1:1000 Enterprise NX-01

[BigWall]

Well, I'm not building a girl robot. My wife nixed that so I moved on to the Polar Lights 1:1000 Enterprise NX-01 from the show Enterprise that was a gift from my boys for Christmas.

E 1 by Big Wall, on Flickr

For a small kit, there are a lot of parts in the kit. Some are not used unless you're building the NX-01 Refit Enterprise which updated the original ship to look more like the ship in the original Star Trek series.

E 2 by Big Wall, on Flickr

There's the upper and lower hull,

E 3 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Clear sprues and display base.

E 4 by Big Wall, on Flickr

other assorted pieces and parts,

E 5 by Big Wall, on Flickr

E 6 by Big Wall, on Flickr

and finally, the instructions and decals for several different ships and variants from the show.

E 7 by Big Wall, on Flickr

My last scifi build was Enterprise NCC-1701D from The Next Generation and that was back before I was married, so more than 25 years ago. I'm looking forward to building this ship. I'll build it out of the box. It appears that, at one time, aztecing decals were available, but they don't seem to be available now. I'll do my own aztecing with paint and a brush, just not on as fine a level as the decals.

[Stokesy44]

Good choice. I really enjoyed the series, thought it was a fitting prequel.

[digger303]

Good choice. I really enjoyed the series, thought it was a fitting prequel.

Me too most disappointed it didn't go longer.

[Tomcat64]

Good choice. I really enjoyed the series, thought it was a fitting prequel.

Me too most disappointed it didn't go longer.

Thirded - I really enjoyed this one and would have liked to have seen more of it.

Looking forward to seeing how the kit builds up too

[MrBowcat]

Fourth'd. Literally just finished re-watching all 4 seasons.

Sad when Trip died.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Sweet
Glad to have you aboard

[Casper]

Great choice joe
casp

[DBMiller]

Lovely! I have one of these, and will build it someday. Really.

[RangerNeil]

Nice choice - makes a change from the usual NCC-1701/A/D. Looking forwards to seeing how this goes.
Probably a dumb question - but have you tried CultTVMan for the aztecing decals???

[BigWall]

Nice choice - makes a change from the usual NCC-1701/A/D. Looking forwards to seeing how this goes.
Probably a dumb question - but have you tried CultTVMan for the aztecing decals???

Nice suggestion! No decals but they did have painting masks! Thank you!

[Casper]

Nice choice - makes a change from the usual NCC-1701/A/D. Looking forwards to seeing how this goes.
Probably a dumb question - but have you tried CultTVMan for the aztecing decals???

Thanks for the link Neil love that Razor Crest

[chops1sc]

I have watched TNG all the way through but I haven't really watched any of the other series. Looks like a great kit!

[BigWall]

Thanks everyone for the comments. TNG is definitely my favorite series but this Enterprise is my favorite and this show has the best opening sequence by far, showing what we've accomplished and where we could go as humans.

[BigWall]

So, I guess some history...no... future? needs to be told about my modeling subject.

The Enterprise NX-01 was one of the most important starships in interstellar history. It established United Earth as an interstellar presence and established us as an interstellar power. This upheaval in Alpha and Beta quadrant politics lead to the creation of The Coalition of Planets and eventually to The United Federation of Planets. This vessel led the way to advances in technology and science/exploration that totally changed the Alpha and Beta quadrants of our galaxy

(Mostly stolen from memory-alpha.fandom.com.)

[MrBowcat]

And was also the first Warp 5 ship.

[BigWall]

And was also the first Warp 5 ship.

Indeed!

[BigWall]

So, I've started with the build. It's pretty simple parts wise. The fit of the parts is rather bad though. Most need to have the snap fit connectors modified so that the parts will fit together and assembling the model without glue would leave it a hot mess. But enough bitching. It's been easy enough and a little filler will correct the gaps in the seams.

Here's where it sits now. I'm still working on gluing the upper and lower sections together a section at a time. I painted the back of the clear parts silver and covered the outer faces with Microscale Micro Mask. After painting the hull, I'll remove the mask and paint the clear parts with clear blue Tamiya paint.

E 8 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[digger303]

[Kevthemodeller]

Oh I do like a bit of Star Trek, following along

[BigWall]

I finally got it assembled! That's not a big achievement as there are only about 10 pieces but it's finally done. Once assembled, I went thru and filled all the gaps with Vallejo Acrylic Plastic Putty.

E 9 by Big Wall, on Flickr

The next step was to figure out which two colors to use for the hull. I decided on first painting it Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver mixed with XF-56 Metallic Gray in a 2:1 ratio.

E 10 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Next was applying the masks from Aztek Dummy. So far, there's 7 that don't fit properly so I'll have to make those on my own and I've found two masks on the sheet that aren't on the instructions. That's not a problem as it's obvious where they needed to go. Other than that they have gone down fine. Once these are all down, I'll paint again with Tamiya Chrome Silver. Hopefully the two colors are distinct enough from each other on the model. They were on my test piece.

E 11 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[cor]

Looking awesome already.

[Tomcat64]

Great too see that coming together Joe - looking forward to seeing how the paintwork goes down now

[Kevthemodeller]

Moving along very nicely

[BigWall]

Thanks everyone!

I made a bit more progress. I've over sprayed the masks with Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver and have removed the masks. I think it came out quite well. I want to add some darker aztecing to the engine nacelles as there were not any masks for them. I'll just go thru and quickly do this with a brush. This is the first time that I've airbrushed metallic paint. It kept clogging up the airbrush but I made it thru without any major issues.

E 12 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[Tomcat64]

Wow - that's a really crisp result on the Aztec markings - nice work Joe

[DBMiller]

Nice paint job!

[BigWall]

Thank you Neil and DB! I was really surprised to tell the truth. The metallic paints really just sort of clumped out and I got lucky that I didn't have any serious issues with really thick spots of paint.

I made some good progress this weekend. The decals are applied and most of the details are painted. I want to give it a coat of clear gloss, paint the details that I want to stay flat, remove the liquid mask and then paint the clear red and blue areas. It's almost there!

E 13 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[cor]

It's looking cool. Should be great after the final touches.

[BigWall]

It's looking cool. Should be great after the final touches.

Thank you!

It's almost there.

E 14 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[digger303]

Terrific paint effect.....might be one of the best I've seen.

[Stokesy44]

Beautiful paint job

[Twokidsnosleep]

Oh yeah, that looks great
Love the details on the top side

[Garion77]

stunning work !! you're going to make me like Star Trek if you go on like that.

[aur0ra145]

Wow, that looks legit!

[BigWall]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the comments and compliments!

I'm calling this done other than some touchups. I'll post up some better pictures in the Final Reveal thread soon.

E 16 by Big Wall, on Flickr

E 15 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[MrBowcat]

Very nice result.

[BigWall]

Very nice result.

Thank you!