Jay Barnes’ Voyager
My Voyager model is certainly far from perfect, but I tried lots of new techniques on this one that I’ve been wanting to try, so all in all I’m pleased. The model isn’t quite finished, but 98% complete in these new pics I’m sending you. It still needs the nav lights all over, the life boats on the aft section of the primary hull, and some decals still need to be put on although most of them are in place. I also want to add some more detail around the docking ports
In building this kit, I was wanting to achieve the look of the ship as it appears on the television, and not the studio model. Don’t get me wrong, I like that color scheme as well but I like the TV look too.
After major assembly was complete, I sanded and puttied to my satisfaction and chose Dark Gull Gray with a small amount of white added as my overall color. I used ultramarine blue for the warp coils and the navigational deflector housing, again with just a small amount of white to lighten it a bit.
The windows were painted white, with some of the windows having a bit of light blue mixed in for interest. The phaser strips were painted flat earth, and the life boats were painted a mixture of flat earth, tan and white. I mixed up some orange oxide for the thrusters and deflector dishes on top and bottom, and detailed them with a lighter shade of the same color. The bussard ramscoops were a challenge, first because they were the only pieces of the kit that gave me real problems, and second because the reds I was using were not near bright enough and the pieces just looked like they were painted red. I fought with the parts long enough to decide that instead of mounting them from the inside of the nacelle, I would flush mount them. I trimmed the clear parts carefully to fit, then puttied the gaps. The areas were masked and painted a mixture of fluorescent orange, white, and flat red. I am very happy with the way they turned out, as it almost appears they are illuminated at times. I am using the same color on my model of the Defiant, which I just started. The impulse engine intakes were painted a fluorescent orange yellow, and white mixture, and the exhausts were painted competition orange.
The big project however, was the paneling on the model. I used varying shades of neutral gray, navy aggressor gray, light ghost gray and a few others to paint some of the panels on the ship.
I knew for the “Aztec” paneling, I wanted something special and different. I carefully studied pictures of the Voyager, and noted that the paneling is obvious in some shots, and almost non existent in others. I came to the conclusion that I could create this “disappearing” effect when Testor’s Glosscote was applied to the flat gray base coat. The effect is quite interesting, especially in the daylight when from some angles the panels appear quite dark, and from other angles you can’t even see them. It’s an interesting effect that was worth the time to create.
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