Star Trek U.S.S. Excelsior Part 1: The Great Experiment

I have been working on the 1/1000 U.S.S. Excelsior for a few weeks now off and on. I am now ready to start painting her but am unsure of how to proceed.

Let's talk about color. You have the colors that were used on the studio model and you have how it looked on the screen when you watched the movie. I have never liked the colors used on the studio model, they are way too bright. When watching the movies, the Excelsior always had a blueish gray hue to it, not white. Let's look at some examples, All of which are copyright Paramount Pictures and only used here for reference.

This shot from Star Trek III in spacedock was our first look at this gorgeous lady. She don't look white and her accent color sure ain't bright blue! It can be argued that it was just the lighting in spacedock, true. But I think not.

This shot From Star Trek VI is in open space. No blue spacedock lights here. Yet, still, she looks gray. 

Here is the real proof. As we all know, the ship on the left is White. Is the big ass ship on the right the same color? NOPE! Blueish gray, babies. So, that is the color scheme that I will be using.

So, to the Trek Nazis: I know that it isn't the colors used on the studio model. I'm not doing a prop reproduction, that's Simon's gig. I am trying to make the ship as she looked on that movie screen and in my mind ever since.

I will post build pics up to this point in the next part and show the painting progress as I go.