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[Martin (Admin)]

Evening All!

A friend has asked me to build his Painting a Revell Star Trek Voyager kit.

There are a 3.2 million windows (portholes?! ) that need to be painted.... any ideas on what is a easy way to do this,

1. so they look relatively uniform,
2. loosing the will to live.
3. don't shove the kit up my friend's ..... nose!?

 Any guidance appreciated.

[Tug-Kenny RIP]

As they are in depressions you could paint the top surface of the 'Whole' craft first and then use an Eye dropper for each window.  It will only fill to the edges and give you a good precision looking finish .

maybe


ken

[gingyer]

I'm sure the modellers who build these normally
Paint it then a black paint wash so the paint runs into the seams and the windows

[DavieTait]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/starshipmodeler/?ref=bookmarks

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SpaceModeling/

Guys on those 2 pages on Facebook build these models all the time Martin good idea to join those groups and ask them

[DavieTait]

A lot of guys use a pin vice and drill out ALL the windows and rig up fibre optics to them , stunning to look at BUT must take months to do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QHJGoGh068

[ballastanksian]

The wash idea is a good one, and can be tidied up by cutting any black that has escaped the window frame back with a fine brush.

If spraying, spray the panel lines and windows black before spraying the model in light grey. This then accentuates the depth of the lines and will enhance the windows when you do what ever you do to make the dark (and mysterious:O)

[unbuiltnautilus]

HB or an H pencil, keep it sharpened and try not to smudge it all over the rest of the model..unless you are doing a beaten up Voyager, in which case, knock yourself out.
Alternatively any of the other suggestions, they all work.


Thinking about it, a decent fine point marker pen would do the same job. Needs to be a good quality one, and the base paint needs to be a good week hard before starting.

[Martin (Admin)]

The windows need to be satin white, will the principle still work?
( NB: It's the smaller, sunken windows that need painting...)

[unbuiltnautilus]

Another option, in that case. I saw this in a Kalmbach Sci Fi Special, so long ag it is all black and white, and it concerned a model of Cygnus X-1 from the film The Black Hole. This ship is ALL windows.
The flavour of the concept was as follows ( don't remember the details, so I am filling in the blanks from practical knowledge picked up reading Sci Fi specials thirty plus years ago!! ), paint the model in an acrylic finish, which makes it pretty solvent proof when it cures. Apply your window effect paint in enamel paint, while this  is slowly curing, you can wipe any excess away with a white spirit damped rag, without affecting the surrounding acrylic base colour. It does work, but needs a bit of control over how much white spirit is soaked into the rag..too much and you smear the paint everywhere!

[Colin Bishop]

Starfleet Command must spend a fortune on window cleaners.