Monday 27 August 2012

Enterprise-C, in a bad shape

Upon opening one of the boxes from the attic, it became immediately apparent why I hadn't build this particular Enterprise yet. There is a huge chunk missing from the lower half of the saucer section.


My first thought was to place some kind of plate against the inside of the saucer, then fill the hole with ... whatever was going to be the next step. I used a lid of a Chinese takeaway-box, easily cut to shape.


I read somewhere that you could melt down sprue (we all have LOTS of those) and pour it into a receptacle, so I traced some tin foil to make a kind of mold and started heating sprue, cut to little bits.


As most experienced builders probably already know, this was a BAD idea. The sprue does become soft and malleable, but far from liquid and it gives of a toxic smoke. This plan was therefore rapidly abandoned.

I am now thinking about other options, which include some kind of clay mould, in which I'll pour a resin-mix. The other option is finding out how to work with styrene and cutting it the right shape. Resin will give me the possibility of actually making a mold with the right hull-detail : I'll simply cast a mold from the other side of the saucer. Well, "simply" ... I have yet to discover how that'll turn out.

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