Avenger's Enterprise D LED lit model build

[Avenger]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

I've bought replacement 5000 MCD white LEDs to redo the strobing lights. That will take a few days to get here, which gives me time to finish the final lights in the lower saucer, and the fiber optics, and to think about it a little more. When they get here, if I crack it open, I "just" have to replace the bulbs and hook back up the flashing chip. Without other lighting to put in, there shouldn't be any remaining risk to the flashers, and I can complete assembly on the model by attaching the upper saucer piece.

Hindsight being what it is, I don't think I should have introduced myself to LED lit models with the Enterprise D. So, I wouldn't recommend anyone else making it their first LED lit model either, if anyone gets the bug.

 

[Raymond F.]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

I've bought replacement 5000 MCD white LEDs to redo the strobing lights. That will take a few days to get here, which gives me time to finish the final lights in the lower saucer, and the fiber optics, and to think about it a little more. When they get here, if I crack it open, I "just" have to replace the bulbs and hook back up the flashing chip. Without other lighting to put in, there shouldn't be any remaining risk to the flashers, and I can complete assembly on the model by attaching the upper saucer piece.

Hindsight being what it is, I don't think I should have introduced myself to LED lit models with the Enterprise D. So, I wouldn't recommend anyone else making it their first LED lit model either, if anyone gets the bug.

Good show! It will turn out. We are rooting for you. take your time and only work when you feel inspired so you don't resent it.

500 hours into something, you'll miss working on it when its done trust me!

When i find myself with too much time i start panicking and looking for something to customize lol

 

[mojo customz]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

keep your pimp hand strong ----------------&
may the swartz be with you---------------------

 

[dchung]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

I've bought replacement 5000 MCD white LEDs to redo the strobing lights. That will take a few days to get here, which gives me time to finish the final lights in the lower saucer, and the fiber optics, and to think about it a little more. When they get here, if I crack it open, I "just" have to replace the bulbs and hook back up the flashing chip. Without other lighting to put in, there shouldn't be any remaining risk to the flashers, and I can complete assembly on the model by attaching the upper saucer piece.

Hindsight being what it is, I don't think I should have introduced myself to LED lit models with the Enterprise D. So, I wouldn't recommend anyone else making it their first LED lit model either, if anyone gets the bug.

you've got major cojones for tackling that first time out the gate. my first LED project was tricking out a 1:18 Sunstar BTTF delorean.

 

[Avenger]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

you've got major cojones for tackling that first time out the gate. my first LED project was tricking out a 1:18 Sunstar BTTF delorean.

The funny thing is, I wanted to do the Enterprise E, which has newer kits available, and I like the design more. I decided to start on the D because I thought it would be a good one to cut my teeth on, what with all the drilling out of the windows and LED setup. I knew about a third of the way in, this was the most complicated of the TNG ships to build. And the kit was a 20 year old ERTL kit that doesn't fit together very well.

I've built models, but knew nothing about LED's going into it. I didn't even know what a capacitor was. Of course, once I started, I got the bug to customize it out and bought some custom parts for it. I built a shuttle bay that you look in the rear main shuttle hanger door, and can see the little shuttles docked back in the ship. It's really been a labor of love, I would have loved to quit numerous times now.

If I had it all to do over again, I'd start with a shuttle instead of an entire star ship.

 

[Avenger]

Re: Fixing a ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

I've cracked open the warp nacels to get at the 4 burned out LEDs in there. It went pretty well all things considered. Not much else to do until I get the replacement LEDs, but continue filling in the lights in the saucer.

 

[The_Darkness_Predator]

Re: Fixing a ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.


Awesome!

The pic looks great. I am so glad you shared your story with us. That is fantastic that you are able to salvage your investment.

I have a 41 inch long Excelsior class Enterprise-B that I lit with LEDs and light bulbs (years ago). A friend helped me move to a new place and accidentally broke off a nacelle. I still haven’t fixed it.

I look forward to seeing more pics but no rush.

 

[Lejuan]

Re: Fixing a ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

I've cracked open the warp nacels to get at the 4 burned out LEDs in there. It went pretty well all things considered.

 

[Elendil]

Re: Fixing a ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Very glad you decided to continue this project. It is looking great and I can't wait to see how it turns out in the end!

 

[Jediguy]

Re: Fixing a ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Awesome work man!! Way to get back on your feet!

 

[devilof76]

Re: Fixing a ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

 

[Avenger]

Re: Fixing a ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Here's tonight's progress on the repair.

I've rebuilt the flasher circuit/chip and installed it, and spliced new wire onto the old, cut off ends that run to the flashing lights throughout the ship. There's nothing more to do now till the new lights arrive. Once they do, I'll replace the dead ones in the warp nacels, reassemble those, and do the dangerous part of cracking open the lower hull to get to those. I'll update again when there's more to report.

Here's the new chip, and the mess of wires that light up the inner lower saucer. And, one of the lights for those interested in the process. I'd mention, the upper saucer has a similar array of LEDs like the lower saucer does, which when sealed, bounces around on the flat white paint and simply makes the insides glow, which gives us the lighted windows on the ship.

 

[Levit05]

Re: Fixing a ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

this is fuggin cool man!!!

 

[Avenger]

Re: Fixing a ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

I found my old folder of build photos, so I guess I'll rename this thread and make it the official Avenger custom Enterprise D thread, and post some of those for you.

This is an ERTL 1/1400 Scale kit.

 

[wax murderer]

Good kit;one of their better ones, though the surface detail is a little heavy. Had big plans for one of my own, but somehow it didn't happen.Funny...PS

 

[Avenger]

Good kit;one of their better ones, though the surface detail is a little heavy. Had big plans for one of my own, but somehow it didn't happen.Funny...PS

For my mileage, I found the kit to be nice, but poorly fitting. Stuff just didn't seem to line up well, and I had to do mods to get it to go together right. It doesn't help that you can't follow the instructions to build this, since you have to account for the lighting at certain points that prohibits their linear process. So it has to be built in well thought out stages. In the following picture tour, you'll see why this has taken so much time.

 

[Avenger]

The kit never intended for a full LED model to be made out of it. So, all the windows that I wanted to be lighted, had to be drilled out by hand with a 1/32 bit (tiny and I broke a lot of them). I tried a number of bits, but the 1/32 dremmel bit turned out the best, even though it did more melting out of the windows than grinding. You'd be surprised just how many damn windows are on this thing. Hundreds. Also, you'll notice a black square with a set of windows on it in the first pic. ERTL missed a set of windows behind the captains yacht, so I cut out a hole in the ship, and installed a custom mod so those windows would be on my build.

NOTE: These images are taken over a year ago, and with our old camera. So, most aren't very good.

Here you see what I had to do to route power wires to the warp nacels. This is actually the process the makers intended you to go through, as the instructions require you to dremmel out a channel for the wires to run, and then use modeling putty to fill the channel and cover the wires (that's what the white, chalky stuff is). The wiring that came with the kit was thicker than my 16 guage wire, so I have no idea how people in the 90's did this without cutting through the hull.

More of the prep, with my main power (4 pin molex) installed. This neat little device allows me to plug the ship into the base I'm going to make for it, and unplug it to store. No exposed wires, just plug and play. It has 2 separate sets of power leads, which will allow me to put switches on my base to turn on and off the engine lights and the ship lights separately.

Close up of a custom set of channels I drilled to install fiber optics for a red and green light on the aft of the ship.

 

[Avenger]

I took this shot when I was half way through drilling out windows on one of the saucer halves.

Even this thick gray plastic exhibits light bleed through the hull when LEDs are lit behind it. So, you have to paint the interior of the ship black first, before painting it dull white (gloss or metallic does not work as well, don't know why). The black prevents light bleed, while the white acts as a reflector to make the LED light bounce around and light the ship.

The most awful design of any model I've ever done. This central hull piece is actually 4 separate pieces that have to be glued together, and they fit together poorly. To boot, the entire weight of the saucer section, which extends out from the front of the ship, rests on this set of parts.

 

[Avenger]

Here's the lower half of the lower hull, finish painted with the aztec pattern you see on the ships in the movies. I hand mixed the paints to resemble the idealized (screen) look of the ships color, and then painted on all the aztec pattern on the ship, using the chart that came with the kit. FUN FACT: I watched every Star Trek movie, old and new, while painting the aztec pattern on the ship, and still had more to do.

Nacels being prepped for lights.

Here I'm lighting up the first nacel.

A shot of the lower hull aztec after it was completed. I had to pry off and fix the captain's yacht (center oval thingy) because it's on inside out.

 

[Avenger]

Before and after comparison of aztec pattern.

Both lit nacels.

This shows the custom made shuttle bay, installed. The bay is edge lit by LED's so you can look inside in the dark, and see everything like the real ship would be illuminated inside.

This is my best attempt at taking a picture of the shuttle bay as it will be seen by viewers, with my old crummy camera.

Here's the shuttle bay before it was wrapped up and installed.