Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS-FINISHED with VIDEO!!!

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Updates from last night's progress...

Magnets glued into bottom of hangar bay with CA.
These should work well with the pinheads that constitute the front landing pads on the Talon.
The plastic spacer in the middle held them apart while the glue dried.
Looks like a plumber's nightmare doesn't it? :eek

Here you can see the fiber bundles for the spotlights connecting to the light source in the center...

The spotlights in the bay...hmmmm... looks like one of my green sensor rods is sticking out from its bezel in the cupola.
Have to poke it back down and add a drop of glue to fix that...

That's it for now.
Thanks for reading! :cool

 

[temponaut]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Looks like a plumber's nightmare doesn't it? :eek

:lol Yeah... looking at the neatly finished outside, you have no idea of what a rat's nest it is on the inside. Ain't that the way of so many things?

Seriously cool build, trekriffic. Thanks for the great updates! :thumbsup

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Work completed over the past few days while on vacation...would have gotten more done but had to go 25 miles back and forth to the medical clinic Thursday and Friday with my wife...

First I had to tidy up the workbench.
Here are some post cleanup pics. Doesn't everyone just love workbench pics? :angel

Left side. My files and tweezers:

Right side. All my dental tools and pics:

My plastic rolling drawer chest from Walmart. Contains supplies and paints mostly.
Ahah! That's where I left my glasses! I'm nearesighted so I don't wear them much while modeling:

Anyway, back to the build...

Upper and lower hulls glued together.
Lots of shimming and filling done. More to do along with sanding:

Wing roots were a biotch but got'em filled with epoxy putty. I also added a half round styrene strip to the trailing edge:

The stern. Aluminum strip was cut, folded, and glued with CA to protect each corner as I figure the corners are most likely to suffer the most abuse.
Lots of puttying and sanding ahead:

That's all for now. Gotta get back to puttying and sanding I love them so...
:angry

 

[punkpigpen]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

love what you did with framing the windows w brass! tip: never use CA with LEDS and fiber optics. use white glue or silicon.

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

love what you did with framing the windows w brass! tip: never use CA with LEDS and fiber optics. use white glue or silicon.

Thanks for the advice but I learned the rule about CA and fiber awhile ago.
The fiber bundles for the spots were taped together (5 fibers for each spot) and glued with white glue (Krystal Klear) into the 1/16" long or so aluminum tubing or "cans" that house the spotlights. The bundles with cans were set aside to dry.
Next, I drilled a cavity into a short length of clear round sprue which was then glued with CA thru a hole drilled into a clear rectangular piece of styrene sheet. This assembly was test fitted into the milky white shroud surrounding the central LED; some filing was needed to make it flat on one side so it would fit snug with the two acryic rods that run forward from the shroud to the plasma emitter seen here in this image:

Once I had a good fit into the shroud, I removed the assembly and inserted the fiber bundles into the cavity in the clear sprue and glued them in with 5 minute epoxy as I was concerned that white glue wouldn't be strong enough to handle the light tugging from the cans as I inserted them into the holes in the bottom of the hangar bay wall.
Here's the completed bundle assembly again:

The clear flat part of the bundle assembly was then glued to the underside of the LED shroud with CA but I was careful not to get any on the fibers. Once the cans were in place I confess I did use CA to glue the aluminum tubing into the holes in the hangar bay but afterward I glopped white glue over the cans and down along the bundles about a half inch or so. These bundles would not be moving and the holes were somewhat loose and white glue dried too slow so I used CA as it dries so much faster.
So I have to beg mea culpa for that although most of the CA was confined to the cans.
Some of the CA got on the fibers of course, hence the use of the white glue as an overcoat; it provided plenty of good strain relief once dry.

So sorry to launch into such a long-winded explanation but I thought I needed to clarify a few things I did on the gluing of the fibers as I had not done so previously to this level of detail. I thought it would just bore everyone I guess. :lol

 

[clancampbell]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Bleedin' sensational!

Rich

 

[Aquaman]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

amazing! WOW!

 

[trekman1017]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

with the windows the way they are it kind of reminds me of an old ironclad warship in space.

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

with the windows the way they are it kind of reminds me of an old ironclad warship in space.

That's a great observation!
It really does have a steampunk look to it especially when the frames were brass colored.
Yes, this would be a really good subject for steampunking... or is it steampunkery? :lol

I'll post some new pics later today. I have the lower half of each warp nacelle attached to the wings now.
It really is starting to look like a BOP with the nacelles on.

 

[avianoguitarist]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Man--that is amazing work! I'm glad I found this forum---so many great ideas and inspiration for future projects. Kudos, bro!

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Time for an update from this past weekend...

I attached the lower nacelle halves with CA using brass tubing to assist with alignment. The brass tubing was inserted in holes drilled thru the lower nacelles into the wingtips. Then I filled any gaps with Evergreen strip and AVES apoxy putty before filing and sanding. The joint between the nacelle halves and the wingtips is extremely strong as the AVES set like rock after curing:

Nice and level:

You may have noticed the slanted nozzle halves on the rear of the nacelles were cut off. They will be replaced with sections of aluminum tubing.

Work was begun on the stand. Aluminum tubing was bent in a gentle curve and the power plug was mounted to the tip. It will fit over a shorter piece inserted thru a hole in the wooden base. The model is surprisingly heavy with the batteries in the ship and all the brass pieces so the black sleeve for the power plug was strengthened by inserting it into two nested sections of Evergreen tubing sprayed silver with Tamiya rattle can lacquer:

A slot for the power jack was carved in the underside of the base with my dremel. This is where the battery box will plug in:

That's all for now.
Next up will be lighting the nacelles!

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Making the impulse engine nozzles ...

Using my mini cutoff saw I cut two pieces of aluminum tubing at a 20 degree angle.
I had to go slow making several short cuts with the saw as the diameter and thickness of the tubing could easily cause the blade to bind:

Then I cut short lengths of plastic tubing and painted them silver inside and about halfway along the outside:

I inserted the plastic tubing into each nozzle where it will serve as a coupler for joining the nozzle to the back opening of the nacelle:

For the impulse engine "exhaust pipes" I cut short bits of transparent red plastic rod with a larger diameter piece in the middle and smaller diameter pieces clustered around it and glued together with Ambroid Pro Weld.
Then I sanded the face nice and smooth, wrapped the assembly in aluminum tape for a snug fit, and inserted it into the plastic coupler.
It has a nice red glow when lit from behind:

Next up...

Installing and wiring up the nozzles.

 

[punkpigpen]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

good job on the engine nozzles. looks really cool!

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

So made a bit more progress on the impulse engine nozzzles and the stand over the weekend...

White LEDs were fitted to the rear of each nozzle using a disc of styrene with the leads protruding out the back:

Impulse engine nozzles glued into lower nacelle halves with CA:.

Wires soldered to leads:

Let there be light!

Nice IIDSSM!

Moving along...

The stand was wired and tested with the ship plugged in. I'm very pleased with the stands operation:

The nacelle, plasma torpedo, and hangar bay lights are tied into the same pushbutton switch located in the rear wall of the hangar bay so they can be operated independent of the wndow/sensor lights.

Here are the bussard domes. The one on the left has multiple coats of Dullcote applied. The one on the right is shown after one coat of Floquil flat finish. I want the domes to be fairly opaque without actually painting them white so Floquil is the way to go:

That's all for now folks.

Next up:

Lighting the bussard domes-at last!

P.S. I will also post pics of the finished Talon scout ship.

Comments welcome!

:cool

 

[robn1]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

The LEDs in the engines really look cool!

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

The LEDs in the engines really look cool!

Thanks for the compliment! They did turn out even better than I expected.

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

OK. So yesterday made some progress on the bussards.
I have one assembled and the other in pieces to show the parts....

The domes have a recessed rim on the inside which I took full advantage of. I cut a disc of thin styrene sheet to match the diameter of the inside edge of the dome. The sheet was so thin I had to cut two discs for each bussard and glue them together to get the right thickness to sit flush with the back edge of the dome. A hole in the center was drilled out to accomodate a short piece of aluminum tubing. The tubing sits almost flush on the side of the disc facing the inside of the dome so when the LED is inserted it sits back far enough to give an even glow without bumping up against the dome:

Here you can see the LED inserted in the metal collar. The Superbrite white LED was dipped in white fluorescent acrylic paint then coated with transparent blue acrylic:

I rigged up a jig to power the LED and lit'er up. I got a nice even blue glow:

I soldered two 30 gauge silicone wire leads to the larger gauge wires inthe nacelle:

The silicone wires is extrememly flexible and will hang out thru the hole in the front of the nacelle where the LED collar will fit thru after soldering.
I won't install the bussards until after the nacelle halves are glued together and sanding is finished and the ship is primed.
Then I'll attach the bussard assemblies, fill in any gaps around the perimeter with putty, and mask off the domes before painting:

I also did some work on the fighter/scoutship. Check out the latest pics here:
http://www.therpf.com/f11/romulan-p...-talon-fighter-118188/index2.html#post1846167

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Today's update...

So yesterday I did some puttying and sanding on the nacelles after gluing on the upper nacelle halves:

I cut some bits of aluminum tubing and made nuclear missile tubes for each wing:

Picked up a can of this at the LHS. This should take care of any remaining light leaks:

"DRIES IN MINUTES"
I like that! :thumbsup

And I've got these 3 shades of Tamiya grey to choose from for the final hull colors:

Right now I'm leaning toward Light Ghost Grey for the upper surface and Light Grey for the underside. The Romulans did refer to this as the "Ghost Ship" after all.

Still, I'd be interested in the opinions of the other members here on the best colors for this bird as I'm not 100% committed to these choices.

Anway, more sanding and window masking needed before I reach that stage.

Thanks for any comments or suggestions! :cool

 

[mobius303]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Great work....The lighting looks amazing so far.

I like your color choices so far.
Mobius

 

[trekriffic]

Re: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey from TOS

Thanks Mobius!