Star Trek Deep Space Nine Runabout

Okay, I had two of these kits unbuilt when I attacked this one. It was my first modern attempt at a Star Fleet ship. It’s not exactly canon: There’s no saucer and the war engines are just too close to the rest of the ship for me. In fact, I hated this ship until I built it. I didn’t think much of DS9 either for that matter.

I’m not quite sure why model companies include clear windows on their kits when there’s no interior to the model. I suppose someone could scratchbuild something inside a runabout, but, hating the kit from the get go, I sure as hell wasn’t about to do that. I decided instead to paint the windows flat back from the inside and just glue them on. At this point I began my slow pondering schooling in what a pain clear parts can be. I used Cyanoacrylate (a.k.a CA or super glue) to attach these pieces. I wanted them to hold and didn’t want to wait a week. I knew that plastic cement can mutilate clear parts from way back, but I was shocked to learn that CA glue can also do a number of clear parts. As such all the windows are fogged a bit. I guess the ship’s been floating derelict in space for a while, abandoned by the crew because of radiation leaks from the nearby nacelles. At the time, I just shrugged at the windows and moved on. It would take my Starfury windshield disaster to make me address my clear parts problem.

I painted the clear parts of the nacelles with Tamiya clear blue and red and attached aluminum foil to the inside to get the glowing effect. I assemble the kit, keeping the sensor pod separate, masked off the clear parts and then hosed it down with my airbrush. I actually primed this kit (ever learning) with Floquil white figure primer.

I again mixed the color from Liquitex Basic Acrylics. It was basically an off-white. I used Liquitex Yellow Oxide for sand yellow and airbrushed that as well after a bit of masking. I wasn’t very careful in determining what parts should have been airbrushed or even making sure that when I did go to town, I had exposed all the places that needed the color. As such, I spent a bit of time with a brush filling in the details.

What is it with Yellow? I just can’t seem to make this color behave. It always looks muddy. Even if I basecoat bright white underneath, it never looks right. On the runabout, the yellow squares on the top aft corners attest to my continuing fued with this primary color. If anyone has any suggestions for laying down an even, bright clear coat of yellow, please drop me a line.

After I had painted the kit, I looked at it and, believe it or not, I still hated it. I then saw a tip on Starship Modeler. I used a mechanical pencil and scribed all of the panel lines. I added the sensor rack and decals and cleaned up any smears of the panel lines. When I was done, the model just came to life. It was at this moment of Star Trek epiphany, I thought to myself, Okay, I’d have one.