Lighting the tiny Bandai Star Destroyer

So after building a 3 foot TOS Galactica (Battlestar Larson) I have completely switched gears and am building and lighting (!) the tiny Bandai Star Destroyer! Going from a 19 pound 3 foot resin model to a 4.25 inch plastic kit that weighs maybe a couple of ounces, is going from one extreme to the other. I had a bunch of left over .25mm fiber optic and needed to do something with it. After seeing Dorobou's fantastic SD I decided I'd try my hand at lighting it. He used clear resin cast parts, mine is more traditional, with fibers. Still, major headaches.

I started by gluing some pieces together so I could hollow them out to make room inside. I cut out a good portion of the upper hull, under the super structure to open it up.

My plan is to terminate the fibers inside the super structure so they are "pointing" at a single diffused white LED, as opposed to running fiber to a tube and gluing said tube to an LED like normal.

The hardest part so far was modifying the neck to get the fibers from the bridge down to the hull. Lots of grinding inside the bridge did take place.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures to show where I am at so far. Should be able to finish this up in a week.

Trenches drilled out.


Super structure glued together and hollowed out. Fibers run.



Hull opened up for access.



Modified bridge neck and bridge fibered up!



Super structure windows.

Totally nuts! But in such a good way!

I'm not particularly familiar with lighting models like this - do you have to cut the excess of the fiber optics? My side cutters didn't seem nearly precise enough to get clean cuts in that kind of space - very impressive!

Yes, you let them stick out until after painting, then clip them flush. A variety of tools on my desk are used for trimming fiber. Mostly my side cutters do the trick.

This is a very interesting project. I fear that I will want one myself when your build is finished!

Thanks. As others have said, the amount of detail on this little kit is just amazing!

Engine lighting test...

At 3v...


At a much nicer 6v!


Love these little guys!


I also just ordered a set of custom decals for the diminutive SD from Nicholas Sagan. There are several set on one sheet in different grey scales. You pick the darkness/shade you want based on your base coat. I'll post pics as soon as they arrive!

Excited to see this little guy done!

Nice!

I was contemplating a plan on how to do this while looking over the sprues of my kit.

Nice work Robiwon!

Crazy, man! I see it now, hovering in the background of a box dio with a 1/144 Falcon blasting out of Tatooine...

Regards, Robert

Looks great, any updates?!

It got put on hold temporarily while I work on some other stuff. I did find smaller LEDs I'll be using for it though. I'll be back on it soon.

Good to hear! I've got one of the kits on order and although I have very little modelling experience, let along lighting models, I'm very tempted to attempt to do this too. Can';t wait to see the final result. Good luck.