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Enterprise D Playmates Custom Lighting and Painting


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#1 Kmagz

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Posted 10 March 2014 - 04:18 AM

This has taken me a while to start a write up of my attempt to re-light and paint my tired old Playmates Enterprise D. My initial intention was to just clean it up and add some brighter lights to it, but once I started, my mind began going crazy with ideas as you will see. This was not an easy build as this toy was built to be played with....hard, so pulling this thing apart took some time, patience and a fluent vocabulary of words I cannot repeat on here. As I would like to attempt the kit version of this ship, I think this was a good insight for what to expect when I eventually tackle that build.
I do not have the full documented process of this build as I had not intended to post it, so please forgive the lack of detail.
Here is what I started with. It was not mounted to the stand originally; this was a simple battery operated toy with a single globe in each Nacelle and a soundboard.
 
Enterprise D Playmates
 
Once I had taken the whole thing apart I decided I was not satisfied with simply changing the Nacelle bulbs and putting it back together, so I decided to light the windows. The trouble with this idea is the playmates toy does not have windows, well none that would light up. So I began the long and tedious process of individually drilling out each window I wanted to be lit. I was almost about ready to give up after the second one, but I kept going. I must have watched the whole series of TNG by the time I finished.
 
Lighting test 1

 

Here are the Nacelles with their new lights installed. I test fit everything about 50 times before sealing them up. The insides were lined with tin foil to minimise the amount of light bleed you have to block out later on. 

 

Nacelles Lighting test 1
 
Nacelles Lighting test 2
 
The inside of the saucer section was also lined with foil and two lighting strips were used for the lower and upper sections. The aim was to get an even amount of lighting around the saucer. In this picture you can see the base with 3 switches. I wanted to be able to turn the windows, Nacelles and impulse engines on separately. The base is just a picture frame with a $5 lamp stem bolted to it. Simple, but it does the job.......for now.

 

Nacelles and Saucer Lighting test

 

Nacelles Lighting test 4
 
After I saw the ship al lit up, I decided not to replace the soundboard. By this stage of the build, the ship was becoming more of a display piece rather than a toy and I felt it was much easier to leave it out for now and I can find a way to incorporate it back in later.
 
Once all the lighting had ben positioned and fixed in place, I began sealing up each sections and cleaning up all major imperfections and light bleeds. The biggest change was the spine where the buttons were previously mounted. These were filled in and sanded back smooth. My aim was not for screen accuracy as this toy is not in proportion in some areas, and I was not going to the extent of scratch building sections to fix this. The only thing left to do was clean up the areas that didn't fit together 100% by filling in with some plastic putty along the seams and sand/file smooth ready for painting.
 
Close up Rear Spine
 
Lights Out Test

 

 

I then began masking the Nacelles, deflector and impulse engines and shot the entire ship in black. Some areas required a fine paint brush where the spray couldn't cover enough.  I then applied the grey base coat ready for the next step. Applying Aztecs. This is all I have time for tonight as it is getting late, but I will continue with my application of the aztec pattern soon. Hope you enjoy it so far.

 

Light Bleed Fix
 
Final Base Coat

 

 
Painting Black Base Coat
 

 

 

 



#2 Destructor!!!

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Posted 11 March 2014 - 07:54 PM

Oh man, this is fantastic!

 

You're a hell of a lot more diligent and determined than I am/was!

 

As far as I'm concerned, my projects are all on pause, but it's been nearly 3 years since I lifted an airbrush. Maybe seeing your techniques will get me over the hump!



#3 Kmagz

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Posted 14 March 2014 - 03:58 AM

Destructor!!! I hear you. Its been easily over 12 months since I finished this and I have not touched another model. I hope you do decide to dust off the cobwebs mate. I would love to see more of these models customised and re-built.

 

Ok on to Aztecs.

 

I started by placing a piece of paper over the hull and traced the pattern of the panels. I had some reference photos whited helped to get a basic pattern. My intention was to then use it as a mask and spray paint with a lighter colour over the base coat.

 

Aztec Attempt 1
 
Aztec Attempt 2
 
I did a test of a few panels, but this didn't turn out very well. There was plenty of over spray and it would have taken ages to section off one area at a time. So I had a bit of a brain storm and decided to cover the whole top section in masking tape. Using a black pen I marked out the hull pattern and begun re-drawing the design. This process was just as time consuming as the windows. So if you attempt this, patience is a must.
 
Aztec Masking 1
 
Aztec Masking
 
Aztec Masking 2
 
Aztec Masking 3
 

Once I had the top of the ship marked out, I started to cut away the black parts. I was not as careful as I should have been with this and ended up cutting into the plastic. If I did this again, I would have marked it out on the ship and transferred the tape onto a cutting board to cut out. I ended up doing it this way on the underside. The only issue you will have doing it this way is the tape is less tacky and will start to peel away.

 

Aztec Masking 4
 
Saucer Aztec
 
I did use reference images to get the basic pattern down, but as I was not attempting to have my build screen accurate I made random patterns in certain areas. You will notice this around the bridge area and shuttle bays.
 
Aztec Continued
 
Aztec Continued 2
 
Aztec Continued 3
 
The Nacelles were much easier as they have raised areas which outline the patterns. To mask this, I simply placed the tapu over the Nacelles and lightly ran the pen over the tape. Basically a rubbing. Once I had the outline on the tape I did the same process as the rest of the hull.
 
Aztec Continued 4
 
Aztec Continued 5
 
Finally when the whole ship was masked, it was time to paint. For the painting I chose Tamiya spray paints (as I do not have an air brush.......yet) and I find that these have a good consistency. I chose the closest colours I could find which would contrast well. It doesn't matter which way you do this (dark over light or light over dark) I did it this way mainly due to trial and error. I didn't like how dark i looked so I chose a lighter grey for the second colour.
 
By now it has been a few months worth of trial and error, but by this stage all the effort finally feels worth while.
 
De-masking Aztecs
 
De-masking Aztecs 2
 
I decided the colours were to contrasting and the dark colour really stood out. To soften this out I simply sprayed some mist coats of light grey over the whole ship to help blend the pattern together a bit better. This seemed to work well. I then gave the whole ship a coat of clear pearl to give it that metallic feel when the light hits it. You can see this better in some of the close up shots of the finished ship.
 
Painting Details
 
The last steps were to add the details and markings. I ordered a set of replacement decals for the 1/1400 kit model as this is only slightly larger than this toy and I don't quite have the ability to re-create the markings in the correct size. I was very impressed with the quality of these decals and the amount of detail compared to the standard stickers that come with the toy.
 
these last few images are of the ship with all the markings added on and escape pods painted. The decals did come with all the escape pods but these were slightly bigger and would not have formed over the raised parts very well. 
 
Final Markings 2
 
Nacelles
 
Shuttle bays
 
One thing I forgot to mention was the modification of the deflector array. This was originally cast in clear red plastic and never lit up on the original toy, so this was a big focus for me in the beginning to try and get this right. I gathered lots of reference photos and still shots from the DVD,s, and I even looked at how the 1/1400 scale was cast to work out a way to modify mine. I first drilled a hole in he centre for the single blue LED to poke through from the back. I then painted the whole deflector in light flat yellow. I found this is as close to the original model colour I could find (without being overly accurate)  and found this will distribute the light evenly. The next step was to cut out a small oval shape in clear plastic to sit over the top of the LED. The clear plastic was just an old packet of screws and I used a clear plastic tube from a new paint brush to sit over the LED to glue the plastic onto. Before the plastic was glued into position, I cut a smaller oval out of masking tape to create the inner light ring and painted the plastic in black first, then a shot of white and finally a flat tan colour. 
 
This is the end result.
 
Deflector
 
And I think it works well
 
Deflector Dish
 
Here are some shots of the final model with the lights on. I am relatively happy with the way this turned out, and as usual, I will always find more to do on this. I did rush the base stand and feel it does nothing for the rest of the ship. So I have plans to change this in the not to distant future. But until then, I hope you enjoy this for now.

 

Final Lighting 3
 
Final Lighting 2
 
Enterprise D warp 6
 
Enterprise top view
 
Deflector Lighting

 

 

 

 

 

 



#4 Destructor!!!

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Posted 18 March 2014 - 08:53 AM

I'm in heaven.

#5 Daysleeper

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Posted 18 March 2014 - 09:12 AM

Congrats! She looks gorgeous!



#6 stardestroyer001

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Posted 13 July 2014 - 07:35 AM

That is simply amazing, and really inspiring.






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