Lighting the Fine Molds Falcon....

I saw the light kit at monstersinmotion, which states it can be used for the AMT or the FM kits and lights up the engines, headlights, cockpit and landing ramp, but wondered if anyone knew about any other light kits that were available. Or, if there were online tips/tricks/directions on what to buy and how to wire up things yourself. It looks like, to get the full "blue engine" glow, the new FM kits engine detail might have to be made of clear resin as was suggested in Phase Pistols falcon kit thread, or left out and maybe a frosted clear screen put behind the engine screen included in the kit.

Anyone have any info? Thanks.

 

I'd love to know the answer to this as well. Personally, I think MiM's customer service is a bit lacking... so I'd prefer to hear it from one of you.

 

You could try here http://www.voodoofx.com/fiberfx.htm this is what I'm going to use on my Falcon.




Regards,
Al

 

Hehehe it looks as if thats where MIM is getting the light kits as well....

So I would go straight to the mfg. for mine....

You might also check with Hyperdyne to see if he has a light kit for the falcon already.....

In the past I've always pieced the lighting together myself. Before EL material was so readily available I was going straight to the guys that were making the first EL sheet out there, Lightsheet. It was expensive but boy does it look good in the ships and whatnot. Now competition has made prices come down considerably on the stuff.

 

IÂ’ve considered adding the VoodooFX light kit to my FM Millennium Falcon also, but I was waiting for some reviews on it. IÂ’m no expert on lighting by any means, but the kit seems a little pricey to me. But for all I know, it may be well worth it. IÂ’m certainly interested in hearing what others have to say about the available lighting kit so any reviews here would be very helpful. IÂ’ve also purchased a starter Fiber Optic kit that I intend to utilize somehow in my Falcon, but not sure how yet.

I’m also very interested in lighting the cockpit of my Falcon. As I stated in PhasePistol’s thread about the FM Falcon, here’s my hair-brained idea—let me know what you guys think:

Find somebody who has the knowledge and skills to produce Photo-Etched parts, and have the cockpit decals turned into a PE brass panel. Add the details such as the door frame in resin (any sculptors out there?) and once the brass PE part is painted black, have them all lit from behind using lightsheet or any other EL product. What do you guys think of this?

Does anybody know anyone who might be able to take something like this on if enough people are interested?

 

That's not a bad idea, DangeRuss66. Maybe if the panels were done in brass and lit from behind with light sheet, the plastic door panel from the kit itself could be modded to fit with the brass pieces. Just an idea....

It says that the one kit has "fiber optics" for the cockpit lights. I guess you'd have to drill the tiny holes for that, but I wonder if they have anything for the light strip that is in the MF cockpit....

 

The problem with lighting the engines in the fine molds falcon is it will never look right unless you ditch the kit details. The SFX for the falcon were all that's ever been seen on screen. The model the kit is based from doesn't have all that engine grill detail on it. its simply a strip of styrene that the SFX covers up in post production. THe CGI falcon in ANH blast off from mos Eisley is the only place the "grill" has ever been glimpsed. conventional lighting is going to be hard pressed to be bright enough to "cover" the grill. What I am thinking of doing is casting the FM details in clear resin then lighiting the whole mess with a couple dozen unltra bright LEDs. I will then paint blue on the outer (non showing) edges of the clear resin peice to get the faint blue tint to the white glow. Of course all of this is dependent upon being able to find suitable clear resin that is non-toxic (which appears to be a problem with clear resin) All of that and I'm still not convinced it will look right - but I think it has a shot to look right...

For LEDs there are many sources of equipment and you really only need a very basic understnding of electricity to complete the circuit. Now if you need blinkers and chaser lights that's different but basic on off LED is pretty simple. A power source, an appropriate resistor matched to the power source and LED capaicity and some wiring. For fiber optics you just need to put an LED into a "light box" (anything enclosed with no leaks) and place one end of the fiber into the box with the other going to where you want a "point" of light.

I've sen LEDs go for about 1-2 busks a peice figure another couple dollars for resistors and I'm not sure what fiber is going for these days. For the shear conveinece the kit vodoo makes is probably worth it although I've never seen it in real life. You'd probably spend $40 in supplies and mess it up a couple of times before you got it to work doing it yourself so $75 with most of the work done for you is not too much of a mark up in my opinion - I'm still gonna try it myself

Anyway that's what I'm going to try. If the clear resin parts don't work I'll just go old school and get a peice of clear styrene sheet - lightly frost it and put the same LEDs behind it for the intense light.

Jedi Dade

 

DangeRuss66 that a great idea Im in

aljf

 

Here's what I got from Randy Neubert at VFX... (I emailed him about this question)

Q: Just wondering how difficult it would be to adapt your MF lighting kit to the Fine Molds MF?

A: The kit will fit the fine molds model kit with no problems.


Q: How does the rear engine light work? Is there a clear blue piece that needs to be sized correctly? Or is that something that I have to get someplace else?

A: The rear engine lights are 5 leds pointing towards rear engine area. I sell a special lens part that comes with the kit, You just cut it to fit and sand one side of the lens and mount it up.

 

The VoodooFX kit sounds like its pretty good and will work well, even though the rear engine lens may be an extra piece that needs adapted. I plan to display my Falcon "gear down", so I'm not as concerned with the engine lights even though they would be cool.

One of the other members posted a link to the Aircraft Resource Center in another thread, and I read an article there about a guy who makes his own Photo Etched parts. It's a pretty ambitious project to tackle for somebody who's never done it before, but if somebody has experience doing it or already produces PE parts it shouldn't be that difficult. I'm pretty excited about trying to light the cockpit of my falcon, in my eyes, it's the one detail that really makes it stand out and look fantastic (just check out Kretzers scratchbuilt 32" falcon.)

Please feel free to post my idea about the PE cockpit parts and EL sheet on other forums such as SSM and others until we find somebody who will be willing to do this. I'd love to see it done, but it's way beyond my capacity. For some interesting reading on how to create your own Photo Etched parts, read this article:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Fea1...ert/fea688.html

Russell

 

I'd be interested in the brass cockpit panels. Light sheet behind those would be perfect.

 

IS there any up grade parts to the FM Flacon yet





aljf

 

I've found somebody who can make Photo Etched parts and is curious about producing the cockpit panels in brass. He hasn't committed to the plan yet but he asked if it was okay if he "stole" the idea from me, and I encouraged him to run with it. If anybody has some good reference pictures for him to use, start posting them here. Maybe we'll see these panels produced for us soon.

Post on this thread at SSM to help encourage this kit to be produced.
http://www.starshipmodeler.net/cgi-bin/php...pic.php?t=34812