U.S.S. Reliant on a Budget

(Page Three)

-------Assembling the Saucer Section-------

Before you begin this step, first take several thin sheets of styrene if you have them and glue them together so that you have about an inch square piece of styrene that is about 15 mm thick. Glue enough pieces of the same clear plastic sheeting that you used for the inside of the larger windows to form this block. Set it aside and allow it to dry overnight. A hard piece of wood will do just as well with the same dimensions. To mount Reliant I chose to use a piece of brass rod that was about eight inches long. In order to accommodate the brass-mounting rod carefully drill a hole in the lower saucer section exactly 55 millimeters from the center of the lower impulse drive dome that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the rod. Remember the old adage to measure twice and cut once.

Use a sharp blade to slowly expand the hole until it receives the rod smoothly (anyone having carnal thoughts at this point is excused). Place your rod though the hole and place the two halves of the saucer section together. Use the rod to score and mark the surface on the inside of the upper saucer section. This is the point where you need to drill from the inside out another hole slightly smaller than the diameter of the rod. Again, expand the hole, but not so large that the rod can go through the upper saucer section of the ship. Yes, I know that this is going to make an ugly hole, but we're going to come back to that in a little while.

Use a piece of wire (some of that extra Christmas light wire works REALLY well here) about a foot long and solder it to the two ends of the light wiring that you soldered together in the last step. Drill a hole on one side of the brass rod about one inch from the ends and run the wire through the holes and out of the ship. The wires will run through the drilled hole in the upper end out through the drilled hole in the bottom. You'll have extra wire that you can trim off later.

Drill a similar diameter hole that DOES NOT go completely through the block of styrene (or wood) you assembled. This part is going to receive the upper end of your mounting rod.

Next, use SUPERGLUE on the block of styrene (or wood) directly on top of the hole inside of the hole you created in the upper saucer section and allow this to dry. You definitely will want to make sure that the mounting rod lines up with the hole in your styrene block so that the ship rests on an even keel. It's a bit wobbly right now, but we're going to correct that later.

Time for one last check on your lights. By now you should be able to use all eight of your "D" cell batteries. Check everything thoroughly because this is the last chance you'll have before gluing the upper and lower sections of the saucer section together. Are the bulbs snug in their holders? Are the bulbs oriented to shine as much light as possible out of the windows and aft bulkhead? Does the mounting rod align with the styrene (or wood) block on the inside of the upper saucer and is the ship sitting evenly on the mounting rod? Are there any places where you have light leaking out that you won't be able to reach once the saucer section is glued together?

If you're satisfied with everything, then now is the time to glue your upper and lower halves of the saucer section together. But before you start, make sure that you have polystyrene glue, putty, some clean clothespins and some CLEAN rubber bands. I used all of these to assemble the saucer section. You may need some 'C' clamps for the aft area of the top saucer section where it meets the aft bulkhead. My Reliant needed to be clamped firmly to align properly.

Once I had everything in place that I needed I worked rather quickly. Time to put the saucer section together. First put couple of drops of glue in the hole of your styrene mounting block and insert the upper end of the rod into the block. Then put a bead of glue at strategic points around the edges of the lower hull and on top of that place a bead of putty completely around the edges of the upper saucer section. Line up the upper and lower sections of the saucer section and seal them together using the clothes pins, rubber bands, and in my case the C clamps on the aft section. The nacelles at this point are going to dangle so be careful with them and don't pull on them. There is going to be some excess glue and putty. Don't worry about it because you're going to be able to sand it away later.

Lastly, GENTLY push the mounting rod upwards to make sure that it is flush with your mounting block. At this point I stopped and just let the whole thing dry for about three days until everything was completely dry. After I was satisfied that everything was dry I went back and sanded off any excess glue/putty with some fine grit sandpaper.

Remember that big hole in the top of the saucer section? When you glued the styrene block to the upper half of the saucer section you created a place to strengthen your mounting rod. Use a small drill bit at this point and drill a small hole inside the bigger hole in the top of the saucer. Place a drop of superglue into the smaller hole and place a screw into the styrene-mounting block. Fill the larger hole with putty and allow it to dry. Sand excess putty away and paint over the spot where your hole was with the same color you used to spray paint your overall ship color. That's how I mounted my Reliant (on a budget) and I've found that this creates a VERY strong mount and it's more attractive (at least to me) than the base that came with the ship.

-------Attaching the Pylons and Nacelles-------

The most important thing that you want take into account when you attach your warp engine nacelles and pylons is how they are going to be oriented. You want to make sure that the nacelles are level, evenly spaced and not at some odd angle. So, make sure that you test fit them before you glue them into place. One gripe I have about this kit is the two little knobs on parts 15 and 16. I know that they are there to help orient the placement of the pylons on the ship, but I found that they just got in the way more than anything else, so I sanded them off.

Test fit the pylon/nacelle subassembly that you put together earlier and get an idea of the orientation. Before you glue, get a water pitcher (taller than your mounting rod) and some books. Tuck your excess wiring into the saucer and glue the pylons to the saucer section. Use rubber bands on the top and bottom of the pylons to hold them in place vertically. To horizontally align the nacelles, place the ship (we can call her a ship now) on top of the water pitcher with it's mounting rod inside the pitcher. Now use stacks of books (or whatever you have that's stable and handy) to raise or lower the nacelles into their proper alignment.

Once you are satisfied that everything is STABLE and isn't going to shift, walk away from it and let it dry for a couple of days. Fill in the seams with putty and sand it smooth after it's dry. At this point go ahead and attach the Sensor Array subassembly and allow it to dry. Once again, putty and sand the seams until smooth.

-------Assembling the Bridge Section-------

Before you assemble the bridge section, you might want to take a look at some of the photographs available on the Internet. In some of them you'll note that on either side of the docking port there are a couple of small crescent shaped areas that you may wish to have light shining through. (See figure 7 again).

To do this I used an X-acto knife to slowly cut out these two areas. Then I placed a piece of clear tape on the back of the docking port (Part #27) and used polystyrene glue and filled them in. After allowing them to dry I removed the tape and used a Q-tip to apply a small amount of nail polish remover to opaque them. Glue and putty this part to the main bridge (Part #25). Paint the inside of the assembly black, (see figure 6).

There is a small running light located just aft of the bridge dome. Use the same method used with the Christmas light bulbs. Place a clear bulb tip into this position.

Glue more of the Mylar to the interior, but be sure to trim away any of the Mylar that will keep light from the bulb you placed in the upper saucer section from shining through the docking port, running light, and the slits on the underside of the main bridge assembly. Test fit the bridge assembly onto the top of the saucer section to check for light leaks and correct as needed. Once you're satisfied that there are no lighting leaks go ahead and glue and putty your bridge to the saucer section. Sand away any excess putty and touch up the paint where the excess putty was. You should have a nice smooth transition from bridge to saucer.

-------Assembling the Space Planetary Dome-------

(Note: Figure 9 shows the Space Planetary Dome before assembly.)

The Space Planetary Dome is fairly straightforward. Paint black and Mylar the interior of Part #19. Paint the interior of clear part #104 (and do not apply Mylar here). Allow to dry and then glue the two pieces together. After allowing this to dry over night, use a drill to tunnel two parallel tunnels that extend from the edges of Part #104 in towards the center of the Dome Assembly. They should extend inward about half an inch. Take your time and test the amount of light you're getting to shine through these tunnels until you're satisfied with the result. As with the bridge assembly glue and putty the Space Planetary Dome to the Saucer section and allow it to dry. Again, sand away the excess putty and touch up the paint to that you have a smooth seam.

-------Finally the Final Assembly-------

By now you're just about finished. For displaying my version of Reliant I chose to use a wooden box painted the same color white as the hull. I chose to use two battery holders available at Radio Shack to contain my eight "D" cell batteries and my toggle switch. The cost of these parts was about $5 for those still keeping track of "Reliant on a Budget".

To receive the mounting rod I drilled through the top and then partially into the bottom to secure the rod. The holes should fit snuggly around the rod. Don't glue the rod in place so that you can replace the batteries at some point in the future. The Reliant should now be firmly mounted, level and stable.

At this point simply connect and solder your wires that come out from the bottom hole you drilled earlier in the mounting rod to the toggle switch. The battery holders come with red and black wire leads that you connect to the other poles on the toggle switch. MAKE SURE that you have positive wires connected to positive wires and vice versa. Test the circuit as you go along and make sure that you aren't shorting your circuit.

---------Final Thoughts-------

At this point make sure that you've done all the touch up painting that you wish to do and apply your decals according to the instruction sheet.

This is how I built "U.S.S. Reliant on a Budget". The total cost of the kit, paints, and lights ran me a little under $50. The actual cost to you may be more or less depending on the supplies you already have on hand since a lot of scale modelers have glues and paints and various pieces of equipment that other modelers might not have in their inventory. So I can only write in terms of how much I had to spend myself.

There are going to be people who will always write and point out inaccuracies or different ways to approach building this kit. To those people I say that I welcome your comments and suggestions (tr0260@iadfw.net) because I'll be starting other projects and your ideas may give me new insights and help me become better at this hobby.

Building my "Reliant on a Budget" has been a lot of fun (and at times frustrating), as I tried various ways to solve problems that came up during the assembly of Reliant.

I hope that this article serves to show some of the ways you can use to build your own version of Reliant. It's not meant to be the definitive way to build the thing. It's just one person's way of doing it and you'll no doubt find innovative techniques yourself that you believe are better.

So in closing, I again would like to thank are Peter Savin and Don Matthys' for their assistance. Again I say that both of them were an invaluable source of reference material for my version of "U.S.S. Reliant on a Budget".

In addition, I'd like to send a special thank you to Tony for his enthusiasm and encouragement on this article. Without his support, "Reliant on a Budget" probably would have never been finished and remained just a half finished article sitting on my computer's hard drive.

Good Luck and Good Modeling!

Tim Roy

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Copyright © 2008 by Anthony I. Wootson & Tim Roy. No material may be reproduced without permission of Anthony I. Wootson. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.