Revell Republic Cruiser with lights

WAOUH!! I like all detail on the kits!!!

Oh dear.

The experiment using the strips of clear styrene didn't work out as I had hoped. In the end, they didn't transmit enough light.

So back to the drawing board. I am going back to using the 0.5mm FO after a few days of trying this and that.

Shall have some pics of what I am trying to achieve in the next day or so.

Stay tuned.

A question for all, moderators included.

With the use of CGI to create many things in movies these days including the model I am currently building, what is now classed as studio scale versus general modeling ?

I have read the definition of SS on this site but find that there is no provision for digitally created "models" used in movies, etc.

I am not saying that my build should be moved to the SS part of the site. What I am looking for is some type of clarification as to where to post a build for a CGI model, eg a ship from the Chronicles of Riddick.

After the failure of the clear styrene to provide the strip lighting around the brim docking bays I went back to using 0.5mm FO. This has been a slow process as I had to make the slots wider to accomodate the extra 0.25mm for the FO. This made the outside of each of the 2 pieces look like they were ravaged by some type of styrene eating monster.

Nevertheless, I have all but 2 more sets of strips to install. The way I have tried to keep the FO in as straight a line as possible is using 0.75mm styrene chips to place the FO against then secure with masking tape. Once this is done I then liberally applied white glue to the back side where the FO was threaded through. Any gaps in the slots were filled with strips of 0.25mm styrene. The first 2 pictures are a better explanation than what I can write here.

While waiting for the glue for the FO to dry, I have been working on the spine of the ship. The top side is completed and I am now working on the sides. All of the detail for the spine is derived from one screen capture from the movie.

More to follow later in the week.

G'day all,

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Been down and out with the flu, had some travelling to do and a fair amount of spring cleaning around the place.

The port side trenches are finally complete. It was an excercise in patience trying to work out the paint mixes and how to get the pieces looking somewhat "used". In the end I opted for a dark grey in the recesses and around the edges of each piece then, a lighter grey for the more visible, protuding parts.

I then tried a few different washes to make some of the detail stand out but was not happy with result. After some dep thought (a few beers), I rumaged through the drawers of my modelling desk and found some Tamiya weathering master pastels I used on a previous build. So I slathered that across all of the raised sections of each piece then wiped some off with my finger. Now it looks like it has been in and out of the atmosphere quite a few times.

Next I had some problems with a number of the FO. I cut 30 or so of them too short. So they had to be pulled out and new ones installed. Once that was done I was able to get all of the port side pieces glued to the bottom hull piece, and the FO bundles connected to their LEDs in about 4 days.

Now that I know what I am doing (sort of), the starboard side should be completed by the end of next week.

Hope you like the pics.

Trenches done !!!

I know it has been more than the week I expected to get the trenches completed. I found on the starboard side that I had to replace the FO on the first four pieces. The light wasn't being properly sent through the FO and I found that a number of them had snapped because I was trying to bend them too much in order to conserve space.

Anyway, after stripping out the old FO, cleaning off the white glue, re-drilling a few holes then adding the new FO, all is good.

One thing I am not happy about is that the white FO (0.5mm) around the door of docking bays on both sides of the ship are too bright. You can see what I mean in one of the pictures below.

Can anyone please give me some help on how to diffuse the the light from the LED ? I have used heat shrink tubing so it is not much of a problem cutting that away and placing something between the LED and FO. The question is what should I use ?

Many thanks to anyone who help with this minor problem.

Next stop, the engines...Time for some nurnies and greeblies !!!

One way to difuse the led, is light sand the led with some fine wet sandpaper, another on top of of that is using a dremel and slightly veering the tip off a bit.

Takevin,

Many thanks for the tip mate. I removed the shrink tubing and used some 200 grit sandpaper on the white LEDs. Now the white "lights" around the docking bays don't look like 3 billion candle power.

Thanks again !!

Dave.

Well, a couple of months have gone by with the build being a stop and go affair. Life, the universe and a breather slowed progress for a while but, I am now back in the saddle.

Am now working the engines and fine tuning the electronics...What a job I tell you ! From the few screen caps I have of the main engines it has ended up being a guessing game for the detailing of the tubes. They are not yet finished as I am doing some hack and slash to make the original main pipes look much more like tubes than the thick mould castings OOB.

The LEDs are installed and some detailing has been added but there is still a fair amount of bits and bobs to be added.

Also been thinning down the walls inside the exhaust tubes and after being stumped for a while on how to make the inserts, I received a lot of help from the MadHatter on another forum. Many thanks MH.

I also could not but try out and see what the engines looked like when they were "lit up". I'm happy with the results so far....

So below are a few pics of what little I have done in the past couple of weeks.

Enjoy.

Dave.

It's coming together nicely Noumcea, the lighting effects really does throw some life into the build. Those details are a huge improvement to the kit.

I don't know if you need any extra reference, but here's a link
Screencaps » Star Wars

Looking forward to future updates!

Your detailing and lighting are really impressive.
I can't wait for the next post.

As I am also getting into lighting my kits, I've been following this thread with great interest. I'm really loving the way this ship is looking so far; very impressive work.

Many thanks for your comments everyone. I am guessing that the main engins will be finished in about a week or so. Then it's onto the smaller engines.

More pics in a week or so.

Cheers.

Dave.

Gidday Dave!
Mate - thought it was about time to drop in and say Hi
It's really looking good now - not far from completion?
Hey, do you want some of the triangle frames I used in mine as I still have some left if you want some?

Will drop in again soon

Si

Well, it is more than the week I thought it would take to get the engines done. Had some (a fair amount) of time off with my good wife so modelling was a hit and miss affair.

Anyhow, the thruster tubes for the main engines are now ready to paint. The detailing consisted of various thicknesses of copper rods, styrene rods and styrene sheets.

To add a touch of something different other than stock tubing, I have cannibalised a couple of SkyWave 1/700 Krivak II frigates. There are a number of radar "dishes", gun barrels and assorted bits and bobs which connect to the styrene and copper plumbing.

I did the detailing of the tubes in a simplistic way. I looked at a number of images of the outside of turbofan and turbojet engines and then extrapolated this to what I thought would be cooling tubes, secondary fuel injectors, etc.

Hope the primed tubes look OK. Now I am thinning the walls of the exhaust tubes for greebling.

Hopefully more updates next week.

Enjoy.

Dave

BTW,

Does anyone know about the Sparkmax AC-27 air compressor ? I have had this for a couple of years but it now is only pumping out at max 20 psi.

Any thoughts on how to fix this problem as I don't want to have spatters all over the build.

My airbrush is an Aztek A4390 (double action). I have had no problems with this brush on previous builds and keep it very clean.

Any help is most appreciated.

Cheers,

Dave.

Come along nicely Noumcea! Been awhile since I have been on here so this was the first thread for me to hit for updates Yeah not sure about the compressor issue, if it's old it maybe time to upgrade to a newer compressor.

Back at Last !!!

Hey there all. I know it has been a while since I last posted, but that doesn't mean I have stopped building or dropped off the grid. Been working out the engines, electronics and paints, while dealing with the day to day stuff. Sorry if this is a long post however as always, I like to pass on what I have done and experimented with.

First of all, my air compressor died so I had to get a new one. It is a beauty !!!! The old one is on the left of the first pic below. Cost me all of $140 Oz online...Most happy.

Moving on, the main thing I have been working on is getting the engines detailed, painted and working. This can't be done without working on the back plate and also the bottom plate of the ship. So here comes my diatribe.

Engines: I think that in my last post I had detailed the main engines and given them an undercoat. Once this was done, I focused on the inside of the main engine nozzles. There are 16 ribs inside each nozzle and inside those, a short tube. A mate of mine sent me the copper tubing which then needed to be cut to size and then polished to remove any burrs. These are shown in the next 3 pics.

I was trying to decide if I should enamels or acrylics for the main colours of the ship, including the engines and decided on enamels because I had a larger variety of greys and whites in enamel. First was the base coat I made up which I have called "Sidious Grey". It is a It is a 25 / 25 / 50 mix of Revell matt 77 + 74 and Tamiya X-20 thinner. It looked ghastly when first sprayed on but then after applying a 50 / 50 mix of Revell matt 76 and thinner, things looked somewhat better (next picture).

Next while working out how to create highlights and grimy detailing by accident, I found that by rubbing my finger over the engines produced quite a nice used look although it was glossy (next slide please).

To finsh of the grimy look, I applied some Tamiya weathering master soot. to seal it all and give a matt look I used something which most people seem to hate - Humbrol Mattcote. This is the first time I have used this product but after strirring throughly in the bottle first then, thinning with 75% of X-20, I was well chuffed with the result. The greys tended to blend together and I had no problem with any yellowing, bubbling, etc (another picture, large engines with Dullcote).

I am nearly done. The main engines were then attached to the back plate and wired up.

The bottom plate: To get the colours working in harmony, I also sprayed the bottom of the ship with Sidious Grey after which I did some masking. After that was the #76 mix which was on purpose sprayed in an uneven way. This ship is going to represent one of the first out of the shipyards that lasted through to the start of of the Empire.

That's all for now folks. Time to some more masking.

Happy building.

Yeah, a couple of months have gone by but I am still slowly poking away at the build.

The engine area has been all but completed. Only the tiny engines need to be attached. They won't be attached to the top plate as it will be removable. I worked out that I can place the power supply inside the hull as I don't like the idea of making a hole for an ugly power adapter.

I have also added the remote control circuit board to turn the power on and off plus, dimming or brightening the LEDs.

Finally, the painting of the bottom plate is almost done. I went with a winter type splinter scheme. Remeber that earlier I said that this build will represent one of the first 5 Venators built ? Well I figured that the ship would have done many atmospheric entries which would have scoured the hull, not to mention the numerous micro-meteorites that would have impacted the hull.

That's my story on this build. Hope you all like the ideas and will also give me some thoughts, ideas, critisism, etc.

Cheers,

Dave.

Mate , you've inspired me!