craft E.S.S. (Equestria Star Ship) Rainbow Dash needs a hand... (pics inside)

[GrimCW 658]

Prob qualifies for the other sub forum, but I'm going with better safe that sorry..

 

Okay so I'm customizing one of my Refit Enterprise model kits from the star trek movies 1 though 6, and making it the "E.S.S. Rainbow Dash"

 

but a few points are bugging me so I want input. 
The enterprise is normally white with light blue accents on various parts.

But i'm repainting the whole ship to a nice light blue color and I figured the hard backs (base of the neck and top of the secondary section) could be rainbow colored, as could the inside of the nacelle grills.

 

But what about the rest?!

things like the band around the bridge, Ring around the Impulse core, the airlocks, front of the nacelles, the deflector dish (the big blue glowy part on the bottom for those who don't know)

Outboard nacelles, buzzard collector grills.....

 

 

 

Some shots of my Battle damage build below for references as to what i speak.

 

 

 

First we see the inboard/outboard of the nacelles and the forward side grills. 

Normally its copper for the front ones, blue or purple inboard where it glows, and silver on the outboard long ones. I'm thinking rainbow colors on the shuttle bay doors and little Twilight sparkle and other pony colored shuttles inside it (Yes this kit has internal parts!)

 

 

 

Next up a couple of the airlocks i mentioned, the deflector, Torpedo bays, and the dorsal bands.  As well as the front of the nacelles. Was thinking of leaving the grills here black, but what about that outter part?....

 

 

 

An image off the web of the bands and other marks around the bridge.. 

 

 

 

I've already begun to paint the main parts the nice light blue and intend to use mostly regular markings for it aside from trying to replace the registries and starfleet logos.

I was thinking her eye color (Magenta?) for the deflector dish, but what of the other parts?!...

 

I mean, I have various idea's, but when i get to thinking it over theres so many ways.. so I'm kinda curious what others may come up with to keep it RD styled and awesome without going completely clown car looking

So I'm mostly looking to try to find a uniform color scheme, bands one color, airlocks another, etc...

and keep the rainbow blend itself to the hardbacks, nacelles, and shuttle bay door (the parts that trail when it goes to warp usually  )

 

 

And just for fun, a bit of inspiration (I was looking to see if this had been done before ) a pic i found after i came up with the idea to start this

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll get pics of the actual model as I build it, but the paint i'm using for the base takes 9 hours to dry enough to touch, and i'm having to hand mask the windows with liquid mask... so hopefully some early photos will appear sometime later or friday

 

 

Edit:

So updates ahoy!

so far painted the saucer up, cleaned its windows, and then painted the nacelles.

Now to finish pieceing the saucer together, touchup, and decide on its secondary colors....

 

Heres my thought.

Leave the 4 yellow points on the outter parts yellow, make the band around the bridge violet instead of grey, and the phaser turrets green (considered red, but they get a red outline around them later.... so that kinda moots it)

 

but what of the rest of the bridge and around the impulse core... ugh....

 

Edited August 22, 2013 by GrimCW

[Rayalicious 435]

wow good job being a huge fan of star trek i am pretty impressed some cool advice its that u paint both of the main engines with a rainbow color ending with a slight but vibrant fade, as if it was the hyper drive effect(the blue remains of the engines after they go light speed )(ofc u watched the movie ) And btw i couldn't resist commenting about it, but nice 5.1 channel speakers specifically Logitech Logitech Speakers X-530 i used to have em but busted em with extreme sound XD currently using Logitech Speakers Z506

 

EDIT: i meant warp drive, hyperdrive is for star wars sorry

Edited August 22, 2013 by supersonic rainboom

[GrimCW 658]

Thanks? I LOVE the Star Trek ships, and am somewhat informed there. Not so much the shows though.. I know a lot, but trivia ready i would not be

 

When i started the first one up above i did a LOT of research, and asked a ton of questions on the Starship modeler forums

Elitists they may be, but they're VERY informative too!

I believe the term is "Rivet counters" when dealing with model kits

 

 u paint both of the main engines with a rainbow color ending with a slight but vibrant fade, 

 

I plan to paint the inboard area, the part that glows when its at warp and streaks) the rainbow colors along with the hardback (where the neck meets the secondary) and the Shuttlebay as is hmmm... maybe I could make a streamer for it, to make it look like its at warp?

 

Though debating the shuttle bay... Maybe a straight blue or green instead? Trying not to go clown car and make it all crazy colored

 

Looking back, and by the advice of the Girl upstairs (huge RD fan that she is) it looks like the light blue spots are going to be made white (basically reversing the Enterprises regular color scheme)

 

I'm also thinking the grey parts (band around the bridge, and front of the nacelles) could be made Violet... 

 

Gonna start detailing the saucer tonight, so more pics either later or tmrw!

 

now to figure out what to replace the Bronze/copper parts with.... (Phaser array's and flux grills on the nacelles)

 

hmm maybe green or blue for the outboard of the nacelles? (normally shown as black, but was silver on the actual studio model)

 

Still, suggestions are still wanted regardless

[Rayalicious 435]

Wow dude i really wish i had this patience to customize in so much details lol good luck anyway, though i would customize my pc to a MLP theme as in add some decals but not more unless its something that really is important to me like my robots (finished a 3 month project in 3 weeks and i got featured on TV for wining the 1st prize of the science fair, at AUB(americain unversirty of beirut) ill link in some pics if u want XD just to show that determination will lead you somwhere

[GrimCW 658]

SOoo the color scheme is coming along.. tbh expected more input, but meh.

 

Gonna make the bridge dome red/green/blue, but i'm outta blue atm.. and my attempt to make violet with dark blue paint gave me something darker.. 

But looking at it, that color worked, it IS purple, but its dark.. so, I made the dark blue/grey areas around the bridge and on the nacelles this deep purple instead

 

Looks good with a bit of color on it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also recall why I hate hand painting light colors like white..... it never brushes on to well unless you make it thick, or in lots of layers.

Wow dude i really wish i had this patience to customize in so much details lol good luck anyway, though i would customize my pc to a MLP theme as in add some decals but not more unless its something that really is important to me like my robots (finished a 3 month project in 3 weeks and i got featured on TV for wining the 1st prize of the science fair, at AUB(americain unversirty of beirut) ill link in some pics if u want XD just to show that determination will lead you somwhere

 

Hah, please do!

as for the decals.. I slammed a couple of those on my iPad, and a couple others on my car

heh.

customizing things gets easier when the air brush comes out though

 

soon.. soon she'll be free again...

but atm it needs a good cleaning, seems i somehow forgot to clean out the bottle last time around...

Edited August 24, 2013 by GrimCW

[Rayalicious 435]

ok so I took a look at the pics and i'm not sure if u did. but use tape, to cover the areas that u want to protect and u will also have a cleaner straighter finish Then when your done just pull of the tape , and there you have 100%straight finish because i can kind of notice the paint a bit out of bounds, like a tiny bit but still, for example i use it whenever i use paint spray so that it doesn't spread everywhere+it will looks as if it was done by a pro 

 

And ofc let it dry completely, meanwhile work on a different area (but keep the tapes on )then make as many applications u nee.

[GrimCW 658]

ok so I took a look at the pics and i'm not sure if u did. but use tape, to cover the areas that u want to protect and u will also have a cleaner straighter finish 

 

I do when I use the airbrush or some other propelled paint.

Most of this was done by hand though, and in my experience hand paint + tape ends up with bad bleeding under the tape  Usually cause i'm trying not to get it to tight, as that it'll rip the paint off that its supposed to be protecting.

Most of the out of bounds spots are gonna get touched up for the few that are there

Most of what I see up there though is where i didn't actually go along the edges as i should've (the big band actually has room for more paint...) 

So where it appears to have bled, its actually just not fully painted.. was being extra careful this round, and plan to touch up when I find a better brush...

 

Either way, good eye!

or just big pics.. either way

 

For small spots though tape is bad mmmkay

I used a liquid mask in some parts on this (such as on the windows there) it got a little extra coverage in spots, but not bad otherwise.

I'm also not fond of using tape on a body thats been painted.. leave it on to long and it grips the paint and rips it right off.. and the paint i used for the body here feels kinda rubbery, its a double coverage spray (basically it applies 2 coats where normal paints only do single) So i'm unsure how it'll react...

 

But when i get around to it I am going to need to tape up the Dorsal (neck) and to apply the rainbow colors I plan for the hardback area's.

So we'll see how that goes over

but first.. i need to clean the airbrush and find where the tape went this time..

Edited August 24, 2013 by GrimCW

[GrimCW 658]

More pics of more progress

the Nacelle Pylons, and the bridge.

Tons more done though, just not put together.

Tmrw I should be slapping at least the neck onto the saucer if nothing else, but the secondary needs the airbrush (still not cleaned :/ ) and I need to find a good violet/purple for the nacelles and secondary... Hard to believe its so hard to come by :/

tried making some.. but it always comes out DARK.... I want a nice bright purple!

 

Note to self, don't forget second coat for yellow...

Next up... APPLES!

 

the arboretum... yes the enterprise had an arboretum on board.. shame it was never shown though  

 

My phone sucks at close ups though.

and the stray brush marks were left intentionally to add character

i though it made it look better...

 

 

Slipped whats done all together for a quick shoot. no glue though! So its held together by its own parts and my hand... NOT easy to pull off lol, one wrong move and it all would've slipped apart all over the place!

 

 

Gonna apply most of the decals before I actually combine everything, just to make it a bit easier.

 

But in all honesty, the secondary needs its paint job first

But its all so close along i had to get a couple shots...

Touchups needed around some of the windows where the liquid mask covered to much, and in a couple spots the paint didn't reach..

Edited August 26, 2013 by GrimCW