Polar lights USS Enterprise NCC-1701
Star Trek The Motion Picture Refit
1/350th Scale



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And a bit more of this...
Saucer Lighting Shenanigans...
Part 3...
The Long Haul Continues
Well now gang, as mentioned more than a few times before,
light leaks are a no-no.

So with that in mind and turning my attention to the saucer RCS thrusters.
The light box thing and copious amounts of foil tape seems capable of curing most
light leak ills so that's what would be required.
Now then, to expedite matters a few bits of timber, some plasticard,
a few dabs of glue, a heat gun and a stapler came in handy here.

A mould and block set up done and after a bit of
faffing about, we go through the process.

That is to say, the parts...

In short order, staple down the plastic, heat,
push in the block parts and allow to cool.
Then remove block parts, rip out staples to remove plastic.
Then repeat to get enough with a couple spare,
trim and feel relatively pleased with oneself that it
actually damn well worked.









And so....the fitting.
Not too shabby but more foil required then insert clear kit part.
Then the box was fitted to the lower saucer,
much foiling up and the addition of a fire orange LED.
A quick light test also ensued...as usual.







A decent start.
So this was done around the lower and upper saucer.
The upper saucer all fitted out and wired up.
Top saucer light test with hellhole lighting on and off...
in that order.







And not a light leak in sight other than the ones needed...go me!

AHEM!

Moving on swiftly...

And now, to the main saucer edge windows.
Well as usual, all filled out with clear epoxy.

The overspill on the outside will be trimmed after the
saucer is sealed up, and then...you guessed it...
light boxes!!
Okedoke, thankfully all the stuff done on the
last model still had it's uses.
So the template was printed out and duly lined with the redoubtable
foil tape on the non-printed side...
Be a bit silly to plaster it all over the printed side
but that never stopped me before.
Like so..



Well as the handy notes I left on the sheet say, cut here, fold there, etc.
It starts with a cut out and after some fiddling about,
you get a box like thingy,
repeat as many times as needed.





After which followed much taping, wiring, soldering and light leak plugging.
Eventually we ended up with the following and just had to
test the lighting in the dark and take some pics.





First pic is the saucer top laid upside down to check for internal light leaks.
Second pic is the saucer the right way up...
honest...
Then i'm afraid I just had to get some VIP lounge shots,
just to pad the update out a bit you understand.









And that is that for this update,
at time of keyboard pounding this lot is about a week behind actual progress.
I really should have bunged these up sooner but been a wee bit busy.
So i'll leave you with this lot and bid thee farewell
untill the next update time.
Go easy you lot!!



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