Star Trek 'Search for Spock' and 'Final Frontier' communicators

[wayouteast]

I'm starting to work on a couple of TOS movie era communicators.

I've never liked the little-seen 'lunchbox' communicator from 'The Wrath of Khan' to be honest. I might make it at some point for completeness' sake but it's not my favourite ST prop!

The communicators used in 'The Search for Spock' and then updated for 'The Final Frontier' and 'The Undiscovered Country' are pretty nice though. I found some STL files for them on Cults3D and CG Trader. The Search For Spock version is already nicely designed to incorporate electronics, but the Final Frontier one will need some work with a Dremel and a bit of a redesign to allow access to the interior for a battery and switch. Luckily, from what I can see, the changes that were made for that film actually simplified the prop's effects to a single bright white light panel instead of the various indicators on the SfS version, so it shouldn't be too difficult to replicate.

All the parts for both versions are printed using Elegoo ABS-like resin (and Anycubic Clear resin for a few of the parts) on my old Elegoo Mars printer. It took several attempts to get the grilles to print successfully as the 'slats' are very thin and need lots of supports to avoid delamination of the layers as the part prints. So removing and cleaning up the supports is a delicate and time-consuming job. Once cured they're pretty robust though.

All the clean up is done. I'm waiting for a slightly dryer day here in the UK so that I can give the parts their first primer coat as the next stage before painting them.

 

[AJK001]

Those look very nice and I'm looking forward to your builds. It's too bad that no one seems to be making the brass grills anymore but they do look good.

 

[Astyanax]

Oooh, watching this closely. I'm likely to follow in your footsteps. Bring it on!

 

[wayouteast]

After a break over Christmas I've done a little more work on the communicators. All the parts are now primed, painted and curing for a couple of days before assembly starts. I've also dremelled out some spaces in the parts for the electronics (lights but no sound so quite simple) and access to the CR2032 battery that will power each communicator.

The colours of the 'Final Frontier' communicator (shell and control panel) seem to vary from picture to picture, perhaps showing differences in construction between hero and background props?) so after several tests using varying brightnesses of silver metallics and contrasting tones from grey to black, I've settled on a dark gunmetal for the shell and a mid-to-dark grey for the control panel, which I hope will work nicely together.

All the parts are painted with either rattle-can auto paint, AK Interactive Xtreme Metals, or Vallejo acrylics.

 

[PicasoX]

I'm interested to see what you are going to do with those lights, batteries and switches, just look like a bunch of parts to me, but I have two of these that could use some electronics, can you show some pictures on how you assemble those?

Also what color blue is that on the STII com?

 

[wayouteast]

I'm interested to see what you are going to do with those lights, batteries and switches, just look like a bunch of parts to me, but I have two of these that could use some electronics, can you show some pictures on how you assemble those?

Also what color blue is that on the STII com?

Sure will. I'll make sure to take some pics of the insides before I close them up as well as a rundown of the wiring I use.

The blue is Vallejo Model Color 70.809 Royal Blue with a few drops of Vallejo thinner, airbrushed over Tamiya grey fine surface primer. It was the closest 'by eye' match to what I can see in the various reference photos.

Incidentally, I think I'm right in thinking that communicator was actually first used in STIII. The STII communicator is the weird bare-metal 'box' like a sardine tin with obvious crosshead screws and rotary switches. Personally, interestingly practical though it looks, I've always thought it was a bit too 'steampunk' for the ST aesthetic, particularly the movie era. Still better than that weird 'hand-held vacuum cleaner' tricorder though!

 

[PicasoX]

whoops yeah STIII that was a typo,

I have an old Rod.com STII and I just picked up a Stapleton STV on the RPF Junkyard a few weeks ago.

 

[wayouteast]

whoops yeah STIII that was a typo,

I have an old Rod.com STII and I just picked up a Stapleton STV on the RPF Junkyard a few weeks ago.

Those are very cool!

 

[wayouteast]

Finished up the STIII communicator today, and did a little more preliminary work on the light for the ST V/VI. As promised, I'll post some pics of the lighting and internals, which are quite simple (despite my terrible untidy wiring!).

I added the detail parts to both the communicator control inserts. The small bolts on the STIII communicator are supplied as STL files but I opted to use real cap head bolts. Then I turned to the wiring for the lights.

The STIII communicator model is designed with some small lightboxes as part of the design so it's easy to isolate the four lights - the red and green 'arrow' and the other two, which are optional. Each lightbox was painted black on the outside and white on the inside. In the various reference photos I've seen - of both the original props and replicas - the red/green arrow lights are the only ones that are always shown lit when the communicator is working. The other two light positions are either unlit or lit with inconsistent colours - the 'middle' position is sometimes seen lit red for instance. I opted to light both positions, one white and one blue, following the suggested colours of the parts in the STL files for this model.

I opted for SMDs in the end, for convenience and to minimise hotspots behind the visible lighting positions, but 3mm LEDs would work just as well. The leads of the SMDs were each fed into the holes in the lightboxes and resistors were added to the positive leads of the red and green LEDs to even out the brightness of all four LEDs from the 3v input from the CR2032 battery - a 43 ohm for the green and a 62 ohm for the red.

The two clear parts for the arrow and the small flat square panes that sit behind the other 2 lights were painted with Tamiya clear colours and then glued into the back of the control panel with canopy glue. The light boxes were tested in place to preview the final effect, and I decided at this point to add some cotton fibre in each lightbox to diffuse the light further. Then the lightboxes were glued in place.



The back of the control panel insert has channels already designed into it, so it was easy to run the wires and resistors. The circuit is very simple. The negative feed from the CR2032 battery is connected directly in parallel to the negative leads of the four SMDs. The positive feed from the battery runs up to a small self-latching switch at the top of the panel. From the switch, the positive is then connected to the positive leads of the SMDs. That's it!

Once everything was tested and checked, I glued the control panel insert into the top half of the shell, glued the rail in place and then glued the back of the shell on. I used small dabs of superglue for this - there's no real strain on the parts and it will make it easier (and safer) to take the communicator apart in the future if I should need to.

The switch protrudes from the top of the communicator panel and allows the lights to be turned on and off. It's not accurate to the prop, but it's fairly unobtrusive unless you know it's there. I might trim it down slightly at some stage. The battery is accessed through a screw-in panel on the back of the communicator, secured with M3 x 12mm cap head bolts.



Finally, the grille was attached using M3 x 12mm button head bolts, ensuring it could pivot freely around these bolts to avoid strain on the relatively thin resin it's made from (although the ABS-like resin I printed these parts with is surprisingly resilient).



I'm really happy with the final result. The lights are just the right brightness (the blue looks slightly brighter in real life than it does in the above photos, about the same as the white light). The grille flips open easily, the switch is easily accessed without it being obvious how the lights are being operated(!), and the whole thing feels good in the hand.

I'm waiting for some more hardware to finish up the STV/VI communicator, but I have gone some way towards the lighting. The only light on this communicator is the large, bright panel at the top of the control interface. I wanted to get an even spread of light over the area and I only had a small space within the model and only 3v of power to get the very bright effect required (apparently William Shatner specifically requested that the communicator redesign enable the props to light the faces of the cast members using them and the real props were powered by through cables running through the actors' sleeves to larger battery packs in their costumes).

In the end, I opted for cold white 3v LED lightstrip, which I had to order from China. I cut 3 strips of 3 LEDs each and folded these strips to form a small grid of 9 LEDs. Placed behind a square of polycarbonate diffuser and the clear printed part this gives a really nice bright light even from the CR2032 button cell that powers it. Again, there will be a push-button switch in the same place on this communicator which will operate the light. The circuit is very simple again; the 3 light strips are connected together positive to positive and negative to negative. The negative feed from the battery goes directly to the lightstrip(s) and the positive is interrupted by the switch.

I have tested the set-up and it looks great, I think. I'll post a final update when this communicator is complete. Thanks for reading!

 

[AJK001]

The STIII turned out really nice. I'm blown away by how good the resin grills look after painting. I look forward to seeing the STV completed. I have both the STIII and STV Comms from Stapleton with electronics and yours match up very nicely.

 

[Jastor00]

Wow these prints look really good. It's incredible how quickly 3d printing technology is evolving. Loving these two builds as well. I've always liked these variants of the comms from the films. Yours are looking fantastic! Will your lighting effects be animated? I seem to recall the arrow lights blinking in some replicas but am unsure of what's accurate.

I'll second the note on the grills. I was skeptical but they look great!

 

[wayouteast]

Wow these prints look really good. It's incredible how quickly 3d printing technology is evolving. Loving these two builds as well. I've always liked these variants of the comms from the films. Yours are looking fantastic! Will your lighting effects be animated? I seem to recall the arrow lights blinking in some replicas but am unsure of what's accurate.

I'll second the note on the grills. I was skeptical but they look great!

Thank you! I wondered whether to have one or more of the indicators blinking, but decided in the end to keep things nice and simple.

 

[pengbuzz]

Really classy job on both of these! And yeah, I agree: the STII version looks awful! They would have been better with the STIII version (would still like to do the STIII phaser soemtime myself!).

 

[jtkirk]

These look great. I've got to get a 3d printer so I can play too.
Thx for sharing.

 

[wayouteast]

Well, I know I said I wouldn't... but here we are! While I'm waiting on a couple of parts to complete the STV/VI communicator I caved into my urge for completeness and printed up the parts for the STII communicator! Files are from 3DTechDesign on CGTrader, who also made the STV/VI version I'm putting together.

There's a little bit more cleaning and tidying up to do as well as some further minor modifications to fit the electronics in but they've printed up nicely in general. I'm planning on adding the blinking red 'translock' indicator light as well as lights in the two translucent pieces - white in the 'hinge' and red in the bottom extension (as that's what seems to show in most stills from the movie showing the communicator being used).

Put together, it's actually not quite as gigantically clunky as I'd feared, though still a weird departure from the rather more sleek design aesthetic of the others (even the TMP wrist comms) and it stands out in the line-up, even unfinished. The TOS communicator is the Wand Company version. I'll assemble it and paint it up over the next few days. It's (hopefully) a relatively simple paint job - just matt/sating black and polished aluminium as far as I can tell.



The ST:TMP wrist communicators are made from files from LimeyBuilds on CGTrader, by the way, and offer several versions, both 'hero' and 'background' to mimic those seen on various crewmembers in the movie.

 

[publiusr]

I've never liked the little-seen 'lunchbox' communicator from 'The Wrath of Khan' to be honest. I might make it at some point for completeness' sake but it's not my favourite ST prop!

The communicators used in 'The Search for Spock' and then updated for 'The Final Frontier' and 'The Undiscovered Country' are pretty nice though.

View attachment 1771393

The lunchbox needs to go with assault phaser kits for MACO away teams as I see it.

The phaser you have and TSFS phaser are made to go together as standard Starfleet landing party equipment, with TMP wrist comms and the TWOK phasers for shipboard use, brig security on bases, etc...if I had my 'druthers.

A good way to mix and match would be for head of security to get the busy wrist com...the team members to get one with letters if needed in the field...and the lunch box made to counter jamming and to link with the wrist comms for fast beam outs.

 

[wayouteast]

Some photos of my finished 'Final Frontier/Undiscovered Country' style communicator.



I got so wrapped up in putting it together I completely forgot about taking photos of the assembly process - sorry! But the wiring is very simple, to be honest, and everything is noted in the WIP photos on a previous reply along with photos of the lighting set-up outside the communicator. It's three strips of 3 SMDs from a 3v LED strip, wired together in series and then wired to a 3v CR2032 cell holder, with a latching micro-switch interrupting the positive lead. The strips are folded in between each SMD to shorten each strip and then stuck down to a square of 0.2mm thick plastic card so that they form a single array of 9 equally spaced lights.

This was stuck to the inner surface of the back of the communicator with double-sided tape so that its position matched the clear panel in the top of the communicator and allows it to shine up through an insert of polycarbonate light diffuser.

I had to use a Dremel bit to carve out some of the top and bottom of the communicator pieces as this one doesn't come hollowed for electronics (although the control panel insert has space in the back of it). But it only needed a shallow cavity for the light array and a slightly deeper one for the battery holder, both in the solid back piece. There's a space in the middle of the 'rail' that goes between the two halves which is ample to contain thin wires. I also had to carve out a space in the control panel insert and a small hole for the switch.

For access, the two halves of the communicator are bolted together with M3x12mm and M3x8mm cap head hex screws through the dividing rail, and I cut the back in half to allow the battery to be accessed separately without needing to take the whole thing apart.



I must admit there are a few flaws in the prints that are highlighted a bit more than I'd like by the shiny metallic finishes, especially on the inside of the grille, and in retrospect, I wish I'd paid a bit more attention to preparing the surfaces. But the resin grilles required quite a lot of supports when printing and have no 'hidden' surfaces to place them on, and that made sanding them completely smooth a bit of a delicate operation! Anyway, the communicators in the fictional world are pieces of equipment that would be in daily use and I'm sure they'd pick up a few scratches, dings and dents in the course of their lifetime. So I'll just call the imperfections deliberately added realistic wear and tear!

Communicators in 2285 and 2287-2293...



Just the lunchbox to go!

 

[PicasoX]

Well, I know I said I wouldn't... but here we are! While I'm waiting on a couple of parts to complete the STV/VI communicator I caved into my urge for completeness and printed up the parts for the STII communicator! Files are from 3DTechDesign on CGTrader, who also made the STV/VI version I'm putting together.

View attachment 1776553

There's a little bit more cleaning and tidying up to do as well as some further minor modifications to fit the electronics in but they've printed up nicely in general. I'm planning on adding the blinking red 'translock' indicator light as well as lights in the two translucent pieces - white in the 'hinge' and red in the bottom extension (as that's what seems to show in most stills from the movie showing the communicator being used).

Put together, it's actually not quite as gigantically clunky as I'd feared, though still a weird departure from the rather more sleek design aesthetic of the others (even the TMP wrist comms) and it stands out in the line-up, even unfinished. The TOS communicator is the Wand Company version. I'll assemble it and paint it up over the next few days. It's (hopefully) a relatively simple paint job - just matt/sating black and polished aluminium as far as I can tell.

View attachment 1776554 View attachment 1776555

The ST:TMP wrist communicators are made from files from LimeyBuilds on CGTrader, by the way, and offer several versions, both 'hero' and 'background' to mimic those seen on various crewmembers in the movie.

View attachment 1776556 View attachment 1776557

hehe! now don't you feel better? Might as well complete the set! I just started the TOS motion picture series last night, this has bought back the desire to see those again.

 

[wayouteast]

hehe! now don't you feel better? Might as well complete the set! I just started the TOS motion picture series last night, this has bought back the desire to see those again.

Haha! The stress of being a completist!

So... the follow on question I have to ask myself is 'does the Generations communicator (which is basically the STV/VI model with a different control panel) belong in the series'? Technically, I suppose it's a 23rdC communicator the others. But it's only ever seen in Generations. So is Generations the last 'original series' movie? Or the first 'Next Generation' movie? Or both and neither?

Decisions decisions!

 

[PicasoX]

Well if you open that can of worms you have to go with the JJ Abrams movie comms too, then there is the TOS prequel coms, then the Discovery comms, then there are the start trek concept coms, alien comms, then there is all the different makes of TOS comms, etc. It never really stops for me. I'm a communicator FREAK. I'm coo-coo for communicators.!