Final Assembly
With the secondary hull and saucer assembled as much as they could while still separate from each other, it was time to permanently attach them, complete the installation of the saucer lighting system, and complete the final assembly of the ship excluding the still missing (at that time) nacelles and deflector dish parts, but I’ll get to those later. The first step was to bolt the saucer armature to the neck of the secondary hull armature, using 6 X M8 counter-sink machine screws. Some thread-locking compound was applied to the bolts before fitting them, to prevent them from working loose for some reason in the future. The heads of the bolts being counter-sunk into the armature structure allows the mounting post to be bolted to that same location, using the four smaller M6 threaded holes (nestled together amongst the main M8 screw heads). The original studio model could be mounted from a similar position, just slightly forward and under the main shuttle bay door. The original studio model’s armature was designed around 1” hollow square tubing, which is pretty small for a model of this size and weight if you ask me, but it allowed them to hide the mount positions with smaller cover panels than my much larger post connections would allow. So, I deviated slightly from the original in this case and moved the mount position on this model slightly back, closer to the top of the dorsal connection. This point is actually the closer to the centre of gravity for the model, and it’s the most structurally stable point too, so the model “prefers” to be mounted upside-down from this position rather than from the main keel point.
Bolting the saucer to the neck armature
Main electrical feeds between the secondary hull and saucer are connected
Lower saucer mount point, with umbilical plug installed
Mounted on the lower saucer point, solid as a rock!
With the main hulls now permanently joined, the saucer lighting system could be finished, all electrical feeds running from the secondary hull into the saucer could be connected, and umbilical plugs installed at the three mount points on the saucer – under the arboretum windows, under the bridge, and under the captain’s yacht. The gap between the dorsal hull and lower saucer was filled with epoxy putty and given several passes of sanding and filling, until the join had pretty much disappeared.
The open "wound" between the dorsal and lower saucer
Filled and sanded smooth. Further refinement would happen later
For some reason, when the lower saucer pattern was made, the main oval shape of the captain’s yacht was left as a totally flat feature, with just the inner ring detail and some scribed lines for the landing feet. So, a 2nd cast of this area was used to create the body of the yacht, which was then glued into position. The upper saucer cast was then clamped and screwed into position and permanently attached to the lower cast and various anchor points on the armature using a polymer-based adhesive.
Captain's yacht, flat on the raw cast for some reason...
...but easily sorted.
Upper saucer cast clamped and screwed into place while the polymer-based adhesive cures
And that brings us to the large separation between the top of the dorsal and saucer. As I mentioned in the earlier stages, the way the upper saucer pattern was made to include the upper most portion of the dorsal “face” results in a significant area of missing material where the two hulls meet, just above the shuttle bay doors. This entire area needed to be filled in and resculpted. The general shape was roughed in with a couple of applications of epoxy putty, then refined until the contours between the hulls transitioned as smoothly as possible. The raised spine was then added with more epoxy putty, and the raised and scribed grid lines were added. After a couple of coats of grey primer, I was pretty pleased with the final result!
This section of the dorsal will always have a bit of oddness to it compared to the 6’ filming model, and that’s purely down to the angles and contours between the casts just not matching very well on the 4’ model. The “face” dorsal itself isn’t symmetrical, making the mismatch even more problematic to resolve. I actually think I managed to get a slightly better transition than on the studio model, due to placing the saucer ever-so slightly further forward than they did on the original. Had the dorsal been patterned as a whole part, with the cut-out being on the upper saucer cast instead (like the 6’ model) those mismatched angles most likely wouldn’t have been as pronounced.
The huge chasm between the dorsal and saucer, due to the way the pattern masters were originally made. Greg Jein and his team faced this same issue when they built the original studio model...
Roughing the transition between the hulls
Refining and smoothing things out
Finishing the details
The general shape of the transition is getting there...
That's about as good as it could be
Finished transition
The cover panel, which included those distinctive blue arboretum windows, was trimmed and fitted as closely as possible to the opening. The seam around this cover panel would be impossible to hide entirely as there were no other major features to follow other than the gridlines, but the final paint job would help to further soften it to the eye. As with the removable bridge cover panel, this panel also needed to have its own integrated lighting which could be disconnected when the panel is removed.
Removable cover panel, with those distinctive arboretum windows
The last major step of cutting and modifying the casts was to create the rebates for the saucer impulse engines, since these were left in-tact and following the outer contour on the raw saucer casts. Thankfully, Greg had planned ahead when making the original patterns and had indicated the shape and positions of the rebates with thin raised strips. The sections were cut out and walled-off ready for the impulse engine parts (original casts of these were still to be sourced at this point)
Cutting out the rebates for the saucer impulse engines
Greg Jein doing the same thing, 30+ years earlier...
Ready to be tidied up and walled-off
Original studio model under construction, that's Greg Jein's hand. You can see the saucer was mounted further back on the neck, creating an "overbite" at the saucer/dorsal area
On the original model, the shuttle bay doors were most likely cut and shaped from corrugated sheet styrene, as they weren’t part of the original casts or pattern masters, so I did my best to find the best match for the original material used and made the three doors needed. Lastly, there were an assortment of different rectangular panels placed over the seam between the keel and lower pylon wing parts on the studio model. I’m not entirely sure why they were added, but I suspect it was to hide the fact that the distinctive curved gridline arrangement on the flat portion of the wing should have continued over the seam line and onto the keel plate, completing the shapes, but they didn’t…. they just stopped dead at the seam line! This admittedly looked quite odd, so my guess is that these were supposed to disguise that issue! Whatever the reason, they needed to be added, so they were.
Main shuttle bay door, made from corrugated sheet styrene. I tried to match the original material used as closely as possible
Various rectangular panels covering the seem between the keel plate and lower pylon wing
Dorsal hull shuttle bay doors
My best guess is that these plates were there to disguise the fact that those curved gridlines on the wing just stop dead, rather than continuing over to the keel plate
Finally, the main control box was built. Since this was intended to be a replica of the filming model, the control box would also follow the “old school” approach. No addressable “smart” LEDs with sophisticated software interfaces. Just a 12VDC power supply driving the system, with switches for each separate lighting channel.
Electrical control box components
Pretty "old school" and basic, but in-keeping with the aim of the project
Front panel...couldn't resist a little indulgence with the TNG style font!
And with that, all the major assembly was complete, and the model was now in one piece…and VERY large! At this point, nacelles, deflector dish parts, and saucer impulse engines were all still missing, but the project needed to continue forward.
All the windows were re-masked, and it was time to move onto the paint stage!
Getting all those raised panels to "pop" the way they did on the show is VERY difficult in normal lighting conditions. Even with bright day light raking across the surface, they're still not as obvious as they were on-screen!
Close-up view of the upper saucer surface details. Just imagine how much work went into creating all that...
Underside window lighting check
Top side window lighting check
All but the saucer rim windows re-masked
Underside windows all masked, other than the saucer rim. Almost ready for the paint stage...