Craig Wheeler’s Enterprise E

I was exactly one year in making this model! I just couldn’t get into it. For one thing, I think its too small! The other thing that drove me crazy was the different colored panels. The panels were just large enough, that only an airbrushed job would do it justice. Trying to hand brush the panels would have looked awful. Thus, this required meticulous masking. First of all, I assembled the secondary hull, warp engines, and pylons – and kept them separate. The saucer was not assembled yet. So, I basically have six sub assembly pieces that I painted with an over all base coat of Model Master’s Flat Gull Gray (FS 36440). So far so good. Now, I masked small sections at a time all over the hull, and painted them with Light Sea Gray (FS 36307). I used masking tape, striping tape, and liquid mask, to achieve proper masking over the curves and contours. For the dark panels, I used Euro I Gray (FS 36081), and airbrushed it – after meticulous masking. (I’d rather paint the Enterprise D any day).

The windows were done with a white felt ink pen, and a fine black artist’s pen. Every now and then, I used the paint, Interior Metallic Blue. I dipped a sharpened toothpick in this color, and painted some of the windows.

Digressing a bit, I had painted the inside of the clear Bussard Collectors red, with an airbrush. I also airbrushed a light blue on the inside of the top of the clear sections of the warp engines, and I airbrushed the back of the deflector dish with yellow.

The sub assemblies all go together easily. Applying decals is straight forward – aided by Decal Set and Decal Solvent. Now that I’m done, I’m proud of how good it looks. But I still think it’s too small.

Craig Wheeler