Ok, so this is the fourth build of this particular model that I've been involved with. I started out with a build that was going to be for me, but sold that build to a client, then I started working on a build for a friend and did the prep work for that and sent it to him to finish his way, third, I got a contract on a pseudo pilot build and just recently, after working on models for everyone else and working on contracts I decided to start work on a model for myself. Well, I started doing the standard production version which seems to be the most popular version, by far, but then I decided to do something different. Everyone is going to be building the TOS Pilot version, except for those that paid the extra for the deluxe kit (What a Joke). I got to thinking about the I.S.S. Tiberius that I designed years ago, an homage to the Mirror Universe and "Tiberius Kirk." At any rate, I started doing something a little different with that, but in the process came up with a quick and cheap way of getting rid of those damned gridlines. It's real simple and is as follows, see description and pictures that follow.
1) Cover the upper and lower primary hull with a couple of heavy coats of primer, let dry. 2) Sand the snot out of them with 600 grit sand-paper and 3) Rub the primer dust into the gridlines... 4) Clean out the lines that you want to keep like the three main deflector grids and the two triangles and repaint.
Remember, you saw it here first! Now, let's see which douche bag uses this as his new idea. LOL!
I have to say that of the four different TOS models that I'm building from the same manufacturer, this is the tightest of them all and it's not even a premium kit. I was lucky.
Below you can see that I've hit the entire ship with another layer of dark primer, I'll sand this with 400 grit sand paper, then go with 600 and after that will use a white cotton cloth the buff the entire thing out before hitting with gloss clear enamel. This will be done before the modifications necessary to turn the ship into the "Tiberius" the ship that I designed and worked on with William Gammons. You can also see that I have my templates ready to laser cut for the TOS era Miranda, or Surya, or whatever... Finally, you can also see the PL inner nacelle with one of our last fiber glassed inner nacelles BEFORE PL got theirs to market. Please note the inner nacelle grid as well.
After months of working on models for other people, I actually got a little work done on my own ship which really consisted of nothing more that sanding all of the main surfaces and prepping for a base coat, still it is progress.
