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



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There are a hell of a lot of lights.
It's an Illuminating Experience.
Now then, last time a fair few moons ago we had assembled
the sides and roof of the hangar/cargo bay and had a
little tinker with the workbee and travel pod bits.

Well it came to pass I finally stepped back into the breach and decided
that since this was a first time building the refit with the hangar thingy,
I may as well do a the number on it lighting wise.

So with that in mind, the first task was how to go about putting
the lighting on the workbees and travel pod.

First up, seeing as how the workbees and cargo train
had a light on the front,
the best way to work it was by fiber optic.

Now one thing here, you can get fiber optic in both glass
and plastic strands and to be honest,
it can be pricey.

All of the stuff I used was 'harvested' from a cheap fiber optic spray table lamp
and it works just as well for the purposes of modeling
at least from what i've found so far.
But cheapskate happenings aside now, lets get to it.

First with a grinding wheel and drill,
'twas time to knock a lump or two off the resin replacement
DLM bought in bits...



That duly sorted.

Now the workbees had 5 strands of fiber laid down the middle trench
with the ends about 2mm short of the front of the body.
The trench was then filled with clear epoxy resin and left to cure.
I did 4 in total.

1 for the cargo train,
1 as is and 2 with some wee additional bits to make up
the extending grab arm doohickeys.
The fiber optic and large holes in the travel pod were likewise filled and sanded flush.

With the cargo trains, the DLM parts were assembled and a trench dug along the length
then small holes drilled at an angle to accept the fiber optic for the
lights down the side as seen in the movies.
One cargo train was made to be seen from the front, one from the rear.

All the light carrying stuff duly wedged in and sorted.
A 3mm LED was mounted directly on the back of the travel pod.

A wee bit of additional plasticard detail and the deed for the
cargo train building was a done thing.

3mm LEDs attached to the bits,
the legs of the LEDs will be the supports when installed.
Just a smidgen of masking in the right places and
a goodly blast of matt white duly applied.

Decaling and paintwork a plenty later and we have...









And yes, I just had to fire up the lighting...









Now THAT I am happy with!

Well that done, now to the small lit spots on the cargo area catwalks.
Holes were predrilled so mucho fiber optic stranding
duly selected and shoved through.

Now holding the little blighters in place is not really a problem,
here you see the ends of the strands...

Now by holding a heat source,
say a soldering iron tip or lighter flame close to but not touching
the strand end untill it sort of 'mushrooms' over, you get this...

Instant 'fall back through the hole' stoppers.
So dragged through and the outside just given a dab
of epoxy glue to make sure they don't run away
anywhere and left to cure.

So once done, then the cargo trains and travel pod installed.



Rightyho then, that done so just the hangar deck to sort and
the turbo lift shafts to paint then the bulk of this
deal can be put together and then deal with the rest of the lighting
in the hangar/cargo bay area.
All good fun but that be it for now me hearties!

Untill the next time which will be a lot sooner than
this update has taken to get here I promise,
you go easy gang!



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