DeBoers USS Reliant WIP

Yeh, I know it seems like a lot of work building the refit DeBoers Enterprise AND the Reliant, but having two projects going on at the same time should keep me from being bored. The DeBoers Reliant is almost the same size as the Refit Enterprise, a little shorter in length though. The Aztec pattern on the Reliant movie miniature is slightly different from the Enterprise Movie miniature. This model will have working lights, engine effects, etc. I've also run into the same problem I had with the drydock in that there are very few good behind the scenes pics of the filming miniature, so if anyone has any good pictures let me know. I've also started a progress album on my website so you all can see the progress. Right now I'm in the process of drilling out the viewport holes and bay doors and such. I'll keep you updated with this project as well. See you next update.

~NemVia~
http://www.NemVia.com

Finally I have new pics #'s 5 - 13 in the photo gallery. The Reliant is not as difficult as the Enterprise model, but there are a lot of challenges for this kit as well. In this update I've been mostly drilling out all of the viewports and getting the pieces ready for lighting and assembly. This is a really cool model and I'm really enjoying the build. I'll have more pics soon! See ya then!

~NemVia~

http://www.NemVia.com

6 new pics are in the DB Enterprise gallery. I have drilled out the details on the main deflector housing as well as begun on a scratch build hanger deck. I have aquired a 2nd DB Enterprise model Through another client of mine and am awaiting one more kit so I will now be working on 4 models at the same time. They will all be built pretty close together so they will all be at the same building stage at the same time. The updates might be a little farther apart now but I am still working on these projects, so keep checking for updates.

~NemVia~

http://www.NemVia.com

Well, I'm not one to toot my own horn, but in this case I think I have to make an exception. I was test fitting 4 DeBoers models, 3 Enterprise refits and 1 Reliant, that I am building for my clients and it occured to me that I might be entitled to at least some "Bragging Rights" but I don't know. Anyway I thought I'd share these pics with you because it's not very often you see this many Starhips being assembled at the same time. Hope you enjoy seeing this pics. It is a privilage for me to build them. Click on the image for more pics.



~NemVia~

http://www.NemVia.com

Your building ALL at the same time?
Your gonna need a bigger boat(I mean spray booth )

Toonarmy wrote:

Your building ALL at the same time?
Your gonna need a bigger boat(I mean spray booth )

Yeh I know... crazy ain't it? But I'm a glutten for punishment and big ships!

In my update this week, I've begun working on the cargo bay section of the hanger deck. I had to take a lot of interior measurement od the DB Engineering section to make it as large as possible and also make sure it is to scale and that it will actualy fit into the model when I'm finished building it. Then I had to take a lot of measurements of the PLE hanger to scale it up to the DBE size. Everything is being built as a master so that I can make some casting molds. If you look at all of the detail that I'm adding, you'll see why I'm going to be making casting. To put the details on just the upper and lower cargo bay stalls on just one wall took me a little over 3 hours. It's a bear to do but worth the effort. By next update I will have the details on the upper part of the cargo bay added in and all of the strucural wall braces or "ribs" as I'm calling them will be added and then I can start on the ceiling and begin moving to the lower hanger deck starting in the middle section of the hanger. The New Pics star on slide 38 - 47. Hope you enjoy the updates and I'll see you when I have new pics.



~NemVia~
http://www.NemVia.com

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.

http://www.NemVia.com

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
http://www.NemVia.com

I've finally been able to opaque the nacells for Reliant. They were the easiest to putty and sand because the pieces matched up so much nicer than the Enterprise nacells. By my next update I should have the base colors started on the engines so I can begin Aztecing the engines. See you then!

Mark.

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

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

http://www.NemVia.com

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

http://www.NemVia.com

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

Home - NemVia Productions

Big milestone this month! I have added 12 new pics to the Reliantalbum! 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!

To find the pics on the albums faster just hover the cursor over the pics. They are now identified by numbers rather than dates.

See you next update!!!!

Mark

http://www.NemVia.com

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

Home - NemVia Productions

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.

http://www.NemVia.com

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

http://www.NemVia.com

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 will then be able to concentrate on the Enterprise Hulls all this month.
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
http://www.NemVia.com

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.


See you next update! Enjoy! And as always comments and New members are always welcome!

Mark

http://www.NemVia.com

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

http://www.NemVia.com

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

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 ( 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
http://www.NemVia.com