Want to light an Enterprise E

[Gired]

Hey everyone. I have not built and lit up any models before. I want to try my hand at the Enterprise E and get her all lit up. Only problem is I have no idea how to do the lighting and what I need for it. Anyone have suggestions on where to purchase a lighting kit or what I need to make one?

 

[Bioshutt]

lots of small LED's what scale are you looking at?

 

[Gired]

lots of small LED's what scale are you looking at?

The 1:1400 scale

 

[Ratbone]

You dont need a lighting kit. It is not that hard to do basic lighting (if you dont want flashing lights or nav-lights).
First you need some small LEDs, some wire, a power source (battery or a power adapter), a soldering iron and... some knowledge... how to wire up LEDs and so on.

I would suggest to watch some videos on youtube. There are some great modelbuilder.
Look at the channel "TrekWorks" on youtube. He has some very good stuff and some tutorials how to light star trek models.
Helped me a lot building my Voyager and Kazon torpedo, both with lights.

 

[Bioshutt]

^ Yes there are a lot of small LED's like these 3mm White High Flux LED | Component LEDs | Super Bright LEDs. Then you can get things like Theatrical lighting Gels in conjunction with filters that diffuse the light you can light the whole ship and power it via either a power outlet attached to the base that connects to the model, If you are putting it on a stand. I don't know what to do if you want to hang it

 

[Gired]

So I went ahead and got the basic Starship lighting kit from Madman Lighting. I know nothing of electronics and figured this would be the best way to start. I have already begun the build and boy does it feel like sacrilege to cut into the pieces to get all the wiring and LEDs in. Hopefully I am not mangling a perfectly good model.

 

[metal wood]

thats how i started, clueless with a lighting kit for my USS Reliant, through following directions and working on the kit i learned a great deal about the process and have since ripped open all sorts of previously built models to throw my own home made light kits in them. its a ton of fun and very rewarding!!! have fun and give it time, dont rush it, soak it in and learn all that you can.

 

[Duncanator]

To get the moving light effect in the fronts of the engines, you can do what we did on the shooting model. A crumpled mylar ball that spins on a slow gear-motor. The rest of the inside is lined with mylar as well. With multiple lights aimed at the mylar ball, you get lots of weird reflections that dance over the inner surface of the lens.

 

[Gired]

To get the moving light effect in the fronts of the engines, you can do what we did on the shooting model. A crumpled mylar ball that spins on a slow gear-motor. The rest of the inside is lined with mylar as well. With multiple lights aimed at the mylar ball, you get lots of weird reflections that dance over the inner surface of the lens.

Great idea! Alas the scale of this model and my skills prohibit this method. Thank you though!