(DONE Pics Pg. 3) Starfleet Ferengi Maurader "U.S.S. Xander"

[TheChronicOne]

90% done with paint. All the details on the top and bottom are finished aside from yet a bit more touch up. After that I just need one last coat of paint on the pincers then to paint the lil doo-dad that goes at the very top. I'm trying to make it "construction-ey" of course so it will be grey/yellow stripes and what not.

Last but not least, the inset areas where the clear pieces go for the engines. Going to start with the closest of my colors to "electric" blue that is called "island blue."

I was wondering how to hang this thing up to paint it. When I did the other stuff I just put a clip on one of the pincers knowing it wouldn't matter because they get gold paint anyway... well, with everything painted, what to do?  Then it hit me..the little doo dad on top goes on almost dead last so I just drilled a hole in there so I can put my christmas ornament hanger in there. 


Sorry, but we're at the stage where I stop doing pictures so that the big reveal is actually worth seeing. You know how it is...  diminishing returns and all that...  It doesn't look much different anyway. The underside looks quite a bit different, though, but even that I decided to not get TOO crazy with as I don't have eons for touch up. IN FACT, I used colored pencils on 90% of it.

More to come later!  Paint at MOST will take another hour then I can clear it and let it sit around for a couple hours then nothing left but transfers and another coat of either clear gloss or perhaps satin. I was thinking of making aztec patterns by simply covering up one finish so that there difference lies in the juxtaposition between gloss and satin. But uhhh.......     there goes that masking again so I discarded that idea. Maybe on the next one.

TTYL! 

[TheChronicOne]

A lot more paint work than I thought!!! Wow! STILL AT IT.

Oh well...   It's coming together and I'm REALLY close to being done, now.

I had to dispense with the wild colors for the engines because the clear parts are much more clear than I thougt they would be. There is texture and design on them so I was thinking they would wind up being sort of like frosted glass or kind of like the ridged stuff on top of shifting holograms but this stuff broadcasts what's underneath as clear as day so I've decided to go with the blue and red on the borders. Of course... now.. I have to go back in for a few passes of tedious clean up work to get all the lines straight but they should look pretty good!

I have most of the little top doo-dad painted now and it looks pretty cool.

I may finish the painting and get a clear coat on but I don't think I'll get to decalling this today.  Like I said 4 hours ago, I anticipate another hour or so of painting before I can clear coat and as humid as it is it's going to take twice as long to dry up sufficiently so I'll call it a day at the gloss coat.

[TheChronicOne]

Final push on this takes place today. I'm dealing with terrible atmo conditions (monsoon like rain and 100% humidity) so I won't exactly be moving at Warp Speed, BUT, that shouldn't keep me from finishing this up.

More paint touch up going today (of course) on the top surfaces near the engines where I painted the inner rim red. Also, a bit of touch up on the actual red parts then I paint the edges of the clear pieces red, as well, to cover anything I may have missed.

After that, I can gloss the ship.

After that, I finish painting the little doo-dad that goes on top. It's almost done. Should be about 10 minutes worth of work then nothing is left but to apply transfers then re-coat it and consider whether or not I want to weather this thing.  I might pulverize some pencil lead and dry brush it on in some areas. We'll see.

Stand by for a pic of the little doo-dad!   

[TheChronicOne]

Took nearly 30 minutes just to get my phone/camera to talk to my computer to get ONE picture uploaded. It better not pull this crap later when I have a dozen or more. 


Anyway!!  These things get a little boring without pictures so I snagged one of the DOO-DAD ( I still have no clue what the hell it is.... I think I'll have it be like a detachable worker-bee with cutting phasers or something ) that goes on top.



The rest of the painting is done.. ALL of it (finally).  I even glossed the thing. Another hour or so then I should be able to start decaling. I'll definitely be done with this today!

[TheChronicOne]

50 billions transfers on this thing. Wow... the painting I was doing today took way longer than I thought.... and decalling took way longer than I thought. I figured I'd be done about 2 PM but it's a quarter past 5 now!!   

No never mind, though, because all I have to do is put the second gloss coat on, let it dry a couple hours, then glue on the 4 clear parts and the Worker Bee.  That will take less than five minutes, I guarantee. 

I dunno if this thing is over done or not because even at this late stage It still looks unfinished!! I supposed after all the clear parts are in it will be more conclusive. I think it looks pretty neat though. Nothing anywhere near the other stuff I've seen in the GB so far but... hey... I participated!!! 

I need to set up my SPACE DIORAMA stuff then about 3-4 hours from now ( ) I'll have pictures! 

[strobez]

I know that feeling about the painting taking longer than expected. Every time I say "oh, this'll only take a second", I'm innfor an hour-long battle. 

I've been looking at your doo-dad picture for a bit and I just can't tell what it is.  It looks a bit like a striped bicycle seat. But the blue light intrigues me.

Looking forward to the completed pics!

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!

It was definitely never explained in show what the doo-dad is but uhhh... I think there are some "schematics" somewhere on the net that say what it is. Or... what someone guesses/thinks it ought to be. I saw them days back when doing research but I since ran CCleaner and lost all my open tabs.    It doesn't matter anyway, as this is whif world. Hell, I don't even know what the pincers do on the real version and mine both. I suppose they can be used for heave duty cutting but uhhh..... with phasers and stuff things like that would be obsolete. I suppose... they can be used for cutting up things that would be too volatile to use energy beam cutting on?  Sounds plausible I guess.. . .

Blue light is just coming off the laptop cooling pad.   

And man, I'm going to start doubling or quadrupling my time estimates on painting things. Like how Scotty does his engineering estimates. If it'll take 2 hours, he says it'll take 4, then when he gets it done in 2 everyone is like, "Wow, that Scotty is something else!" and he's suddenly a "miracle worker." 

[TheChronicOne]

All done!

[Rick Lowe]

Nice! That came up a treat.

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!!  I was worried about it being TOO busy but I think I got it right. After all, the "real thing" is much more detailed.

Y'all won't believe this but I done lost the damn thing. I dunno where I put it..  :::looks around:::: 

Maybe it's down in the kitchen where I took pictures.

[Rick Lowe]

Well, all the TNG stuff is to about that level of (over)detailed-busyness so it looks fine. 

[sykotik]

I'm not much of a Trek fan (presuming this is from that universe?) but I quite like that ship. It came out really nicely! Well done 

[NARSES2]

That's really come out well 

[zenrat]

Good job Brad C.
This is quite small isn't it?
Makes it even more impressive.

[Old Wombat]

Very nice work, Brad!