I attached the main saucer to the top of the engineering hull at this stage, as test fitting showed that there were gaps to be filled here and sanding would be a lot easier without the warp nacelle pylons in my way. Here’s the sanded and primed result.
The edges of the saucer section gave problems too – there’s a recess all the way around as on the engineering hull, and getting the gap consistent took a LOT of carving, sanding, scraping and filling. In this photo, the impulse engines still need tidying up a bit yet.
One piece which needed to be painted before I closed up the engineering hull was the main deflector. As I’m not lighting this model from inside, I thought the best way to get the glowing effect in this area was to prime it, give it a coat of gloss black which acted as an undercoat for the Alclad Chrome paint on top of that as a reflector, and then a coat of Tamiya clear blue on top. I hand painted the brown areas according to my references. The idea is that once it was installed and blended in, I could use my airbrush to feather the hull grey colour over the electric blue, giving the impression of luminance. That was the idea, anyway, you can decide if it worked or I’m just talking rubbish.
Anyway, the engineering hull was then closed up, and the final coat of white primer was added. Here she sits, awaiting paint.
And a mock up on the stand to make sure everything works. Looked ok to me.
