Zvezda Star Destroyer-a WIP

Antsnest said:

I've designed quite a few lighting modules over the last 5 years or so and have often thought about adding phone control, but 2 things always steer me away.

Firstly, the whole playing field is moving so fast, there is a danger of anything married to todays technology is going to be obsolete tomorrow... <snip>

Secondly, battery power and battery life is a primary factor in anything I light... <snip>

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Both very good points. My 2012 Nexus is already at end of life as far as Android support goes, so I know what you mean about rapid obsolescence. But I figure if I get this working once, as long as the Bluetooth standard remains consistent, which it must to provide support for legacy products, not to mention a wide variety of products, then the comms part will remain relatively stable. It would probably be smart to do the development on Linux instead of Windows too, especially since I've no intention of moving beyond Win7, but that's another story. As long as I comment things properly as a dev, then I should be able to remember. And since I'm nearing my own obsolescence at 61, I won't have to remember for too long!

Power is a consideration, but if the Bluetooth is working, then the only connection to the model would be 5v power or so from a wall wart. I won't put batteries in a model if I can help it. I'm planning a side mount that will use two of the raised areas near the middle of each side of the lower hull as my access hatches, to be carefully removed and then reattached with magnet(s). Either side could be used, and I'm just thinking ahead for mounting changes (L/R). These would be big enough for a 5v umbilical connection in addition to a sturdy and secure mount point.

If the top of the "wedding cake" is made removable, then I could swap out the tech if I really needed to. I'm doing that anyway since components can fail, and I'd rather not become a plastic surgeon.

The Arduino Uno supports up to 10 LED's, with a total of 400mA and a max of 40mA per individual LED as limited by the output pin on the Uno. I don't plan to run at full brightness, to be sure, so the amp draw will likely remain safe. 10 x 20mA LED's keeps me under the 400mA cap. That gives me three 10mm diffuse blue LED's for the main engines, and 7 more for high output white for porthole lighting. That's the current rough plan, anyway. I'm relearning my basic circuits stuff as fast as I can. No electronics guru, I.

There's a decent tutorial that seems to be giving me what I need to make this happen: http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Control-using-Arduino-Bluetooth-and-Android-Pa/

Robiwon said:

On the Revell kit I did Duplicolor grey primer. I masked of some paneling and shot it with Duplicolor Universal White. I removed the masks and shot it again with the Universal White until the grey primer "shapes" had all but disappeared. I then gave it a sludge wash of a medium grey acrylic, Randy Cooper style (spritz model with water, slop on wash, wipe off). That was lastly followed by Dullcoat.

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That's perfect! I was hoping to avoid the black undercoat. I have some Mr Surfacer 1200 that I will bomb the ZSD with first, then add the darker grey areas, and then can airbrush white over that. I saw Randy's wash technique video. Madman. But it looks awesome. I'm going to test this out with my Snap Destroyer, which is arriving today. Only wish it were the ZSD instead, but that's a week or two out at this point.

When doing this technique, keep an eye for runoff. As you wet the model and slop on the wash it will seep inside the model and when least expecting it, run out leaving a very dark river of wash. Keep the rag handy until all liquid inside the model has dried or poured out.

Roger roger.

The Snap Destroyer did arrive. Bitty thing, but good sized for a typical shelf model. Will be excellent for practice - and will do the filling thing. No huhu if it turns out less than magnificent. Amazed by the detail and fit. Were it not for the lower hull funkiness and unbelievably stupid landing gear, it would be a very satisfying little kit.

Small update. Worked more on the lights this morning. I tied in the superstructure LEDs with the those in the lower hull. I also tied in the three flood lights on each side of the trench to the main lighting grid. I also started on the main support rod for the stand. Tonight, I'll start working on the bridge lighting. My plan is to mount four forward facing LEDs and just use little nubs of fiber sticking in. Not enough room to "run fiber" to the LEDs. I'll add some more pics tonight.

Might be a good idea to paint the inside of the bridge as bright of a white as you can manage to even out the light distribution. LED's and optical fiber are pretty directional.

Robiwon said:

Small update. Worked more on the lights this morning. I tied in the superstructure LEDs with the those in the lower hull. I also tied in the three flood lights on each side of the trench to the main lighting grid. I also started on the main support rod for the stand. Tonight, I'll start working on the bridge lighting. My plan is to mount four forward facing LEDs and just use little nubs of fiber sticking in. Not enough room to "run fiber" to the LEDs. I'll add some more pics tonight.

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Really? I did ran FO to the bridge. Had to cut some plastic from the interior of the tower but my tests show it can be done. I divided the whole bunch of fibers into two smaller ones. If the cables to the LEDs become a hassle I have some Magnetowire (very thin cables that can be easily run upwards.

More lighting test. Superstructure tied in as well as trench floods.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c5SnQyOkC8M

Looks great! About the flood lights, what you used? Ive seen images with them and without....what is the official look or is it more of a personal preference? In the initial scene for ANH I think they were not present? Good job man!

The ANH ship had no lighting other than the engines. That was added to the 8 footer. For mine I used pre wired Picco LEDs from eBay.

Neat! Dont know if I would add something similar....perhaps some little cluster of 1mm FO could do a similar look? Decisions....LOL!

Wow! That lighting test looks great! It's going to really stand out once you get it all done! Keep up the great work, I'm taking notes!

Bill

Hmmm...."pico LED's.... takes notes.

Inspiring stuff, Robiwon.

I just got to get my workshop set back up...and to build a spray booth. Too much to do, too little time, not enough clones.

Got the bridge LEDs wired up this morning. There are four LEDs mounted in a bar attached to the back of the center support beam. For got to take pictures with the lights off. I'll do that tonight. I think this will work quite well with stubby fibers.

Now, here is the real reason I did it this way instead of running fibers down the neck. I have hopes that we will soon see a 3D printed bridge face with the familiar slanted FX on its face. By doing it this way I can easily remove the temporarily attached kit face and replace it later on with an upgrade face and not worry about the fiber run.

Are you aware of any such bridge face in production, Robiwon?

Some great stuff here! Taking notes for my build

This is the mesh from Sci-Fi 3D by Fractal Sponge, extracted from the .3DS file in Rhino 3D. Is this what you're hoping for, Robiwon?

I've been poking 308bits for a new bridge face. He is waiting on his kit to arrive.
WarpeD, I'm hoping for one that replicates the SF on the bridge. This is the one as used on the Anigrand, not what I'm looking for.

That's pretty much what I would have to do if I were to take the SFM resource and convert it so a solid. Lotta work! The critical thing would be sizing it to fit the ZSD. The evil temptation would be to print up a bunch more stuff from the same mesh. My only concern is the banding one gets from 3D printing, since there's no way one could properly sand this bridge face after printing. It's print, assemble, paint, period. Has 3D printing advanced far enough in your experience to just print a bridge face and use it?

Robiwon said:

I've been poking 308bits for a new bridge face. He is waiting on his kit to arrive.
WarpeD, I'm hoping for one that replicates the SF on the bridge. This is the one as used on the Anigrand, not what I'm looking for.

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There really is no "S" on the original bridge, it just looks like an "S" when the shadows are right. The detail is actually more like the mesh above. Zvezda has it almost right, but the details are too shallow to produce the proper shadow.