Monocerous Conversion Mark 3 -extended bridge area

This is David Ellingson's take on the Monocerous conversion for the refit movie Enterprise. It is not a direct copy of the Monocerous seen online in various plans, but rather David's interpretation of the design with his own personal "takes" and interpretations.  It is more in the spirit of the Monocerous plans seen online, and by no means identical. No copyright infringement or intellectual property theft is intended. Basically, the lower sensor pod was streamlined, conpletely redesigned, and mated to the top of a replacement dorsal saucer part. It has also been thickened quite a bit in order to make it into a true B/C deck, and not simply a case of having the lower sensor domed just "plopped" atop the saucer.

The center-top of the part is flat to allow a longer aftermarket bridge to be sited there. It  is oblong in shape and about 46.8 mm in length, so size your bridge accordingly. This is the only difference between this part and the Monocerous Version 2 part.

The modeler may purchase this part as it is, and attempt to fit it to the top of the AMT/ERTL 1/537th scale saucer. However, the modeler will then have to replace the inner saucer ring. An aftermarket part which the Monocerous Version 2 conversion is designed to fit is available. You do not have to buy it, but again, it is designed to fit the part. Your call...

The part is lightable. As you can see in the photos, I painted the interior area light blue to make the little sensor parts inside the hoods that color. The nature of the printing media makes it hard to see, but that’s the idea. However, I left the central mounting square unpainted. This is to allow light transfer through to the bridge area. The exterior of the “hoods” where the sensor details are located was then painted Tamiya Gloss White, the base color for the entire model. After everything was fully dry, I then came back with a very fine blade and scraped off the white paint from the sensor emitters to open them up, revealing the blue beneath. When lit, the hope is that the blue will shine through, although given the opacity of the part a strong light source is recommended. These areas were then masked over in preparation for gluing the conversion to the new central ring, and for further painting.

As a general disclaimer, it is recommended that the modeler purchase the part in as high a quality printing material as possible; while Shapeways claims that the part is printable in the lesser media, I'm not sure that I agree that it will come out as well.  


Saucer top (1-537 Enterprise Saucer Top): https://www.shapeways.com/product/SU3GJFDJM/1-537-enterprise-saucer-top