Polar lights Enterprise 1701 Refit
1/350th Scale
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It All Goes In There...Honest!.
Well in a manner of speaking and not without a fight.
Ok then troops and troopettes, onward with bringing all the doo-dads together in one package.
Now the last bits to be prepped for the assembly as such are the turbolift tubes that run deck to roof so, these i drilled right the way through as just holding a LED against the ends of the solid item didn't quite seem to light it right so afore mentioed hole drolled, a few bits of 1mm masking tape and a few dabes of paint later, it was done.
That wee thing or pair of things if you will, delt with it was to the hangar deck mine beady eye was turned. Simply put, airbrushed with matt enamel dark sea grey, one coat of acrylic gloss and once dry, decals applied. Stock decals left to cure then two coats of acrylic satin varnish later, two travelpods and the one spare workbee glued in an epoxy style into place and there you have it.
The whole deal was then assembled.
At this time something, as it usually does occoured to me and that was all the windows while nice, needed something...turning to the PNT photo etched sheet i had the answer and that answer is...
people behind the windows.
OK i grant you folks would probably have summat better to do with thier time aboard a starship than be a travelpod spotter but who am i to judge.
Ahem!
Anyways, the figures are in sillhouette fashion, that is to say just an outline but very good none the less so i decided to press gang a few into place, one example is like so...
Which from the other side of said window looks like so...it's the three panel window in the roof by the way to save you squinting too much...
Nothing staggering but i just thought i'd throw it in. Moving along it was onto covering the entire exterior with foil tape and fix the roof lighting clear bits into place.
The area under the fantail part has been left clear of foil for a freason i will come to in another update.
Now the trailing fiberoptic from the sides of the hangar/cargo area and the wokbees had to be connected to an LED somehow, the result was a small legth of plastic tube over the ends of the fiber and the LEDs in a short length of alloy tube and secured with some epoxy putty.
Simply put, fiberpotic in plastic tube shoved in alloy tube to align with LED and taped up, simple but effective.
Once sort of sorted, then came the attaching of the LEDs and the inevitable wiring up.
Now all then white bits may look messy but simply put, they are paper bits cut and hotglued in on both sides of a wire joint to insulate, another simple but effective thing.
All wiring up done then the whole lot was foiled over to completely seal it. Idea here is that the shuttle bay will have it's own on/off switch with a removable DLM resin replacement hangar doors. Since i couldn't guarantee that there would be no light leaks around said door then this seems the best option for lighting to me. Others may differ but there ya go!
Well at each stage of the final foiling malarkey, the lighting was tested but no shorting out happened i am very happy to say so onto the lighting test done with a handy testing mains adaptor that just happened to have the right milliamp rating for the number of LEDs.
The results are below...
Well not so shabby i think i can honestly say so that's one up for our side i reckon. Only thing to note here as pointed out by one of the fellas on Hobbytalk and quite correct he be (Thankies Garbaron) is that the fiberoptic lights down the walls of the cargo area cannot be seen, the light is discernable but the actual pinspots of light are not if the PNT photo etch parts are used. such is life and now i know for certain so take note people, the words of the Garb are duly proven!
Well lots to consider while things are happening here, much fiddling about and a few bits of surgery due to modifiactions and the like to happen to the secondary hull when i start putting the gal together proper but we be a ways off from that yet.
Go easy untill next time me merry muckas!!
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