. Well, now that vacation is over with, it's back to work on all counts! Enjoy the pics in which there are 12 new ones on the Updates for June – 2015 page! See you in a month!

Mark

NemVia.com

July Updates – 2015

Hi my fellow model builders!
This month's updates are now posted for your enjoyment. I have pretty much been doing a lot of clean up with the port side framework. I'm getting all of the tension rod assemblies in place as well as the port side mark light bars which run along the length of the model. I've also added all of the panel frame details to the sides of each of the panel frames. Everything is pretty much in place and all I have to do now is connect all of the wires and do a lighting test to make sure everything works okay. The only part I didn't detail as of yet is between the top tier 2nd and 3rd panel frames. This is because I will have to cut into the tubing to allow the armature tower to fit in between these panels. I'm a little bit nervous about cutting into these tubes just because I don't want to ruin anything. But this has to be done in order for the ship to be supported inside the dock.
In the meantime, I will be painting up all of the added details that I've put on this last month to match the rest of the dock model. In the updates there are 32 new pics for this month. I've taken more photos to show how the tension rods are added one by one into the structure. It takes about 40 to 45 minutes to complete one panel frame. This is mainly because of all of the small parts I'm using to build this part of the dock. I can't tell you how many times I've wound up dropping parts while trying to put them all in place. I've also been doing some piece counting for the model. There are 9 parts to each of the tension rods. 2 mounting nuts, 2 mounting bolts, 2 washers 2 turnbuckle sleeves and one tension rod. There are 12 tension rods on each panel frame. So just for the tension rod assemblies alone there are 108 pieces per panel frame. 42 panel frames total including the port and starboard frameworks. This equals 4,536 individual pieces just for the panel frames alone. At the end of the entire build I will give you a complete total of all the individual parts needed for this model.
In other areas, I have scratch built some support clamps that are needed to hold the mark lighting rods in place on the outside of the port framework. These clamps were all cemented to the outside of the dock and aligned so that the entire length of the rod would appear straight over the entire length of the dock. The mark light rods are then snapped into the clamps holding them in place. Next I will be doing the wiring for these lights and then do a light test. After everything looks good I can then paint all of these parts to match the dock. I can finally move to get the Enterprise in place. Hope you enjoy all of the pics for this months. As always if you have any comments or questions I'd be happy to hear from you. See you next month! Be safe!
Mark

NemVia.com

Superb work my friend!

Congrats!.

Amicalement
Armand

Thanks Tango01
I'll have some new pics to post in a couple of weeks. See ya then!
Mark

No mention my friend!.

Can't wait to see them! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

August Updates – 2015

Hello Everyone!

I apologize for the delay with this month's updates. A lot going on in my life, lately! Whew! I finally am able to post the update! Anyway, Most of the past month I've been painting all of the turnbuckle assemblies on the inside as well as the outsides of the frames. No easy task considering they needed to be done one part at a time. Some parts needed more than one coat. I would have preferred to airbrush all of this but the masking would be too time consuming and the parts are way too fragile to keep in place. There are too many details on the light panels to worry about overspray and the like.

I have 9 new pics in the August Updates – 2015 page. This shows the painting completed. I've also added the cryo-tanks to the bottom tier of the frames and those are now secured in place as well. About half of the pics are some light test shots. The only other thing I was able to work on are the outside "B" panels. I've added a few more details to each of them. That's pretty much it for this month, now let's get that STARSHIP inside the dock and launch this puppy!

Thanks for being patient, See you next Update!

Mark

NemVia.com

October Updates – 2015

I Apologize for the lack of updates for September, but Life Happens! Mom's been in the hospital and a nursing home for the last Month and a half, I'm getting ready for a move and everything has been very hectic this past month – (phew)

The little I've been able to get done however is in the October Updates 2015 page. I found out that the pieces I cast for the Roof section of the overhead modules were apparently not thick enough to hold a flat shape. Some of them have warped a tiny bit, so instead of recasting all of them I had some pieces of c-channel left over from when I made the frames of the overhead modules and decided to use them for trusses to help keep any of the other panels from warping. The trusses are held in place with 2 screws. The trusses have also stiffened up the entire frame of the roof sections so it all worked out for the better on this build.

So I was able to paint up the top sides of all the roof panels the overall RUST color to match the rest of the dock. All of the panels are connected to the L-strips of aluminum so they can be dropped onto the overhead module assembly as well as be removed for any maintenance or additional details that need to be added to the module assemblies. There are 7 new pics for this month update. I know that's a little weak on what was accomplished in the last couple of months, but now I can get back to the normal work routine of this build. Once again I apologize for the lack of updates, but I'll have more to come for next months updates. Thanks for the patience and I'll see you next month!

Mark

NemVia.com