Star Trek DS9:- Operation Return Diorama - 'micro' build log

   This diorama will be based mainly on the "Sacrifice of Angels" episode. "Micro" is in inverted commas because this diorama, although composed of micro ships, is going to be around 3' x 4'. The list of ships I'm building is as follows:-

FEDERATION:-
Akira x3
Centaur - USS Centaur NCC 42043
Defiant - USS Defiant NX 74205
Excelsior x4 possibly with both variants
Federation Attack Fighter x7
Galaxy x5
Jupp - USS Jupp
Miranda x7 possibly with two variants
Sabre x2
Steamrunner x2

KLINGON:-
Bird of Prey x5
Vor'Cha x3

CARDASSIAN:-
Galor x25
Hideki x15

JEM'HADAR:-
Cruiser x10
Fighter x30

This isn't carved in stone though, and I might drop the numbers the closer I get to being an OAP!
   I'm starting with the model which is conspicuous by it's absence in my list: DS9. I'm using Ninjatoes' design and since the scale was given as 1:5000 I shrunk it to 63%. Unfortunately this gave me a space station 4" in diameter and I had to reprint the whole bloody lot at the original size. This was a bit of a pain as I'd double printed the design so that I could add some insets and protrusions. From now I'll be comparing the resized designs with a comparison chart cobbled together from L-Cars rather than trusting my calculations. It might take longer to get the size right by trial and error, but it's safer than just bulldozing ahead with printouts. Anyhoo, I cut the parts for the outer rim of the ring first:-

   I've only shown one section; this has to be built three times. The diamonds with the red dots also had to be removed before those parts were connected. I then cut the parts for the upper surfaces of the ring and used my extra printout for insets and layers:-

Again, this has to be done three times. 
   I've caught up with all the thirds of the ring, joined all the upper parts and cut the pieces for the lower half of the ring:-

   I'm making a lot of extra work for myself, but even the addition of one more layer makes a world of difference and is well worth the effort. Keeping up with the slow, steady approach I built the lower halves of the ring and cut the pieces for it's inner face:-

   I connected the sections of the outer cargo ring and cut the parts for the runabout docking bays:-

then, once the runabout docking bay arms were built, I joined everything together to form the outer ring. When this was done I cut the parts for the pylon bases:-

   The parts for the pylon bases were duplicated six times - leading to a wee bit of repetitive strain with cutting the insets - lol. On reflection, it would've been better to have recessed the runabout docking bays, but that would've meant printing page 1 another three times so I didn't bother. With the pylon supports built, I cut the parts for the pylons themselves x6:-

   The lower pylons are in place and the upper pylons are waiting to join them:-

   It's starting to be recognisable as DS9 (Terok Nor) now. 
   I'm now onto the inner ring, starting with the top:-

   Although there are wee differences between Ninjatoes' design and the studio model I'm able to remain quite faithful to the original DS9 by being pedantic with my layers. OCD? Me?!? Nah...

   I joined the layers to the ring then cut the parts for the outer rim. This took around two hours as I'm actually using the tabs provided for a change:-

   With the rim and it's protrusions attached, I cut the parts for the inside and bottom faces of the inner ring:-

   It's hard to believe that I've already been at this for over a week!
   The main body of the inner ring was attached:-

 and I cut the parts for the weapons sails x3:-

   I've found some minor problems with alignment of parts up to now. The weapons sails posed a bigger problem though. The rim just wouldn't line up properly with the sides so I did the best I could and then trimmed the hell out of the overlaps. The access corridors were less problematic, but there was still a bit of an overlap; nothing a pair of scissors couldn't handle. Due to the extra layers I had to remove the tabs from the sails and make the slot a wee bit bigger to get it over the ring. With the sails and corridors attached we get this:-

   The next stage was the upper portion of the central column, ie ops:-

followed by the promenade:-

which only leaves the reactor still to be built. 
   The promenade was attached and I cut the parts for the reactor plus a few strips for detailing on the promenade:-

   This gave a central column which looks like this:-

   The small cylinders around the circumference weren't long enough to reach the dots marked on the parts and I had to move them inwards a wee bit to make a connection. If I had to do it again I would remove the tabs on the cones to shorten the gap. It was a bit of a squeeze to get the column into it's final position so it's a lovely, tight fit. The result is:-

   I seriously considered putting LEDs inside for the reactor and for all the windows. Unfortunately, there would be too much leakage where there were alignment problems and I thought that masking the insides would be just too much bother than it was worth. Adding a lining would also make it really hard to find room for the bulbs.

   I've made a start on the three Akira class ships. The saucer is only 1" across so it wasn't worth the effort of adding names and registry numbers - they're unreadable at this size.

   I joined all the central support parts then cut the rims and some contouring pieces:-

Since the rim pieces are under 1mm thick I'm having to use the moistened point of a toothpick to ease them into place. With the contouring parts attached, it was time to cut the pieces for the underside of the saucer and the deflector dish mount:-

   I'll need to invent a new word for this - "fiddly" doesn't come close! I used very thin paper strips to connect the rear curves then curled everything round a toothpick. The housing for the deflector dish required something smaller so I used a darning needle to shape it. First I tried connecting one side of strips to the deflector panel - don't try this at home kids! It was a stunning failure . Instead I found that connecting both ends of a single strip, working from the smallest to the largest, gives a much better result. Fortunately I'll be blowing the crap out of one of these so it doesn't matter too much if one turns out looking like a dog's dinner...
   The undersides of all three ships fitted really well! I really expected one of them to be a total mess, but the gap was reduced when it was attached. The next stage was adding the contouring sections and bridge to the upper half of the hull:-

   I used the blunted end of a toothpick to shape the lower section of the bridge, and the other, not so blunt, end for the miniscule upper piece. With these connected I cut the parts for the nacelle struts and weapons pod:-

   I've omitted a few of the thinner edging pieces here 'n' there as they're kinda redundant at this size. I ditched the edges on the nacelle struts - they made 'big', chunky boxes which were totally out of proportion at this scale. Instead I just stuck the opposite faces to each other for a double thickness. That just leaves the nacelles to be built and attached:-

   I thought that the bussard collectors would be really hard to build this size, but they were surprisingly easy. As always the cutting had to be precise - tiny mistakes translate into metres when the camera zooms in. I connected the nacelles and then noticed a wee pile of parts I'd forgotten about:-

   With those pieces attached I have three Akiras at just over 1 1/2" (40mm) in length:-

   ​The bulb on the underside (which contains the deflector) seems a bit deep, but I can always squash it a wee bit if I get too bothered by this.

Star Trek TNG:- "All Good Things" Diorama - micro build log

   For this one I'm going to build a scene where the USS Pasteur is being harangued by two negh'vars and the future USS Enterprise-D swoops in to the rescue. One of the negh'vars will be getting blown to bits.
   The designs I'm using this time are:-

• USS Enterprise-D by Paragon
• USS Pasteur by Zosho and
• negh'var by Wulf111.

    I thought that the Pasteur would be the hardest one to build so I started with it:-

   I wasn't at all confident about being able to build the spherical section this small so I made sure that I could before posting anything. I tried to take Revell-fan's advice about using a similar sized solid ball to shape the sphere; unfortunately I couldn't find anything so I used my fallback option of blu tac and it turned out pretty well. With that done I cut the next most fiddly parts:-

   ​I built all the wee boxes that these parts were for and then cut the secondary hull parts:-

   Although I've shown one of the internal supports, I didn't actually need them as the secondary hull doesn't have any 'give' when it's 4mm wide. I also ditched the edges of the nacelle struts as a double thickness of card was sufficient. That left the nacelles to build:-

   These were quite tricky wee devils; curving the outer edges was murder and there was a tiny bit of slippage on some surfaces. However, I got her finished and she looks not too shabby at all at 41mm:-

   Next up is the future Enterprise-D starting as always with the saucer:-

   ​This one will be a bit larger than the last Enterprise build to keep it in scale with the Pasteur. It should be around the 3" mark when it's finished. I joined the pieces for the upper and lower saucer halves then cut the pieces for the rim, bridge and impulse engines:-

   I omitted the windows as they were just too small for me to be comfortable working with. One slight slip and the whole saucer would be ruined and the smallest windows are less than 1mm wide so...
With the saucer complete I cut the parts for the secondary hull:-

   I left one piece uncut as I'll have to connect the deflector first; from experience I found that this piece tends to split when PVA is applied. 
   All the tiny insets have been done. My paper strip method of connection is proving to be time consuming as usual, and there is still a lot of work to be done on the secondary hull. I also spent an age on parts which turned out to be for the interface when the saucer separates! So while the PVA was drying I've cut some more parts for the nacelles:-

   I'll be replacing the parts for the bussard collectors with reddened blu tac - I'm building at approximately 1/4 the size this model was intended to be and blu tac works better for me at this scale. If the insets on the nacelles prove too challenging I'll be omitting them as well - fortunately, I've printed the page twice so I have a fallback option. 
   Instead of insetting the blue parts, I overlayed my extra grey parts to achieve an inset effect on the nacelles. I also cleaned up the lines on the neck and made the wee modification boxes before cutting the last of the parts:-

   Joining the two halves of the secondary hull proved to be a huge wrestling match which took ages to complete as I was only able to join a couple of mm's at a time. I worked from front to back, pushing the deflector forward to get the fit flush at the front. I still finished with a bit of an overhang at the rear end, but since I'm talking about a fraction of a mm I suppose it's negligible. The bit that wasn't negligible was the curvature of the nacelle struts misaligning - tiny errors in cutting parts can lead to huge problems with alignment and symmetry!
    I eventually worked out the positioning of the parts for the underside of the saucer after careful scrutiny of some images I found in interwebland:-

   I would assume that this modification wasn't built over the captain's yacht port, but rather replaced it, so I'd suggest omitting the yacht layers if you're thinking of building this version.
    I then moved on to the support for the third nacelle:-

   Spending time on insetting the detail on the rear of the neck has proven to be an exercise in futility, since it was all covered by the extra impulse engines. I'm hoping the the bases for the other two nacelles will cover up the mess that the top of the struts currently is. I'll also need to rework the strut for the third nacelle - at full size the part is awesome; at this size I can't really work with the pinprick-sized detailing... 
   The last piece of the third nacelle strut did pose a slight problem. I got round this by packing the inside with four thicknesses of cut-off card and trimming round the outline with a modelling knife. This will only work if you're building your model 3" in length - at larger scales the original piece should be able to be folded into shape. For the detail on top of the nacelles I omitted the brown edging as I felt that a single thickness of card would be enough, but I used my spare printout to double the thickness of the black central line. The guns and gunmounts were another challenge, particulary because the section which was glued to the saucer was miniscule - lol. Long fingernails are a nuisance for playing the bass, but are very useful when working with a tiny wee bit of card with three folds in it!

   So here's the finished 3" triple-nacelled USS Enterprise D alongside the USS Pasteur:-

   Now for the negh'vars. I can't find any instructions for this one so I'm kinda working in the dark a bit - destructions shouldn't be a problem though - lol. I've cut the parts for the main superstructure:-

   There seem to be plenty of reference photos around so I'll be using some of them as a guide. 
   A few more pieces are cut, but I have absolutely no idea where these parts go!

with the exception of the impulse boosters. I've joined up what I can and by a process of elimination I'll eventually work out what the other bits are. In the meantime, I've completed the superstructure and cut the parts for the bridge:-

   Having found some detailed reference pics for a negh'var I now know where the mystery pieces go . Unfortunately, the impulse boosters should have been connected to those 'T' pieces rather than directly to the hull so it's just as well that I printed extras of the design. I also had a look in the Klingon files on my flash drive and there were the instructions!

   With the impulse boosters attached properly I cut some parts for the hangar deck:-

   I'm back into fiddly territory - the bevel is ~0.5mm thick and I'm having to use my fingernails to fold the protruding wee boxes (the schematics don't tell us what they are...). With the front triangle built I moved to the rear of the deck:-

and joined it along with the lower section I'd already built, before cutting the pieces for the front of the crew quarters:-

   I'm doing my edge colouring after gluing the pieces together as the PVA combines with the ink in the green pen I'm using and causes it to leech very badly. 
   I've joined up the front of the crew quarters and cut the parts for the rear:-

   I then connected both halves and cut the base and wing chevron sections:-

   The instructions are given from the top working down to the superstructure; I prefer working out from the superstructure to avoid having lots of modules lying around waiting to be connected, especially when they're so small that a breath can blow them away!
   With all the modules for the rear of the dorsal side built I could then connect them all and join them to the superstructure:-

   The modules for the front had previously been built (before I rediscovered the instructions) and were also connected. I then started cutting parts for the ventral side:-

   Once again the instructions are working from the outside in, so I have more modules lying around waiting for their base:-

   The bulk of the underside is done and I then moved on to the nacelles for the underside:-

   I joined all the parts for the lower nacelle and attached the nacelles to the underside. Work was then begun on the upper halves of the nacelles:-

   With the front sections joined up, I cut the parts for the rear sections:-

   This is a very time-consuming build due to all the tiny modules that have to be separately built because of their different widths. Wulf111's attention to detail is superb, although I have omitted quite a few pieces as they are pretty much redundant when building the model this small. 
   I joined the parts for the rear of the upper nacelles, connected the halves and fixed them to the wings. I then tried to make tubes of the parts for the disruptors and failed miserably! Instead I decided to use wire with the larger diameter parts wrapped around them:-

   The version of negh'var used in "All Good Things" doesn't have any more attachments on the underside so one page of parts was redundant. The almost finished negh'var (voodieh, I believe) looks like this:-

   This is the one which will be blown up by the Ent-D. The other one has a fibre optic filament threaded through it's centre and the parts for the forward disruptor have been wrapped around this filament. I'll also be adding extra detailing in the form of raised panels on a few sections - I didn't feel that it was really necessary to add this detailing to the one that's going to be destroyed.
   Now that the lead ship is built, it's time to take it apart again:-

   The head and the port wing have flickering LEDs inside them - there isn't room in the starboard wing. Three main cuts gave me four large chunks of ship and I then made smaller contouring cuts to the exposed edges. All the internal layers had to be removed to make space for the bulbs. I used my usual method of filling open areas with damage printed paper, crumpled up and pushed into the gaps and cracks. I'm going to leave the port nacelle buckled and connect the rear of the starboard nacelle with a bit of wire. The fourth chunk (not shown) will be minced to make a central debris field and I'm going to try an experiment with a capsule of clear plastic, another LED and some cotton wool to simulate a massive explosion. 
   I connected the LED wiring inside the capsule of plastic and encased it in a very thin layer of cotton wool which I teased out a bit here 'n' there. When that was done I joined up the three main chunks with wire and pierced the port wing to hold a stand. The plastic capsule was also pierced to give stability to the fibre optic filament for the Ent-D - I'll be adding an additional filament or two and threading them through to a red LED (yellow LEDs are rubbish for phasers!). The minced central chunk was filled with damage printed paper and the bits were strategically placed before I finished the explosion by scattering tiny pieces of copper wire and metal flakes over the cotton wool:-

   And without the camera flash:-

   Using the remaining packing I had from my Asterix the Gaul flash drives I was able to simulate the look of the shields around the Pasteur:-

   A piercing in the plastic holds the voodieh disruptor fibre optic quite nicely.
   I added an extra layer for the red plates on the top and bottom of the voodieh's wings:-

and also for the green plates on it's head:-

   So everything is in it's final position waiting for the Ent-D's phaser to be added:-