Stargazer's 2001 Orion III WIP

Mark2000

Mark2000

Active Member
It's been about three years since I purchased this kit. After several false starts I've finally committed to finishing it. The world being what it is at the moment I certainly need the distraction.

This is a really great kit. It's 18" long, packed full of detail, is a breeze to light, and has a full, incredibly accurate interior. I have a second wing base because the first had vane missing. Starship Modeller was really good about quickly sending me a replacement. Since this is a resin garage kit not everything fits together perfectly. The fuselage parts are a little wonky on the ends and the wing intakes dont fit the wing at all. The panel lines don't even line up. I'll have to putty redraw them.

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I painted and wired up the interiors. Four square LEDs in the cabin, one in the cockpit. I'll be running them to a 5v power supply through a 15ohm resistor.
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I'll be interested to see how this turns out. I have one sitting in my stash and have made a couple of attempts to start it, but I keep putting it back on the shelf. Looking forward to your progress.


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Thanks, VFX! If you enjoy problem solving and tinkering this is a great model to work on. And it’s not the tedious kind of problems like mold errors and bubbles. It’s the technically challenging kind.

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After getting the the fuselage all wired up and lit I thought about what kind of external lighting would realistically be on a space liner. I cut the ends off the wing intakes at the first panel line and inserted a self-flashing LED into each to simulate a wingtip running light. Digging trenches for the wiring is easy since the top and bottom wing parts have a built in space between them.


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I also put two standard LEDs in the front where the wing meets the fuselage as headlights. The round nook that’s naturally on the model will accommodate them well. Again, the model has built in wiring channels as there will be an area between the upper and lower wing and the fuselage thats empty.

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The first problem I encountered was with the flashing LEDs. Every test I did prior to putting them in the wing had them flashing in sync with each other. However, when I wired them up with the other lights one seems to blink at a slower interval than the other. as you’ll see in this video: video

I think I have a fix for this. Just waiting for the parts to show up.
 
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Alright. Let me first start off by warning people that self-flashing LEDs are no good for creating running lights. My reason for trying them was cost. Two LEDs that are slightly more expensive than the normal kind, no specific control board needed. I don't know how my initial experiments managed to get good results, but in the end it was a disaster.

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Fortunately all was not lost. I decided to take a look at Arduino boards. Apparently they come in sizes smaller than a quarter now and Chinese clones can be purchased for $8 a pop. They have USB ports on them for programming and controlling LEDs with them is super easy. I was even able to improve on the effect I created since the self flashers had an equal on/off interval. With the arduino I was able to turn that into a quick flash followed by a long pause like a real nav light. I didn't even have to change out the bulbs because the on state of the programming was shorter than the on state of the bulb. The specific one I got was the Osoyoo Pro Micro and the programming I used is here. You can see the results in this video.
 
The model is completely assembled and glued now. I primed it, puttied it, sanded it, I primed it, puttied it, sanded it, I primed it, puttied it, sanded it, etc. At the last moment I got worried about how I was going to place the Pan Am logo on the ribbed midsection. There is no flat place for it, only a barely visible outline of where it should be placed. Since I didn't want the logo to look ribbed I cut out the decal and used it as a guide to make a mask. Then I mixed PPP with a lot of water and brushed on the putty inside the mask.

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Then I just sanded it down and did another primer pass.

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There. That's a more friendly spot for a decal.

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And here is the final base coat. 20:1 Tamiya flat white with sky grey. My next step is masking off the three different colors of paneling - beige, blue grey, and neutral grey. I'll be painting them in dark and then going over the whole model with a base coat wash to tone them way down to barely visible.
 
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Great Job.:thumbsup

Looking forward to the finished Orion.

bit concerned about.
"The fuselage parts are a little wonky on the ends and the wing intakes dont fit the wing at all. The panel lines don't even line up. I'll have to putty redraw them"
As I can assure you that all the masters fit together perfectly. I suspect the rubber molds had a part to play...

I have recently received the masters back from Canada, I refurbished them with some small details that have only recently come to light, mostly on the underside, and some detail of the cockpit window frame, and have posted them back to Canada, for re-release.
 
VFX, I'm sad and I need a distraction. stargazer, that's interesting. I noticed it when I first got it three years ago. Only the innermost line on the intakes matched the ones on both the upper and lower wing. My only other real problem is where the logo segment of the fuselage meets the engine part. They aren't the same thickness at all so there is a ridge from one to the other. Neither one of these things is a huge deal. This is the first garage kit I've ever done, but I can tell it'll be the baseline for quality for any others I work on in the future. It's a great kit.
 
Masking is hard. It took a day and a half to each color.

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The result is not too shabby.

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The next step is a heavy wash to tone these down to barely visible. I did this on my 1/350 Enterprise three years ago and it turned out well. I also screwed it up the first time and had to mask and wash again. Since its been so long I don't remember what I did. Anyone have any advise on paint/thinner ratios and nozzle type to use? I am going to experiment on my extra piece a bit, but getting it right sooner is better than getting it right later.
 
Did the wash today. I thinned down the base coat to what must have been a 1:1 ratio, but I can't be sure because I didn't measure. I just added and tested the look with a fine brush on my test part. Then I put on very light coats with the airbrush painting then hitting it with a blow drier on "warm". I'd say there are 10-11 coats on each side producing a result that tells you this thing is white but with some tonal variation in the panels. The individual colors still show through if you're looking hard enough. Overall I'm pleased. Next comes decals and paint details like the intakes.

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I'm at the finish line right now. I've applied the decals, put on a matte finish, and removed the liquid mask from the windows and lights with no paint peeling that couldn't be fixed. I'm about to install the windows with the supplied plexi glass. Stargazer1, how would you suggest cutting this stuff? All the windows are a little different and the windshield is definitely an odd shape after painting. Any advice?
 
Ah... Ok....

you may find it hard to get the 'window' plastic in without it wanting to push right through... and not being able to support it from the inside now it is all built

However it is where it is, I would suggest offering up a cut square of window (use fine scissors) to try the fit using a matchstick say with a small piece of bluetac attached to hold the window while trying a fit.
You may need to do this for all the windows, as there maybe small variation in each. Trim each until near size, and use a ladies 'nail emery board' to get a fit. use PVA glue to hold in place (drop on a toothpick applied in the corners) as this will not fog the window with fumes, and dry's clear
 
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Thanks for the tips, Stargazer. I pretty much did it the way you suggest, but with a dremel diamond disk instead of an emory board and Micro Krystal Klear instead of PVA glue. I'll have images up of the final soon and maybe some video.
 
Ok, folks. She's all done. Hit her with a satin finish, cut out the liquid mask in the windows, and added the plexiglass. I'll put up some lit photos and video next.

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