hey all! Sorry for the radio silence, I've spent the last two months (!!) moving into a new workshop/studio and building things like new workbenches and a massive spray booth.
That's all wrapped up and finished now so I can finally get back to this project.
Most notably I've got the electronics sorted out. I designed a small break out board for an Arduino mini that can drive 7 LED channels at 500mA per channel. This will run the pulsing engine lights as well as the indicators on the wing tips.
Here's one set of engine LEDs. Blue illumination, and there's a small spacer in there to make sure they sit in the thruster openings centered.
I also molded sections of the wing tips and cast them in clear resin. The wings themselves had these parts trimmed off and were drilled out for a wire to run through the wing body. This was a huuuuge pain on the top stabilizer, since it's less than 1/4" thick toward the tip of the fin.
The last part I had to make was a little moon base, sculpted in soft clay, for the ship to sit on and hide the power supply wiring. This has since been molded and cast in resin. A recessed plug will sit in the front landing strut for the power input.
That's about it for the big steps forward. I've got everything in primer and I'm just waiting on a shipment of paint to come in before I can put some color on these guys. More progress soon!