1/1000 Polar Lights TOS Enterprise with lighting

[modelerdave]

I'm finishing an Airborne Miniature figure, then I'm going to dive into this kit. I've already started work on the windows while (literally) letting the paint dry on the miniature.

This is the Space Seed kit with the Botany Bay, which I don't think I'm going to bother to build. I picked this up for $10 at Michaels (thanks to Interstellar Modeler for the tip!).

I'm going to use the new Hobby Link International navigation strobe board to do most of the lighting, though I will be adding some additional lighting. I've never used a board before so this will be a first. I kind of suck at electronics so it will be interesting, and I'm sure there will be lots of swearing and gnashing of teeth.

I've watched a few videos of others who have built and lit this kit. The problem is that there are no cutouts or even indentations for the windows. Most I've seen use the decals as a template. I decided to buy the Paragrafix brass template to have an actual frame to help manage the drilling.

I started on the neck and used a pin vise, then tried to clean them up with a sharp Xacto blade. Good god it was tedious. I have the Tamiya hand drill but the collet didn't hold the really small drill bits I needed to use at this scale. So I bought a set of collets off of Amazon for about $8 that I thought would work.

I am so glad I did! I finished up the rest of the right side hull in about an hour. I drilled straight down on the outside edges of each rectangular window, then went back and drilled from each edge at a 45 degree angle to carve out the middle section of the plastic. I did that from each side until the middle section was gone, then cleaned it up with the drill.

It's not perfect, but it's vastly better than I could have done with a pin vise and blade. Not to mention much, much faster.


The Pragrafix template taped into place

The 45 degree angle drilling to clear out the middle space of the windows

Windows partially cleared. You can see that the neck is much rougher where I used a pin vise and blade.

Windows mostly cleared out. I will still do some minor cleanup on them but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.

Different angle of the cleaned out windows.

 

[Trebor]

Nice. Will follow

 

[Darph Bobo]

You're off to a great start! It's too bad they never offered a clear version of the kit, it would make things SO much easier!

 

[Millenniumf]

Following this one!

 

[modelerdave]

Finished the port side last night. The neck windows are much better than the other side.

 

[modelerdave]

Finished the lower saucer and half of the upper. Some pics and a short video to show how I cut them out with the Tamiya drill and Paragrafix templates.

The templates taped in place with once section cleared out.

Still needs some cleanup but the main cutouts are done.

 

[KUROK]

I'm pulling up a chair.

 

[Darph Bobo]

I'm pulling up a chair.

move over! Hey, I brought popcorn, you want some?

 

[modelerdave]

Minor update. I started work on the LED strip lights for the saucer and secondary hull. I also did a quick test of the flasher board for the nav and strobe lights. I have an idea for how I'm going to do the warp nacelle lights and hope to test it this week.

The pics are from a quick light test I did to make sure everything was still working after being glued in place. I will cut down the wires later and solder them together so I have as few wires as possible to thread through the neck. It's going to be tricky with the two nav lights and the strobe from the Hobby Link International board also added to the saucer.

I'm open to any suggestions on better wire management1 I don't think the board will fit into the saucer though I may try that. It's just really tight everywhere, and with the neck opened up with all of the windows there is very little "blank" space to run wires.

 

[modelerdave]

Did a little bit of work last night on the secondary hull.

 

[Analyzer]

Very cool!

I love a nicely lit Enterprise

 

[modelerdave]

Not a big update at the moment. I primed the model and did some light sanding on the saucer to make it really smooth. I'll probably hit it with another light coat of primer to check the surface before spraying the final color.

As for the Bussard collectors...I wanted to scratch-build them so I ordered red, green, orange, and yellow flickering SMDs from Evans Designs. My goal was to mount them on a sheet of styrene that would fit behind the nacelle end caps to create at a multi-colored flickering effect, if not an actual spin. I coated the inside of the clear end pieces with a light coat of transparent orange.

It worked pretty well, but the issue is that the resistors on the pre-made SMDs are just too large. They will completely fill the secondary hull as they are presently configured. I reordered a single set of the four SMDs from Evans Design and asked them to connect all four to a single resistor if possible. I'm waiting for that to arrive so I can check it against the space I have.

If that doesn't work I'm going to buy the light kit from TenaControls. It's expensive but I really want to light this right.

Here are the SMDs glued to a sheet of styrene with Elmer's Glue (or PVA glue depending on where you're from). You can see the resistors behind them. There would be eight in total for this current setup and that is just too much for the secondary hull to handle.

Here they are lit. Sorry about the quality. I couldn't really get them on camera without completely blowing out the brightness. I'll try to take a few more pics this evening.

 

[Keiko]

This is just incredible. Well done, I can't wait to see what's next. Those bussards are blowing me away.

 

[Duncanator]

Can't wait to see more! I vote you build the Botany Bay too.

 

[modelerdave]

Can't wait to see more! I vote you build the Botany Bay too.

I used part of the shell of the Botany Bay to do some lighting tests with different window materials, so there are now holes drilled into it at all kinds of angles. It's doubtful I'll make it, but we'll see. Thanks for the like!

 

[modelerdave]

I have a few pictures I'll load later, but for those of you who've built this, or something similar -- I'm having trouble with "frosting" the bridge and sensor domes on the saucer. I've never frosted something clear before that needs to be white. should I frost the inside or outside with a light mist of white paint?

 

[edge10]

That might work but Krylon makes a frosted glass spray paint.

 

[modelerdave]

That might work but Krylon makes a frosted glass spray paint.

I did read that somewhere else. I'll definitely pick up a can. I did spray some dullcoat on an extra clear piece in the kit before work so I'll check out how it looks when I get home later. Thanks!

 

[modelerdave]

I'm still at a pause on the nacelles until the revised lighting arrives. Until then, here are some shots of the latest work on the saucer.

Red and green nav lights in. I tested them with the Hobby Linc International board and the blink rate works fine. I will most likely place the board in the base because of space considerations.

The view from above.

The bridge on with some putty around the seam to fill in a small gap. I still need to sand a bit and repaint.

 

[publiusr]

You might want to hold off on the nacelle caps. I saw something at toyark-megomuseum or somewhere...where a working television in scale wit Batman 66 figures sold for 25 bucks. I think the same tech could make a nacelle cap screen with a gif hard wired into it! Enough with bulbs LEDs or whatever...keep them on fibers with their ends as running lights.