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Is anyone else putting a 'deflector dish' in the hole in front of their D-7's command module?

I'm not sure if I'm ultimately going to or not, but I've been toying with the idea, and came up with something that sounded good but I'm not too sure how I like it.

I took a little silver bead I got at a local arts & crafts store, and glued it to the end of a large thumb tack.




So far, so good, but once it dropped it in the hole it seemed a little long and bulky. Maybe if I paint it green to match the hull it will blend in a bit better, or maybe I'll just leave it off.





Does anyone know for sure if there was such a dish (or antenna) in the filming model?

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In order to facilitate the addition of the bridge to the crown of my D-7, I glued some toothpicks into the bridge section, as inspired by AModelMan's build-up.

Once done, it snapped in place just as desired. However, after taking some pictures from the front to check it against screenshots from the series, I never could get the bridge to look quite right. I'd assumed it was just because of differences in the cameras, but after some further research I see at least part of the reason. Here is a picture of my 'cobra head' with bridge aligned with the hole in the crown, and below it is a picture of the filming model taken by the Smithsonian (found in the Paint Formulas thread).

You'll notice that the bridge sits quite a bit farther back on the filming model, and the flat piece on the port side is quite a bit shorter.

So, I've decided to shorten the flat part to better match the Smithsonian picture, and to fill in any part of the hole below the bridge uncovered when I move the bridge towards the aft of the ship. This next photo shows about what I plan on ending up with.

Other than this, I've got both engine nacelles glued to the primary hull and am still sanding and priming away on that section. After I get this issue with the bridge resolved, I'll begin to tackle gluing the neck to the main hull.

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AmodelMan wrote:

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Nice catch on the bridge there!!!

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Thanks, but unfortunately that didn't catch it all.

This is one place where I hope the filming model and the 'Roddenberry' model are different, but I don't think so. After further review of the bridge area, I've found something that looks seriously off.

Take a look at the two images below. The one on the left is a picture of the 'Roddenberry' model, and the one on the right is of my CC D-7. I've resized the images so that the 'crown' outline is about the same on both.

Now, take a look at the bridge on each model. The bridge is much larger on the 'Roddenberry' model than it is on the CC D-7. It was particularly apparent when I overlaid the two images and set the top one as semi-transparent.

I don't know how there could have been such distortion of this part size, and I certainly don't see myself being able to 'fix' this one.



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As you probably know if you've read the rest of this thread, I've been a little concerned about the shape of the crown vs. the filming model crown. So, I decided to do some photo comparisons to help me decide how to handle the issue. First off, I dug out one of my WIP AMT D-7 models I got long ago, and tried to photograph it from an angle similar to what we've seen of the filming model from the Smithsonian. Once I got pretty close, I scaled the two photos to be as close in size as I could, and then traced the AMT D-7 in red. I then copied this red tracing to the photo of the filming model. This was done so I could compare the proportions of the two, and I've discovered that the crown of the AMT and the crown of the filming model appear very nearly the same.

At this point, I decided to use the AMT crown as a reference for modifying my CC crown. I took measurements of both, and drew them up in AutoCAD. I also photocopied the AMT crown and traced it, and imported it into AutoCAD at 2x scale. As you can see, the front, upper deck is deeper on the AMT crown, and the lower, rear deck is both wider and slightly deeper.

What I decided to do was to glue on some strips of styrene to get the proper dimensions, and to fill in all the gaps with Apoxie Sculpt. I've now got the shape roughed in, and am about to apply a primer coat to look for more to be done. So far I am liking the modification.

My next project is to make some changes to the shape of the bulb. Until next time...

starmanmm wrote:

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Not clear on one point... did you basically redue the original tower or did you remake it from Apoxie Sculpt?

I remade the lower, oval shaped piece from Apoxie Sculpt, and glued on a styrene base. For the tower, I just filled in the hole in the forward wall left when I cut away the oval, but it's the same original piece.

AmodelMan wrote:

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You've taken this to a level I would not have imagined! BIG Congrats on your progress!

Thank you. I'm just making this up as I go along, and have surprised myself at the effort I've been willing to go to in tweaking this thing, but it's been fun.

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I've finished the bridge.

I decided to use #6 shotgun pellets for the two bumps on top of the oval piece. I just made a couple of small depressions with a 7/64" drill bit in the proper locations and glued in the shot with a touch of CA.




As I mentioned in an earlier post, I felt the need to reshape the 'bulb' somewhat, as it seems to have become a bit flattened, compared to the original. You can get a good look at the original profile in this screenshot.




I was pretty intimidated to begin this phase of my model, but decided to take a few techniques I'd read about on various modeling forums and see what kind of damage I could do.

I began, again, by comparing the AMT D-7 to the screenshot, and convinced myself that its profile was a pretty close match for that of the filming model. Then, taking measurements of both the CC D-7 and the AMT D-7, I made some styrene ribs that would serve as a guide for forming a new outer shell for the bulb.

Once these ribs were glued in place, I applied some expanding foam in between and roughly shaped it. I then applied a layer of bondo and sanded that down to almost a paper thin layer. I then put a thin layer of Apoxie Sculpt over the whole thing and sanded that down to a very thin layer.

I've got to say that getting this thing smooth again was much more time consuming than I'd expected, but it finally got there. Here are a few shots of the bulb as it is today.

You can see that I also decided to insert the little bump on the underside that shows up in a couple of screenshots. This is another #6 shot pellet.

By the way, I believe the sensor opening in the front should have dropped down 1/8" or so too, but doing that was more than I felt competent to tackle, so I left it where it was.

I also have been given some info from a fellow modeler that has aided me in getting the vents on the rear of the crown recreated properly. Here you can see the two new pieces next to the original ones. I've also sanded down the base of the third piece to have a sharper point on the small end.

With this, I believe I'm just about done with the front end. Here are a few shots of the bridge and crown. All that's left to do with this (I hope) is paint and glue.









Next update, I'll revisit the engine nacelles, which I've had to rework because the end caps were keyed wrong.

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