Today is July 4th; and here in America we celebrate our liberation from the tyranny of the evil British with day-long festivals of song and story (i.e. your drunk uncle reminding you that “There’s NOTHING more important than family” , somehow making family a five-syllable word, and yelling for Skynrd’s Freebird). These festivities almost always include copious amounts of barbecued meat, deviled eggs and potato salad; washed down with the alcoholic beverage of your choice (i.e. cheap beer). Since we are America, there’s a better than average chance of firearms being involved, too; and not necessarily in a good way (if there is such a thing).
Note: A quick look at the news, and guess what? Fucking predictable. (Fucking preventable, too; but this is supposed to be a happy post.)
But: this is not the way of things here at the palatial estate of The Angry Piper. Sure, there’s barbecued meat and drinking involved, but here, all I’m thinking about is the Season of Scenery, and what my plans are for it.
So, what am I doing for the Season of Scenery this year? I’m making my first non-wargaming plastic model kit in decades, and it’s a good one. From 1994: the AMT official Star Trek model of space station Terok Nor, a.k.a. Deep Space Nine!
I picked up this kit a couple of years back. The box is in sad shape, but it was never opened (as the stale waft of air I got when removing the shrink wrap can attest).
I opened it up, and it’s complete and in good shape. It even has this Star Trek Fan Club card in it. Wonder if I can still join?
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, this will be my second attempt at this kit. I first tried it way back in 1995 or so; but I didn’t get very far. I put together the ring pieces, but was distressed by the gaps between them. So, I did what any modeler worth his sack would do. I used putty.
Of course, back then, this is what I had for putty: Testors modeling putty, which, like most Testors products (with the notable exception of Dullcote) SUCKS DONKEY BALLS. This has the consistency of watery toothpaste; not putty. They actually still make this shit, believe it or not. Anyway, suffice it to say that I used a lot of this and not only failed to fill any gaps, I made my model look so bad, I never wanted to touch it again and I threw the entire fucking thing in the trash. What a waste, I know. Almost 30 years later, I’ve learned a thing or two about modeling and more important; I’ve learned how to fill a fucking gap with ACTUAL, REAL putty, not whatever this shit is. I think I got this.
Also, I seem to remember that “Skill Level 2” was bullshit. This is a more advanced kit that includes the option for LED lights, should you wish to add them. I think you need to add them while you’re building it, though…I’ll have to take a look.
Deep Space Nine is probably my favorite Star Trek series (although I waffle between TNG, TOS and DS9 depending on my mood). Sadly, July 1 marked the last day the series was available for streaming on Netflix here in the US (damn you, Paramount Plus!), so I can’t watch it any time I want to any more. I thought: what better time than now to take a second crack at this kit?
Of course, Dave the Gracious (that’s a new nickname for you, Dave) gives us TWO months for this challenge; and I’d like to think I can get this done with time to spare…so I have these as a backup project: Assets and Hazards for the Alien: Another Glorious Day in the Corps board game. You know, that same board game I was so excited about that I still haven’t played, despite painting all the miniatures?
Oh, wait…that doesn’t actually narrow it down, does it?
Anyway, next time will be a full rant. I promise.
As a big Star Trek: DS9 I’m already super-hyped to see how this painting project turns out. It looks like an excellent kit to me.
The painting is what’s got me nervous, Simon. I don’t own an airbrush, and these are a lot of flat surfaces to cover. More important: what color IS DS9? Is it grey? olive? Some kind of beige? It’s tough to see in space, and the establishing shots vary somewhat.
There’s a series of posts here: http://www.starshipmodeler.com/trek/tsm-ds9.htm
The guy goes through building, lighting and painting either the model you have or another brand, and it’s got lots of photos. Hopefully it might help!
Wow! Thanks! That guy’s DS9 looks spectacular! But it looks like I’m in for a lot of aggravation. It took him 3 kits and 15 months to complete!
Ooo, I’m looking forward to seeing you put this one together, Keith! I liked DS9, but oddly my parents — not known for their love of sci-fi — absolutely loved it. I honestly think they regarded it as a soap opera that happened to be set on board a space station.
And I completely agree with you about Testors. I have tried to use their enamel paints in the distant past and they’re awful, their brushes (thankfully picked up cheap at a Michael’s sale) were atrocious and even their plastic cement isn’t that good. I’ve heard others sing the praises of Dullcote and frankly it surprises me that they’re still in business, especially as Humbrol enamels still exist.
Good luck with the kit!
I think Humbrol is a UK thing…I’ve only ever seen them in specialty hobby shops here in the States and they were definitely not available when I was young, at least not where I lived. Testors almost universally sucks, the one glaring exception being Dullcote. I ran out during the pandemic and let my unsealed miniatures pile up until I could get more. It’s wonderful stuff.
Hope you’ve had a good 4 th of July Keith ( other than the news) celebrating your release from the British Tyranny ( These days the powers to be would rather do that to their own people !)
What a marvellous choice for S.O.S look forward to seeing this progress, hope you’ve got plenty of pegs and rubber bands ready for the gluing stage ! LOL I believe they also released the kit with the fibre optics included, and pretty sure they were fitted during construction, if it’s like the other kits they did. Great looking back up scenery as well.
Thank you Dave. The holiday was actually a quiet one here at Chez piper. I had a more detailed look through the kit and I don’t see any fiber optics; nor any mention of them on the box. Perhaps they reissued the kit without them and I got one of those…
I believe the ones without were the first release, and the ones with was a later release.
Do you have a ship in the right scale to have attached on one of the docking rings ?
I’m hoping my Deep Cuts Enterprise will do the trick, but TBH the Deep Cuts/Heroclix ships aren’t anywhere near a consistent scale. The Deep Cuts Defiant is about the size of the Enterprise D saucer section (which is way too big). It would look gigantic (for the Defiant) docked at this DS9 model.
I really hate when companies mess with the scales, I did have a Voyager from the Revell mini kits that would have been perfect scale, as I’d always wanted to do a DS9, when my wife was going to get me one the other year, unfortunately by the time she got round to purchasing it, it had already sold, maybe another time ! LOL
I guess no attempt at scale was made because in space, is there any need to show actual ship size? Not really. All you really need to do is mark position on the table. To guys like me, though, it’s annoying. I want my Defiant-class ship to look accurate displayed next to my Galaxy-class ship. The Deep Cuts Warbirds are about the same size as the Enterprise-D (they should be much bigger); and the Enterprise-D looks only a little bigger than the Defiant (which should be much smaller).
The silver lining is that I measured the Defiant against the docking ring, and it actually looks ok. Maybe a little large, but not too bad!