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U.S.S.
ENTERPRISE - N.C.C. 1701-D
AMT/ERTL - 1:1400 Build between April and June 2005 This model was sold on eBay to a German eBuyer for 331.10 USD. |
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| I want to use this
kit to introduce myself the Fiber Optic technique. I only have heard
from it and it seems to be a very useful way to light up something like
windows and so on. I searched on the net for tips and advices but I
didn't get anything clear until I have worked on the kit. 1st Step, the Beginning: When I got the kit I was still working in the TOS Polar Lights Enterprise, so I didn't start right away. What I had time to do is to pre-prepare. I visited the electronic store to look for some white 10 cm CCFL (cool cathodes fluorescent light, or whatever it exactly means) to light up the nacelles. Unfortunately only Computer Tunning stuff is available. I bought a box which included a 10 cm long blue tube and an inverter for two tubes (great, I'll save space). Until now all OK, however the tube is presented in a thick methacryllat case. Once I got home I removed this case with a Dremel tool and I checked whether the tube still worked or not. Happy end: it did. So the very next day I was back on the store to buy and additional tube and some 2 mm LED's to do the blinking lights. Once the current kit was done, I started with the 1701-D. The very first thing to do is to remove the pieces from the plastic frames, sand the excess of plastic and finally apply three layers of black paint in the inner side of the pieces. It will be the light block.
2nd Step, the Neck: I read different ways to use the fiber optics for model lighting: from outside to inside, fixing them with cyanoacrylat glue (super glue), with epoxy, from inside, from outside, to do it once the model is painted, to do in the first place, etc... I believe I have tried out all that things in the neck section of this ship. The first mistake was to be a bit too bold when drilling windows. I made so much windows that I finally needed a lot of fiber and there was not enough room inside the neck to fix everything. I lived horrible times while fixing that damned thing.
One advice I can give is: do not fix fiber optic with super glue. It becomes very fragile and breaks very easily. The final solution was to email a professional model builder, Simon Mercs. I have seen his work on his web page as well as on Starship Modeler. I still don't know why am I doing this web page if there is something like Simon's work also on the net. He was very friendly and gave me the correct tips. I put the fibers from inside to outside and fixed them from inside with 5 min epoxy glue. I left 1/2 cm out of the surface of the model and then cut it of. Very important: to get a good cutting tool. To do everything, painting included and cutting off the fibers at last is the correct way. I messed up the model a bit, but I'm learning...
Usually the fibers are fixed wisely near to a light source. In this case, there was such an amount of fibers that the only solution was to leave distance enough of fiber and blend it in some way as close to the white LED as it was possible. The inner surface of the neck was painted in white in order to reflect more the light inside. The LED was fixed with epoxy to the piece where the impulse engines are. The LED is connected in series to three 3 mm red LEDs which will light the mentioned impulse system. All the system will be powered by a 12 V power source (12V is what the invertors of the CCFL tubes need to work).
3rd Step, the Secondary Hull. I wanted a very impressive ship. For every nacelle I thought about the blue CCFL, a pair of red LEDs for the Bussard collectors, and two blinking 2 mm LEDs in the rear part, one on the top and one on the bottom. The blinking LEDs will be synchronized with the ones in the other nacelle. At the same time they will be in inversed synchronization with two additional blinking LEDs on the rear of the ship, once again top and bottom. I would also like position lights (red and green) but they are difficult to add because the plastic is very thin where they are supposed to be (I'm still working on that idea). The first problem I had to solve is how to run the power to the nacelles. In contrast to the Polar Lights TOS Enterprise, there is not so much space to put the wires on the pylons. The problem increases when one has a closer look at the cables of the CCFL tubes. They are really thick. It is well reported in many FAQ pages about CCFL that it is not possible to vary the length of these wires, but I haven't found anything about the thickness. So I decided to try it out. I cutted off a 15 cm of this cable and substituted it for the same length of a cupper wire (0.40 mm thick and without plastic wrap, only an isolating varnish instead). The thing works !!!
With these new wires it will be much easier to run the cables to the nacelles. The guides that I will have to drill in the pylons must not be as deep as if I hadn't changed the wires. In addition to the CCFL cables, four additional cables will be required. A pair to power the red LEDs (Bussard collectors) and a pair to power the blinking LEDs. It makes a total of 6 wires to be fixed. It is a problem to find a place to drill the guides for these wires because the secondary hull is highly detailed. There is only one reasonable place where to drill the guides.
The blinking device is a CMSO 4060 chip as I did before in the TOS Enterprise. In this case I used a 470 K Ohm resistor to adjust the blinking frequency and I added and additional 470 Ohm resistor to the positive pole of the chip because this chip is designed to work at 9 V and I will apply 12 V on it (not any longer by the use of the resistor). The pins of the chips used to do the blinking effect are up to the builder. In my case, have a look at the picture below.
So it's time to fix everything inside the nacelle and the hull. There will be 6 blinking LEDs in the system. Four of them are connected in series so they will blink at the same time. The other two will be connected in series (directly to the chip) and in inverse polarity. That is to say: where the 4 in series have the positive the other two have the negative and so on. So when the four 2 mm LEDs on the nacelles are lighted, the two 3 mm LED on the hull are unlighted, and the other way around. The four (2+2) red LEDs on the Bussard collector are also connected in series and without resistor in between. It is so because it will be so many things connected to the same power source and the intensity will not be as high as if you connect only the four LEDs to the power. Otherwise a 250 Ohm (more or less) resistor would be required.
Now it's time to light up the windows and the dish. It will be done at once. Two white LEDs have been epoxyed in front of the dish position and all the fiber optics will be joined in the area of these LEDs. Now I haven't been so bold as with the neck and I drilled only some windows. For the bottom of the hull I tried to put two fiber optics in each window and in the upper part only one but transversally cut to give a long windows effect.
And so have I done. The bottom part has not been a problem. However the upper part has shown some problems with those long windows. Finally I found the way. First bend the FO, put it through the hull and fix it to it with adhesive tape. Then a little bit of epoxy. When it has dried I cut the excess of FO and ready. Maybe in the pictures it seems a bit... hummm, let's say unprofessional. But after the painting session, clear coat, I will cut the FO in a transversal way or what could be even better is to remove a layer with a Motor tool. The inner side of the hull looks a mess before collecting all the FO in front of the LED, but it will get better (hopefully). In the same working session I also painted the navigational deflector with Tamiya acryllic clear paint. According to my references blue and red.
Next step is to putty the nacelles engines and finish the windows. Before sanding the putty, I mask the clear parts of the nacelles and also the Navigational Deflector. I do it with liquid latex which I think is the best masking stuff. For more details about masking with latex follow the link tips and tricks bellow. Not so much to finish the work. I check electronics again and when I'm sure everything works I proceed to fix both halves of the secondary hull... And let it dry..
After putting the seams and everything the primer coat is applied. It is useful to have more contrast on the puttied zones and retouch what is needed. When everything is fine it's time for the paint. Although the studio model was shown to be soft grey, I like to do it darker and I choose a mixture of flat grey and flat blue from Tamiya. The Aztec panels are done by hand, because in this model the panels are well indicated and no masking stuff is necessary. Only depends on my steady hands... :) Afterwards the neck is fixed, puttied and sanded. A piece of styrene sheet is necessary to fill one gap under the impuls engine, but no problem. And that's it by now, next it's time to begin the saucer section...
4th Step, Saucer. Looking for references on the net I saw an after market windows pack (from DML) for the saucer of the Enterprise D. They are located in front of the captain shuttle. Later on I got the Enterprise D blueprints from the IDIC page (see Links) where those windows are also shown. So the very first thing I did with the saucer is to build these windows with a piece of stytrene sheet. Of course the result is not as good as if I had bought it from DML, but for me has been a lot cheaper (shipping overseas is more expensive)... But it doesn't look so bad. The second thing I decided to do is to drill all the windows with a 1 mm drill bit. A lot of people like to drill windows after painting work. I like to do it the other way around. I do them all and then I mask them with liquid latex... No problem. The windows have been filled with 90 min epoxy: with the saucer laying on the table I apply the epoxy from the inner side in the windows without any adhesive tape on the other side. The viscosity of the epoxy doesn't allow droping. A bit of excess on the outside can be removed easily with a Hobby knive. I decided not to use fiber optics for all the windows because there are so many of them. I only used FO for the windows in the edge of the saucer and the bridge decks. The lighting will be four High brightness white-light LEDs, red LEDs in the impulse engines, position LEDs up and down (green on the right and red on the left), blinking lights up and down (yellow) and two addtional blue 3 mm LEDs, one to lit the bridge and one to lit the Shuttle Bay. To light the impulse engines, a pair of holes must be done to let the light go through. All the inner side of the saucer has been painted in white to make the light reflect much better. For the blinking lights an additional CMSO chip has been used. Once everything is fixed the result looks impresive, I'm very happy with it. Next step is fix together and paint.
I was afraid to fix both halves together. If something went wrong everything would be messed up with glue and so on. Fortunately it didn't happen and the fixing went OK. After one night drying, I masked all the windows and LEDs with liquid latex. Now was time for primer coat, base coat and azteking. The aztec panels from the bottom half were painted by hand, the ones from the upper half I did a latex masking, airbrushed it and so on... From this experience I learned that next time I will do all by hand. Too much work and the result is not so different. The only advantage is that with an airbrush you get a uniform color. Well, when all the aztec panel were ready it was time for the scape pods. Ouch !!! there are so many... next step was to remove all the latex from the windows and a little bit of touch up. The lights are still in working conditions. Then I prepared yellow landing lines on the shuttle bay floor. The door has been cut in half so it gives the impression that it is opening (or closing). The shuttle bay looks very nice with the blue LED inside, the door doesn't allow to see the LED. Maybe I can scratch build a pair of small pods, it would look great.
The work is reaching its end. When the saucer is already painted, the decals are applied with the help of an application liquid, Mr. Mark Setter. I had never used application liquids before and the experience has been satisfating. This liquid both softens the decal and also helps the adherence. Once all the decals are on place is now time to fix together the saucer and the secondary hull sections. I applied glue to the place in between and with the helps of a pair of clams I leave it drying overnight. Just to add a bit of detail I took a piece of stirene from an old model and with the use of a file I made three shuttle pods and, after painting, I glued them in the half-opened shuttle bay. The effect is quite nice :) And finally I worked up the stand for displaying the model. I will build a nicer stand in the future, but in the meantime the one provided with the model is enough. A connection for the power and a switch are added.
Well and here we have it !!! It is finished.
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| Last updated: 11.01.2011 |
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