USS Enterprise (2009) (Revell) review and build

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 ;)

I used 30ga wrapping wire. They are very fragile, but I think they can be mounted if you're careful, though it will be tricky. After soldering I pinch the wire & twist it, to help relive stress on the solder joints. My biggest problem was that the pads on the led pop off easily if the wire is moved around too much after soldering, twisting the wire helped there, killed 2 with that issue. Lost 1 to solder overheating, & 2 jumped out of the packaging & were gone forever.

20130523_194732.jpg
 
I finally got mine today, Loads of fit issues from what I can see, warped neck, pylons. It'll get built... One day!
 
Orbital Drydock, thank you very much! Your last post gave me a lot of optimism and I bought two kinds of thinner wire. I was just successful with enameled copper wire (0.2mm diameter). It went very fast too, can't complain. I think this will be the solution. As the joints are very fragile, though, I will enclose the wires from both sides with plastic sheet right after they come through the surface of the model to give them stability, and afterwards I will solder a thicker wire to the ends (I don't trust the enamel isolation too much). Here are pictures to proof it:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_012.JPGEnt_STID_Rev_build_013.JPG

DMC 12, I can't find any fit issues on my kit. There's just one area which is warped (near the torpedo launcher), everything else is in very good shape and can be assembled with only masking tape. Think you were unlucky and got a bad copy...

Thorsten
 
i found there were very little in the way of fit issues also,mine is currently waiting for me to sand the pylons down where glue spilled out and to fit the main power in jack.i am using an adaptor to run all the lighting as it requires 6v,the dish will and is lit but not fitted as i need to fit the power in from the front of the secondary hull as this is the only access area i have now.

if i can hold the ship like that and the pylons are not warping or wobbling seems its a solid enough build and this weighs a lot lot more than the stock kit.

:)
 
I finally got mine today, Loads of fit issues from what I can see, warped neck, pylons. It'll get built... One day!

I think you've been exceptinally unlucky with your particular kit. I did a full dry-fit on mine with only masking tape holding it together. I am however, with you on the warped pylon issue. The engineering hull will fit together pretty much perfectly with the help of a little tape to hold it whilst gluing. The pylons however are a different kettle of fish. I'll try warming, repositioning and rapid cooling of the dorsal pylon insert as I believe this is the part that is at fault. It appears to be pulling the outer pylon halves too close together, which tilts the nacelles off the vertical axis and also swings them out laterally. If that doesn't work, it's armature time. Other than the pylons, almost all the other parts are a perfect or near perfect fit. Keep the faith :D.
 
leatherman, if you like very slow build reports, this will be the right one for you ;-)

Yesterday I realized that I didn't care about the Bussard collector's rotors yet and got a bit panic. I searched some online shops for electro motors but found them either too pricy or too large and too heavy for this small model (and the weak pylons). But I had the idea to modify RC servo motors for them. I bought three a while back for something entirely different, but never used them. So I now opened one up to see what is inside. After carefully removing the potentiometer from the shaft and plugging the motor's pins to a railway transformer I found the axis spinning with just the right speed:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_014.JPG
I measured the current to 0.17 A @ 2.5 V and 0.3 A @ 4.5 V. I don't know yet with how much voltage I will end up for them, but if I need a resistor to limit it, I will have to buy new ones, as all I have at home are for 1/4W only and the current is pretty high here.
So what I'm planning is to permanently remove the electronics of the servo except the motor itself and also cut away the stopper in the housing (which limits the angle of the shaft). Then I need to find something which can be used as a longer axis and connect it to the yet-to-build rotors, and fix all this inside the model. The good news is that it's fairly easy to convert them, they fit inside the nacelles and are lightweight, and the best, they were very cheap ;-)

Thorsten

EDIT: I just found that after removing the electronics, the current drops to 0.04 A @ 2.5 V
 
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Orbital Drydock, thank you very much! Your last post gave me a lot of optimism and I bought two kinds of thinner wire. I was just successful with enameled copper wire (0.2mm diameter). It went very fast too, can't complain. I think this will be the solution. As the joints are very fragile, though, I will enclose the wires from both sides with plastic sheet right after they come through the surface of the model to give them stability, and afterwards I will solder a thicker wire to the ends (I don't trust the enamel isolation too much). Here are pictures to proof it:
View attachment 188971View attachment 188972

DMC 12, I can't find any fit issues on my kit. There's just one area which is warped (near the torpedo launcher), everything else is in very good shape and can be assembled with only masking tape. Think you were unlucky and got a bad copy...

Thorsten
Thorsten....maybe if you brushed a good quality flux onto the contacts first it would help? I never used to use it until recently...now it gives me a perfect solder joint every time!

Rich
 
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 got 100 with various colours and voltages of my choice from E-bay and they delivered in a couple of weeks., They do not have to be expensive and i haven't managed to blow even one yet!
 
clancampbell, thank you for the suggestion! The solder I use has an integrated layer of flux, so I never came to this idea. I will try it when I solder the remaining 30+ LEDs ;-) But the thinner wire already makes it very easy.

jimpeachey, I'll keep that in mind if I fail again!

Thanks for all the support here!
 
Looking good!

Yeah the problems with mine are mainly around the torpedo launcher, but If I squeeze it hard enough the gap closes. The pylons on mine are warped inwards, so putting in the middle piece of the pylons brings them back into shape. I'd love to start building it, but It needs lights and a proper aztec paint and I can't afford to do that at the moment.
 
A short update: After soldering 6 of the small LEDs and some more difficulties I got the hint that one might just glue the wired to the pins with a mixture of graphite powder and CA glue. Yesterday I made some tests and it seemed very promising. Today I tried to glue actual LEDs and made a jig for the wires for 8 LEDs. Sadly all went bad, the glue connected also the pins as the jig didn't work too well, and even after scibing the glue off where visible, I couldn't get the conductivity off. After carefully removing the wires some pins went loose, too. In summary, 8 LEDs and a lot of work lost. The next time, I will start with one... lesson learned. Now I have only 22 fresh LEDs left. 6 are finished, 22 are needed for the model.

Thorsten
 
Why are you trying to light the entire ship just using smd leds?

I can understand just using them for spots or maybe blinkers but there were easier solutions for places like the nacelles and the secondary hull.i would have thought it would be better to cut down led strips and secure them to shine light at the clear parts although they run on 6v min but it was easy to reduce the voltage to the smd leds with a transistor.now you will have 26 or whatever posistive and gnd wires to solder to something to wire them up parallel.i used quite a few leds for the saucer but the nacelles adthe secondary hull are primarily lit using cut down led strip thats rewired.you can easily fit a 9v duracell battery into the secondary hull through the front if you dont glue the deflector housing in place but you might want to cut some of the support structure away to make it a bit less fiddley getting it in and out,theres 2 of them that the instructions say to glue in the secondary hull.
:)
 
saleem, I think you got me wrong, but there are 22 spots on the ship. I'm not going to solder one more than I really need! ;)
 
Hi,

a short update: Ive been able to solder some more LEDs this weekend (only 10 left now), and I've built in the first of them into the upper saucer part. Here are step-by-step-pictures:

First the forward half of the light port is cut off from the part:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_015.JPG

Then holes for the wires are drilled in front of the remaining part of the light port:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_016.JPG

The wires of the LED are pushed through the holes until the LED sits on top of the plastic:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_017.JPGEnt_STID_Rev_build_018.JPG

Here is how it looks turned on:
Ent_STID_Rev_build_019.JPG

The look isn't exactly as on the CGI model. I won't step back now and do the interior lighting method but try my best to achieve a good result with the LEDs. It still needs to be puttied and sanded, and I'll try to make its front a bit more rounded. I hope to change the light geometry a bit this way. But the color remains a bit too blueish.

BTW, for all who are trying this: After soldering the wires to the LED, I sealed them with a thick coat of CA glue. This helps to strengthen the mechanical connection a lot, otherwise I wouldn't be able to handle them.

Cheers,
Thorsten
 
Cool! Now just a lot more to go. :p Another question. 1.8mm LEDs and up have lenses which focus the light. Do these as well, or do they just send a blanket of light in all directions?
 
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Hi - I just got my kit over the weekend and this thread is a great resource. I'm going to look over the accurizing suggestions. I'm not doing lighting, just a straight build, but tweaking it to look just right is something to make happen for sure. :)
 
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