Joel Tavera’s Battle Damaged Constellation

Here is another build up for a customer. This time it is the Constellation from the Classic Star Trek series episode “The Doomsday Machine.”  This is an old resin kit that features an updated resin primary hull and damaged engines. The customer had to provide the AMT Ertl secondary hull.

For this model there was little resin clean up but all the raised detail was removed from the styrene secondary hull. Then the hole at the bottom forward section of the secondary hull was reinforced with Plastruct tubing and epoxy to accept a stand that would later be built.

All the resin pieces were lightly abraded with fine sandpaper to help the base coat of Model Masters Gloss Gull Grey paint adhere tighter to it’s surface. Since the solid primary hull is pretty heavy, it was pinned and superglued to the styrene secondary hull for a stronger bond.  Once this base painting was done, original kit decals and some from an Estes Enterprise model kit were applied with a decal setting solution. The Estes decal sheet contained black windows which fit the mood of the lifeless hulk. The other areas were airbrushed with various shades of grey to depict damaged domes or windows. The damaged nacelles were detailed with Tamiya Copper, Silver and Dark Grey as if recently ripped metal.

Now Testors Dulcote was applied to give the whole surface a permanence and remove the glossy sheen of the base coat. Afterwards, all the scorched areas were detailed solely with airbrushed Tamiya Flat Black using a number one Pasche airbrush needle. The video and some studio photos were used as references for the blast marks.

The base was made from a half clear dome acquired from a local Arts and Crafts store and a paper spindle from a local office supply store. Since the tone was more somber, the base was sprayed Testors Flat black from the can.

With the exception of the weight of the primary hull, I liked this kit. I hope that one day I will be able to get one for myself.

Joel Tavera