Captain Picard is coming back! At a
time when we all need a little spark of hope for the future, news that Patrick
Stewart will be returning in a new Star Trek series had me
welling up - Riker might finally get a shot at that chair! After years of keeping an eye on ebay, I took the plunge on a model
of my favourite Enterprise, the D. It's a beautiful, curvaceous ship
that I’ve dreamed of being on since I was a little kid.
I already
had an old AMT model (modified with a moody black paintjob), but the saucer
would never stay attached without glue and the stand has long since been lost. No,
I needed a fresh start, but I don’t have the model-making tools or expertise of
the incredible builders I found while doing research. I’d seen the Diamond
Select version released a few years back – which comes with rudimentary
lighting for the engines, plus some superfluous sound effects and a saucer held
in place with strong magnets – and I’d always had the idea of modding it with some
extra interior lighting and a fresh paintjob. There’s no time like the present.
After acquiring the model, I searched for mods but found only one video and no instructions. So, I thought I’d document my effort for posterity, and in case anyone wants some guidance before cracking open their own. For whatever reason, this model is hard to come by and prices are ridiculous. Mine was unboxed with a broken stand, but the ship itself is in perfect condition (for the time being).
So! After dismantling, my idea is to:
- Drill out all or some of the windows for lighting, depending on feasibility.
- block out light bleed with an interior coat of black paint.
- remove the ugly copyright text from the underside of the saucer.
- paint the hull with green and blue (plus the base grey of this model) to approximate the look of the original studio model, and improve the neck.
- perhaps add some more details or decals such as thrusters or lifeboats.
- modify to make it easy to open and replace batteries, etc.
- buy a custom acrylic stand.
I’d
toyed with the idea of sanding down and painting the aztec panelling anew, but 1)
that would take ages and require masks and airbrushes I don’t have, and 2) there
are some nice touches on the ship (sensor bars and phasers, for example) I don’t
want to lose. The AMT model is 1:1400 scale, and this one is a touch smaller (to
the eye the saucer is about an inch shorter from port to starboard – I’ll
measure with a tape later), so decal sets for the AMT kit would be too big. The
lifeboats might still work, but I’ve decided to paint onto the existing raised
aztec detailing. I also
have no idea what I’m doing with electronics, so my additions will come
straight from Ikea’s lighting department – I’ve seen some rolls of LEDs on a
tape which should stick nicely to the inside of the hull. I’ll just have to
find somewhere discrete to add the switch.
Before
any of this can happen, I need to open the damn thing up – easier said than
done. I’m going to concentrate on the saucer section first. I have a special
hard plastic spatula tool, plus a small phillips screwdriver. I’m also using a
special bit of plastic a bit like a guitar plectrum to help prise the model
apart without destroying it, but without a guide, I’m expecting some damage.
On the
underside there are five obvious panels which must cover screws. The first one
I remove is labelled ‘C’ and it snaps off relatively painlessly. Two small tabs
keep it in position, plus a dollop of glue – I’ll need to find a solution to
keep these from falling off. Blu-tac should do the job if I can’t think of
something sexier. During the removal only one panel (’A’) fractured a little,
but working around the edges with the spatula, none of them broke.
I then
set to work prising the oval tabs on the topside near the bridge, which I
assume are hiding screws. Shaka, when the walls fell! These tabs exist so that the ‘All Good Things’
variant can use the same model mould – this is where the extra phaser cannons slot
in. It’s no biggy as the damaged plug can be repaired or filled in with
modelling putty. Going in blind like this, accidents are inevitable.
With
the five screws removed, the saucer is still very solid, so I turn my attention
to the Captain’s yacht on the very bottom of the saucer. The rear side lifts
quite easily but the front is more stubborn. I can see the small speaker
beneath. Fifteen minutes of prising leads to a crack, but I decide to persevere
and take the whole thing out.
Shaka! It’s screwed in place from the inside with two screws. Well, I needed a place to add a switch for my new
lights, so I guess I just made it! I have an idea to use the old AMT model to
cut and fashion a replacement part for this damaged section – we’ll see how
that pans out another time. The damaged part, unlike the rest of the hull,
appears to be transparent red plastic painted grey.
After removing
the battery pack cover between the bridge and shuttlebay to check for screws (the little tab in the
pictures can be left put but removing it gives you a little more purchase to slide
the cover out), I decide to begin prying apart the saucer.
There is already a gap on the underside (which I may try to seal with another screw when I reassemble).
Working the spatula around to the impulse engines, a small piece
of hull snaps near one of them – again, not a massive problem as it’s easily
repaired with putty later on. Some unnerving cracking follows but with the help
of a sharp knife (careful, kids!), I eventually manage to cut through hidden
support tabs beside either impulse engine. It seems that, in addition to the
screws, these tabs also connect the two halves and they were glued during
assembly.
Carefully
moving around the saucer, I pry open just enough to get a knife in and cut
through the supports. Eventually I make it all the way around. The space between
decks 10 and 11 is painted black and forms part of the lower section, with the
four thrusters (dabs of yellowy-orange paint on this model) attached to the
upper portion. Everything’s mostly intact, but I plan to shave the black plastic
down and replace it with a thin piece of rubber. The four thrusters will also
need some work with putty and, perhaps, decals.
With
the two halves separated, I take a look at the magnet (marked with pen which indicates the right way up so it attracts its counterpart in the battle bridge), the electronics and speaker
assembly, plus the button which forms the bridge module. An LED appears to be
embedded and glued into the bridge module – no wonder there’s so much light
bleed. I’ll decide what to do with that later. The sound effects on this model
are a bit naff and I may well discard the speaker entirely. I’ll also need to
tidy up all these wires, especially as I plan to add a separate lighting
circuit of my own.
That’s
enough for today! I’ve ordered two paints – pale grey-blue (FS 36473) and grey-green
(FS 34432), plus some silver-grey epoxy putty for repairs, but the next phase
will be evaluating the feasibility of drilling out all those windows. They’re painted on this model and the
positioning of some is a bit suspect. Do I have a fine enough drill bit, and could
the plastic stand it? And lets not even think about taking the Stardrive
section apart just yet!
Until
next time!
Things
NOT to do if you’re planning on dismantling the saucer of your Diamond Select
Enterprise D:
- Don’t touch the Captain’s yacht from the outside – it’s screwed in place from the inside.
- Leave
the two oval tabs on the upper side of the panel alone. Also, the small extra
panel in the ‘17’ of the ‘NCC-1701-D’ on the underside contains no screw, so
removing it serves no purpose.
