This is a Polar Lights NX01 Enterprise Star Trek model kit. The first issue of the larger one.

It's a daunting kit, with a lot of parts. So I take breaks from it, other wise I will get to rushed, just trying to get it done.

It is a great kit, and quite large. I'm not making any modifications to it, I am only building it straight from the box.

There are several companies making Aztec templates and decals for the kit, but because I am a cheapskate ( LOL! ) and I don't have an airbrush, I decided to approach the problem another way.

I ended up cutting some templates from cardboard, shapes with hole designs in them. I cut them with an xacto knife.

Once I was happy with the template designs, I tried them out on some newspaper to see what I could do with them. After a little practice, I was satisfied with what I came up with.

Does it make an "accurate" Enterprise? Not really. But it gives the impression I wanted of highs and lows in the metal plating.

I'll let you be the judge if you like it or not. The parts are painted with a base coat of testors silver (# 1246, which dries flat). I then used a couple of metallic paint colors from a dept. store. Again, I tried this all out before painting the actual model. So if you attempt this, see what you like on cheap newspaper and try different approaches.

This was all done with spray paint (how I paint all my models).

One of the templates was shaped like a slice of pizza, and the holes cut out were curved accordingly. That's how the pattern appears curved for the saucers halves.

After getting the patterns on a "misted" places here and there to blend it all together.

Currently this project is on hold because I lost a @#!@# part.

So I am rethinking what to do.