Back in 2018, Starcrafts gifted us with a lovely gem that I reviewed here: a 1/1400 scale STIII era Excelsior class model to compliment their original STVI version. It languished in the stash for 3 years before I finally decided that it was time to pull that out and get to work. And while I was at it (because I’m a glutton for punishment) I decided that my old original Excelsior was in dire need of a repaint…..and since I’m being stupid, let’s 3d print the Solaris class model while we’re at it and build THAT ship, too!
Sure. Because I’m terrible to myself, and why build one when you can build three at 1/3rd the speed, right? Sounds like it makes perfect sense to me! Let’s get started!
That’s my NCC version of the Excelsior and my Enterprise B, both last photographed in 2004. There’s nothing particularly wrong with these models, and at the time I was quite proud of them with my custom-drawn aztec pattern and panel decals. But the paint work is sloppy, as this was pre-airbrush era for me, and the dull coat had yellowed over the years enough to make it noticeable compared to other more recent ships. So yeah. It was time to strip this and repaint it. I ordered another set of aztec decals from Starcrafts so I would have enough for all the variants, then grabbed my trusty Easy-Off oven cleaner and started stripping both of them back to bare resin so I could do them all together.
First up after cleaning was a coat of Stynylrez primer, followed by a base coat for the Excelsiors of a custom 50/50% mix of Modelmaster Duck Egg Blue, and Modelmaster Flat White. It’s almost pure white with juuuust a hint of blue to it. The Enterprise B will get a pure white coat next.
Now, I’m using the Starcrafts wallpaper decals for all these ships, so there’s actually very little to paint for these kits. I started filling in the areas that needed it by painting the necks and nacelle sides with Vallejo Metallic Gunmetal, and drybrushing a magnesium over that to accent the ridges on the neck. The B variant got a similar treatment, but with gold accents as per the studio model.
The last model I chose to build with the Excelsiors was a really weird variation called the Solaris class. It was originally a set of blueprints from the 80’s as a light cruiser to the Excelsior, and I managed to find a simple 3d model of it online that had the correct secondary hull and nacelles. The primary hull was really crap, though, so I found a much more accurate saucer online and did a little 3d kitbashing to come up with the finished product. Here she is with her base coat of 50/50 Duck Egg Blue and White applied, as well as a few bits of gunmetal for the nacelles.
Next up were the decals! The Starcrafts decals are beautiful, but the ones for the Enterprise B were a little too dark for the saucer as you can see below. I fixed this by spraying a light coat of very thinned white over the saucer aztec decals BEFORE I went any further with other markings. This worked very well and helped them blend with the secondary hull markings which needed no updates. This worked great but of course you need to re-gloss your saucer after you’ve misted the second paint coat so you can apply the rest of your decals!
A word of caution for applying these decals: I think it’s best if you follow Starcrafts recommendation in their directions for applying these large panels. Use a custom micro-set solution of 1 part white glue to 10 parts water, and add 2 drops of dish soap to the mix. Wet the model surface with that solution before sliding your decal on. The soap will keep the area slippery enough to move and position your decals before you dry the decals out. I ruined a couple decals and had to re-order a set because I thought I could use my standard go-to of micro-set for the setting solution, but that didn’t work at all for decals this large. Don’t make my mistake, just follow the Starcrafts directions and you’ll be much better off.
The Solaris needed some extra love, since the saucer I printed wasn’t a 100% match in size compared to the Starcrafts resin hulls. Nothing terrible, I just got to do a lot of cutting and pasting to fill in with that ship. And since the secondary hull is such an odd shape, that entire hull is just cut from scraps and made up as I went along!
I also had to paint in things like the pylon panels and flush vents, since there was no details on those pylons and they looked mighty bare:
All in all, the Solaris really was fun to play with and add decals as I saw fit:
The decal work continued with the NCC-style Excelsior. I landed on calling this the USS Repulse, since I wanted my Excelsior to be the OG version. Once I’d sorted out my issues with the micro-set solution, the decals started going down beautifully. These ships also got a very light mist coat of the base coat before being re-glossed for additional markings, just like the Enterprise-B version.
The secondary hull decals were a little hair-raising but still went down nicely. The hardest set of decals were the thin blue stripes at the top of the secondary hull. They had to match up perfectly at the bow of the ship, and I had a little overlap but otherwise matched them darn near perfect. While I was at it, I included a few items that aren’t on the studio model but probably should be — some personnel hatches on the top of the saucer, and some travel pod airlocks on the secondary hull.
The Enterprise-B version of the model got a new name chosen for her. We’ve only ever seen two ships of this variation so I assume it’s not one that made full production, but since there was a USS Lakota, it stands to reason to me that there should be a USS Santee as well. So my ship was born. But first, let’s finish up those panels:
We were just about done at this point! Stay tuned for the next post for the final reveals….
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