Altaira V'ger Build - hold onto your hats

[RobertH3]

I met Matthew at a Wright Stuff Rocketeers launch and since I am a little OCD about my finishing sometimes, he asked me if I wanted to proof a new kit. Since I am fully aware of the N-1, I kind of went "yikes!" Had no idea what I was getting into. V'ger 01 arrived in the mail. Usual Altaira impressive instructions and literally hundreds of parts. The entire model except the core is laser-cut card stock, you have to make 3d parts including the central sphere. To date, the most difficult kit I have built. Ilea, Decker, and V'ger are almost done, so am going to post a couple pics of interesting card stock constructions and some painted shots. Paint will be a separate post - airbrush is almost required, but if you are building SL4 and 5 kits, you should have one anyway. The sphere support arms are "C" shaped arches, very strong when built. Attaching the sphere panels is tough - I flubbed a bit but was able to fix with putty and layers of yellow glue.
The whole thing is clever as heck - I do some custom builds but would have been lost in trying to do a 3d structure like this

Here are a couple structure pics.

 

[RobertH3]

Some more clever bits: I used yellow glue along the forward structure vanes to fill in and smooth the edges. Each one is made of two pieces glued together with a spacer for the 3d. The iris/nose cone is a difficult put-together also, I made a template with the angles for a hex when I lined up the pie slices. Nice hex, taper wasn't right and it didn't fit in the coupler. I made additional pie slices and glued them onto the original ones and got a fit. You can see them but when filled with super glue, they'll be OK.

 

[RobertH3]

Here are some near-done painted shots (3 days of airbrush work "figuring it out" I guess. I wasn't certain how this would turn out with the photo-printed plasma discharge paper - glad I was wrong. Pretty strangely amazing : )
I built this as a non-flyer, was more interested in working out details than worrying about landings. The rear sphere is, per Matthew, a cut section of a styrofoam ball from Hob Lob painted Testors Tangerine and dry brushed black.

Only a hundred or so parts to go!!! It will get a coat of satin finish to take some shine off the paper and hide shiny super-glue spots I made.

Since it is a CGI artifact, lighting is CRITICAL. Note the differences. Low light is good, fluorescent or any light that is a little bluish is best. Regular room lighting - meh.

Cheers / Robert

 

[RobertH3]

Here are the paint instructions - Altaira gets applause for this. I learned a huge amount of new construction techniques and finishing ones.

LIGHTING ISSUES (OR UNDERSTANDING CGI)
This kit is an actual model of a computer graphics artifact. Issues with that - in a film, the object itself is radiating light, it is on a screen. Many effects on a computer model are generated by simulated lighting. Play with the lighting on a Rocksim 3d model to see what I am talking about. These lights are point sources and create sharp shadows on the model. In normal room lighting, the kit is going to look a little "off" but with proper lighting level and color, it will come to life. It looks like it could destroy Earth on the Freezer lid!
Lighting should be toward the blue end of the spectrum and dark to simulate space. Some shadowing of the kit on display with a little fluorescent light made the pictures.

Some lighting ideas: try "high-K" led's 8000, 9000, 10000K or higher and not too bright.
Remember the Enterprise looks a tad blue due to point source lighting in a digital effects suite.

You could also illuminate the kit with LED's per the movie but that's outside this build.

Air-brusher's Finish

Etching or Regular Primer - do not use High build, you don't want to fill up details on the cardstock. Lightly scuffed primer with 400-600 grit. It's paper!

1.) Flat Medium Gray base shade of model - I used a spray can

2.) Dark Gray made by mixing Testors Flat Black with Gray - this was thinned and airbrushed on to darken shadowed areas on the model. Concave and internal areas.

3.) Testors Arctic Blue Metallic - thinned and airbrushed over the gray. May take 2 coats to get the tint correct.

4.) Flat dark gray from step 2 HEAVILY thinned and sprayed over the Blue metallic.

You may need to repeat 3 and 4 to get it looking the way you want. I needed one more go around with the blue and gray

Rear Dome: Testors Gloss Tangerine, thinned and airbrushed. Dry-brushed black to darken the cells on the styrofoam. Brush must be dry!

Sensor beads: Testors Gloss Tangerine - gets rid of the 'plastic look' if they are painted

Inside of 'glyphs' on rear radiator panels - flat dark blue or black. I used flat dark blue

Rear: hexagonal pattern airbrushed on rear centering ring of model. This has soft edges. Easy with an airbrush - see movie.

Final: airbrushed flat black, heavily thinned between radiator panels and inside rear of panels. Heavily shadowed areas. Watch the movie!

Quick and Easy version

Spray the model Cobalt blue metallic per instructions. Krylon or Rusto if you are budget-minded. Tamiya if you want to spend a little.
Make it a light coat and give it lots of time to dry. Metallic paint can take a while. Then mix up the dark gray/black, thin heavily, and airbrush over the cobalt. Do a test chip on a piece of scrap cardboard so you can adjust the brush and get the effect you want.

Cheers / Robert

 

[kuririn]

Wow.
So you need a 3D printer?
Do you download the files from a website?
Looks like plenty of room for LED lighting.
Awesome build. What skill rating would you give it (1-5)?

 

[RobertH3]

3-4 for most of the kit. 5 for the dang sphere. No 3d printing, it is ALL paper. Erockets stocks the kit.

Cheers / Robert

 

[SecondRow]

Wow.
So you need a 3D printer?
Do you download the files from a website?

I thought that’s what he meant at first, too. But I think he means that all the parts that have depth (such as the central sphere) were created from separate flat pieces of cardstock.

 

[RobertH3]

All from flat pieces. When I messed something up, made it from some stock I had in the shop.
Cheers / Robert

 

[DigBaddy]

Dang, that's really cool! Nice work!

 

[RobertH3]

Here is the kit with all parts installed. I still have some touchup to do and satin clear-coat. I used a white paint marker to make the tractor beam dot and it, of course, messed up. No big deal.
My favorite parts of the kit are the nose iris - it's really well done with two layers and shiny white paper to make the grid lines show, and how it looks like nothing till you finish it and then it kind of pops! It's also a little strange so that adds to the fun. Printed photo paper glued on for high color detail works. Nice
technique.

 

[BABAR]

Just gorgeous.

gonna need a big motor and a lot of nose weight.

 

[RobertH3]

I want to see someone (one of you all) build one of these that's actually good at card stock and airbrushing - I made a lot of mistakes and winged it fixing them. Altaira did a neat job on this kit, when you open the box and see the stack of cards, you'd never think it would turn out like this. I'll have to ask Matthew how many parts there are - at least a couple hundred.
Mine (#02) won't fly - but Altaira flew #01 on a baby H with an adapter plate and lexan fins.

 

[GlenP]

SPOILER ALERT:

V ... ... ... G, E, R ... wait a minute, that's not V'GER!

It's:



Nice build, clever use of photo paper for the colorful parts.

 

[boomtube-mk2]

"I'd buy that for a dollar!"

 

[hball55]

SPOILER ALERT:

V ... ... ... G, E, R ... wait a minute, that's not V'GER!

It's:

View attachment 472104

Nice build, clever use of photo paper for the colorful parts.

You kidding? You didn’t think we knew that? It’s an old and actually boring movie. Wrath of Khan was a big improvement, though I don’t think it’s aged very well.

 

[Tobor]

Khaaaaaan!

 

[Stretch]

Got this as soon as I saw it......I've had the N1 for awhile. Nether of which is a quick, or easy build. Better bring your S game. I'll be following this one. This might be my go to thread for this build.......= )

 

[neil_w]

It's also a little strange

Good candidate for "understatement of the year".

Nether of which is a quick, or easy build.

Oh the competition is *on*.

Here's my question: is this actually what the V'ger craft looked like in the movie? I don't recall getting a clear look at the whole thing, and lord knows I'm not sitting through the movie again just to find out.

 

[Stretch]

I think that there was only one clear pix of the whole thing, and you could see a little bitty Earth in the background........but it was only for a couple of seconds..........= )

 

[lakeroadster]

Here's my question: is this actually what the V'ger craft looked like in the movie? I don't recall getting a clear look at the whole thing, and lord knows I'm not sitting through the movie again just to find out.

Why STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE is an Underrated Masterpiece

"1. V’Ger is the coolest ship in the Star Trek universe. In the theatrical cut, we don’t even see the ship’s exterior in its entirety. Because of its extraordinary size, we only see parts of the mysterious vessel. "

 

[kuririn]

So is this model 1:1,000,000 scale?

 

[neil_w]

Why STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE is an Underrated Masterpiece

Perhaps, as a cure for insomnia.

 

[lakeroadster]

Perhaps, as a cure for insomnia.

It's probably my least favorite... no hot green alien chicks, not enough stuff blowing up... needs more Khan.

 

[Antares JS]

It's probably my least favorite... no hot green alien chicks, not enough stuff blowing up... needs more Khan.

The Final Frontier, Generations, and Insurrection are all worse IMO. The Search for Spock is borderline, mostly because of my intense disdain for coming up with silly excuses to resurrect dead characters, but it wasn't... too terrible.

The Motion Picture had a really interesting idea, the problem was padding it out into a feature-length movie. It would have been a good TV episode.

 

[neil_w]

The Motion Picture had a really interesting idea, the problem was padding it out into a feature-length movie. It would have been a good TV episode.

Truth. There is so much obvious padding in the movie. Also I found Decker to be extremely irritating, impossibly hot-headed and emotional for a bridge officer.

 

[prfesser]

The Final Frontier, Generations, and Insurrection are all worse IMO. The Search for Spock is borderline, mostly because of my intense disdain for coming up with silly excuses to resurrect dead characters, but it wasn't... too terrible.

The Motion Picture had a really interesting idea, the problem was padding it out into a feature-length movie. It would have been a good TV episode.

Agreed. They extended it with so many 'beauty shots' to show off the wonderful CGI. BORRRR-ING!

It's been said that the even-numbered ST movies were in general far better than the odd-numbered ones. I don't know who had the idea for ST5 but he/she/they need to be lashed with wet noodles and be forced to watch their movie, over and over, for at least ten years. ("Dear Mom, I'm doing fine. Captain says we're heading out of the galaxy with the first officer's idiotic brother to meet gawd. Seems gawd needs the Enterprise. No, I don't know why. Will write, if and when I get back." -- crew, probably.)

 

[Antares JS]

Agreed. They extended it with so many 'beauty shots' to show off the wonderful CGI. BORRRR-ING!

It's been said that the even-numbered ST movies were in general far better than the odd-numbered ones. I don't know who had the idea for ST5 but he/she/they need to be lashed with wet noodles and be forced to watch their movie, over and over, for at least ten years. ("Dear Mom, I'm doing fine. Captain says we're heading out of the galaxy with the first officer's idiotic brother to meet gawd. Seems gawd needs the Enterprise. No, I don't know why. Will write, if and when I get back." -- crew, probably.)

Shatner himself wrote and directed The Final Frontier, though he was forced to cut out a lot of material because of budget limitations. I have my doubts that Shatner's original vision for the movie could have been any better than "passable" though.

It was weird how that odd/even thing continued into the TNG movies, which weren't officially numbered, but could still be considered movies 7-10.

-The antagonist of Generations made no sense. He could have just bought a shuttle and flown to the ribbon himself, no one would have tried to stop him and he wouldn't have to collapse any stars.

-First Contact is the best of the four TNG movies and pretty good overall, but still has the plot hole of "Why is the borg queen here and not safely ensconced in some massive, heavily armed and armored space station in the middle of borg space?" Other than that question it's decent.

-Insurrection, like Generations, is plagued with completely nonsensical antagonists. If they don't like living the way the luddites do, just move to the other side of the planet and set up a technological civilization. Interstellar-scale sci-fi often seems to forget just how BIG planets are.

-Nemesis is passable, but suffers from its antagonist feeling very contrived, and he also acts illogically due to his (somewhat nonsensical) personal beef with Picard. I might have liked it more if there had been an episode of TNG with Picard's clone that left him with an actual reason to hold a grudge against Picard, and Nemesis was tying up that loose end.

 

[neil_w]

Interstellar-scale sci-fi often seems to forget just how BIG planets are.

...and every planet tends to have a single defining characteristic. "Forest planet", "Desert planet", "Ice planet", etc. (looking at you Star Wars).

 

[Rob Campbell]

It was weird how that odd/even thing continued into the TNG movies, which weren't officially numbered, but could still be considered movies 7-10.

-Nemesis is passable, but suffers from its antagonist feeling very contrived, and he also acts illogically due to his (somewhat nonsensical) personal beef with Picard. I might have liked it more if there had been an episode of TNG with Picard's clone that left him with an actual reason to hold a grudge against Picard, and Nemesis was tying up that loose end.

I hated Nemesis. First off, it was a rip-off (although not as bad as Jar Jar Abrams' rip-off) of the Wrath of Khan, right down to an important character sacrificing himself, but leaving the door open o his return.

It threw out everything previously established about the Romalans having a homogeneous culture. Making the Remans an enslaved subspecies just didn't work for me.

And there were the plot holes. How did Shinzon, a laborer in the mines, amass enough funds to construct the Scimitar? And don't forget, you need a shipyard in which to construct a ship. How did Shinzon build the shipyard and the Scimitar in the Romulan home system with nobody noticing? And how did the Enterprise detect B4's head from light years away?

And I just couldn't take Shinzon seriously after Dr. Evil's Mini-Me.

 

[Antares JS]

I hated Nemesis. First off, it was a rip-off (although not as bad as Jar Jar Abrams' rip-off) of the Wrath of Khan, right down to an important character sacrificing himself, but leaving the door open o his return.

It threw out everything previously established about the Romalans having a homogeneous culture. Making the Remans an enslaved subspecies just didn't work for me.

And there were the plot holes. How did Shinzon, a laborer in the mines, amass enough funds to construct the Scimitar? And don't forget, you need a shipyard in which to construct a ship. How did Shinzon build the shipyard and the Scimitar in the Romulan home system with nobody noticing? And how did the Enterprise detect B4's head from light years away?

And I just couldn't take Shinzon seriously after Dr. Evil's Mini-Me.

I pretty much agree with you, but I still thought the movie was reasonably entertaining, so I rated it "passable," rather than "good."