USS Enterprise (2009) (Revell) review and build

Thorsten, I still believe that putting SMD LEDs on the hull might do the trick. You may be able to make them look like the floodlights on the computer model. Just take a look at how small they are:
LED-SMD-0402.jpg
 
But I had to solder them somehow, and I doubt this would be possible in this size... Keep in mind, just the wires together are 1mm thick... And they had to be positioned 90° to the surface, where should the wires go?

jimpeachey, that's about how I thought... thanks for the link!

EDIT: Ok, I'll try it with the SMD LEDs... just ordered some.
 
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Hi,

today I nearly finished the sanding-and-filling work on the ring part. Here is how it looks now:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_007.JPG
It has still some scratches but overall I'm quite happy with how it came out. Compare it to the picture of the unboxing to see the changes.

The other area I worked on were the maneuvering thrusters on the bottom of the saucer. They are located about 3.5 mm too far towards the center of the disk, and lack any realistic detail. So I first scraped them larger towards the outside and then gave them a recessed inside like the (more correct) ones on the top side. Then plastic card and filler was used to fill the old recessed areas. The still frames from the movie don't show more detail so this will be the final result:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_008.JPG

I also filled and sanded some remaining sink marks. Now I have to scratch build the inside of the Bussard collectors and all corrections of the kit except lighting are done. Can't believe it went this fast! :)
This kit is really so much better than the old Monogram Voyager... I never came to an end there, this is why I lost motivation for it...

I hope that the SMD LEDs arrive on Wednesday so I can start putting them on. These are the ones that I ordered:
LW VH8G - OSRAM FIREFLY, 280 mcd, weiß bei reichelt elektronik
They measure 1.1 mm x 0.55 mm x 0.3 mm. Any thoughts on how to solder them? :confused

And another question: Should I paint the inside of the ship before or after filling the window holes with dental acrylic? Will it stick to (acrylic) paint?

Thorsten
 
I hope that the SMD LEDs arrive on Wednesday so I can start putting them on. These are the ones that I ordered:
LW VH8G - OSRAM FIREFLY, 280 mcd, weiß bei reichelt elektronik
They measure 1.1 mm x 0.55 mm x 0.3 mm. Any thoughts on how to solder them? :confused

And another question: Should I paint the inside of the ship before or after filling the window holes with dental acrylic? Will it stick to (acrylic) paint?

Thorsten

for soldering the Leds, lay down a piece of tape, sticky side up, stick the led to the tape face down to hold it in place. Add a little solder to the led pads & the wire separately(use 30ga wrapping wire). Then solder the wire to the led using only the solder already applied.

Yes. paint the inside of the ship first before doing windows. Be careful as the monomer will damage paint & primer. If you don't touch it while it's curing, you won't have any issues.
 
Orbital Drydock, thank you very much, this was very helpful!

DanielB, in fact, moving the thrusters was the easiest and fastest modification yet. It was completed in 2 hours.

I discovered that there is still an error in the part behind the deflector. I have to partially rebuild it tomorrow...
 
Thanks for the post. I picked my kit up on Saturday and yesterday did a full dry fit which shows where work is going to be needed for superdetailing the model. I'll referring to this video often during the build process. There are a few things I'd like to share. The overall fit of the parts is excellent, in fact I'd go as far as saying it is one of the very best Trek kits for fit in all but a few places. The saucer goes together so well that there is no way you'll need to fill except where the impulse engine insert goes. The B/C and bridge deck and the planetary sensor array parts parts fit so well that once again, filler just won't be necessary. The engineering hull is a good fit however, the shuttle bay end wants to spring apart but that's secondary as the major problem I've found with this dry fit is the nacelle pylons. This may only be an issue with my kit, but I have found that, due to the thin plastic and the shape, the pylons are out of true causing the nacelles to be anything but straight. I think an internal armature will be necessary although I don't have the foggiest idea as to how to tackle the issue. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Two other areas give me pause as there is a gap at the forward torpedo launcer and around the nacelle exhausts. The positioning of the three areas on the nacelle fins that raise at warp are also incorrect. I hope this helps. i've attached some photos of the dry fit so that everyone can have a look. This is all held together with masking tape. If you decide to dry fit the saucer to the neck pylon don't! There is a U shaped cut out in the saucer and there are two lugs on the front of the neck. Get those locked in and you will have trouble getting them apart. I broke em off! Enjoy :D P1040254.JPGP1040255.JPGP1040256.JPGP1040257.JPGP1040258.JPGP1040259.JPGP1040260.JPGP1040262.JPGP1040279.JPG
 
I noticed that as well so which version do you decide to build. Shame Revell didn't give the option for both. It looks like this post is somewhat redundant. Apologies for repeating what has been posted elsewhere.
 
love the thruster move, very skilled work, two hours for you maybe a weekend for me ;)

Aries2- for some weak spots in other models i have just layered J-B weld on the inside for structural support, not sure what kind of room you have to play with if you plan on lighting her up or not.
 
love the thruster move, very skilled work, two hours for you maybe a weekend for me ;)

Aries2- for some weak spots in other models i have just layered J-B weld on the inside for structural support, not sure what kind of room you have to play with if you plan on lighting her up or not.

Thanks, I do indeed intend to light this model when I have all the necessary bits and pieces to build. There isn't a great deal of room inside the pylons, enough for wiring and maybe a sheet metal armature if I'm clever about it. My pylons seem to need bending outward slightly otherwise the nacelles are tipped slightly out of line along the vertical axis :(. Looks like this one area is going to cause the most trouble. This could be a very long build.
 
So I picked up some of the 0402 leds today. All I can say I they're sooooo small, make sure you have tweezers & a magnifying glass! Also 30ga wire may actually be too big.
 
Yes they are tiny... they arrived just a few minutes ago, still sealed in the plastic strip. I've ordered more than I would need for the Enterprise, so I can use some for the learning courve. I will try to solder one to the litz wire I have at home later today, without any hope that it will work. But before I buy new stuff, I want to see if it's even possible for me to work that small.
 
I'm just back from the first attempts to solder the first LED... without success. For you being able to see what we are talking about, here are two pictures of one LED:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_009.JPGEnt_STID_Rev_build_010.JPG
The first shows it in the tape, on the second picture it is put onto Tamiya tape. The longest side is exactly 1mm, the pins are the silver rectangles on each side.
I tried to assemble it to the wires for about 1 1/2 hours now without success. Almost everytime when I got one wire on and tried to solder the other one in place, the first one came off again. About 4 times I had both in place, but after connecting the other ends to the plugboard one wire came loose. The connecting surface is just too small to withstand any mechanical forces.

However, with one wire soldered and the other helt in place with a clamp, I managed to at least connect it to the battery once to see how it looks like when turned on. Here is a picture with a paper helt to its backside (paper in touch with the LED):
Ent_STID_Rev_build_011.JPG
The first impression is that you should not directly look into the LED, it is so very bright! I guess the look on the surface would be ok, but if I don't find a way to connect it properly, I will have to come back to the lighting-from-behind-method... Sadly... So if anyone has an idea how to fix it, please tell me!

BlueJay: I will at least put together the subassemblies before I do the paintjob. I want to make as few touch-ups as possible. But it all depends on the lighting.

Thorsten
 
Well that is just too pricy for me now... I need about 30 LEDs, 6 cost over 15 Dollars, I simly can't afford another 75 Dollars just for the spotlights. Not mentioning postage to Europe. I better try to find a thinner wire and spend another day soldering. But thanks for the heads-up!
 
I don't have access to the model kit, but could you put a 1.8 mm LED right under the light port, and then just drill holes to let the light leak out? I have no reference of scale for how small the saucer section is to be able to help you further. I should have my kit in a little less than two weeks.
 
I was able to get one wired up & only killed 5 of em' trying. My trick was only pre-solder the wire, get a bit of fresh solder on the iron tip, hold the wire in place & just tap it for a second with the iron. All under a glass of course.
 
DanielB, no I think that's impossible at this scale. The light ports of the model are only about 0.3mm high, not enough to drill a hole into. And even if it was higher, I fear that the resulting light cone would not suffice to generate the illumination needed.

Orbital Drydock, which kind of wire (and which diameter) did you end up using? Can you share a picture of it? It's hard to translate the exact names from English for me. Is the connection durable enough for mounting it into the model? And most important: How did you manage to kill 5 of them? It seems as I was lucky, didn't kill one, it even survived a flip onto the hot soldering iron and resting there for a second or two... If you can tell me what to avoid, it would surely help for further experiments ;)
 
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