Polar Lights 1/350 Scale Enterprise Refit Buildup - The Finale

From TrekWorks

Welcome modelers,
well, this is it guys, the Enterprise Refit is finally all finished up. Since my last update I put in several more hours working on her. I finished painting on the aztec patterns on the saucer and all of the other paint details around the model.

After that was done I started to put on the dozens and dozens of detail decals including the sensor bands around the saucer and many more. I also installed the photo etched shuttle bay door segments to finish that area off nicely.

I had a great experience with my build and learned a lot along the way which will help to improve my skills during future builds. This model was certainly a challenge and I'm glad I decided to push my limits and do the aztec paint work instead of the decals.

The painting added a lot more work to the build but when I stop to look at the model and see the results, it was all worth it.

With the new masking kit available from Orbital Dry Dock, I hope many of you will decide to have a go at the aztec painting as well. The set makes it so much easier than ever before and the time savings vs the old Aztec Dummy set is amazing. The tape transfer method used allows for entire sections of masks to be applied at once. This is so much better than applying each mask one at a time. It is important to note that for the STTMP version of the Refit the masks are not accurate in all areas. Especially on the saucer bottom and secondary hull. I made my own masks for those areas using the best reference materials I could find of the original model. The masks are more accurate for the Enterprise A which was quite a bit different.

Altogether, I have invested about 250 plus hours of time in the build and around $400 in materials including the kit, the electronics, the aftermarket parts and the paint.
Pricey, but then this was a labor of love and I am very happy to have it completed and sitting next to my other models.

The video shows all the details of the model and a nice recap of Project 350 which I started in November of last year. It was a big goal of mine to complete all three of the 350 scale Enterprise models and now they are done.

Thanks for watching, commenting and for your advice along the way everyone.
I'll be starting another build real soon and until I see you then,
Happy Modeling.