Spinning lights

So this is probably my last post until the middle of May. My parents come into town on Tuesday, and we will be headed to Disneyland for the half Marathon, and some post academic fun. I start teaching summer classes on May 16^th, so we will be back that weekend to recover. Mostly I built a prototype of the spinner assembly for the Bussard collectors. This is the most difficult electronic section. The rest of the lights are, quite frankly, simple in comparison. The rig has 8 different colored LEDs that are staggered in such a way that the blink pattern looks a little like fan blades passing in front of the lights. The larger red LED you see in the center I originally put in to give the entire thing a red hue, but after experimenting with it I have decided it looks more accurate with just the blinkers. On the second prototype I will have four more blinkers on the inside to hopefully add to the illusion. I will also add a few other colors, including a blue LED as that is what you see in the new remastered shots and I like the look. 

The bussard collectors on the remastered TOS Enterprise

The LED assembly and frosted clear cap.

A blury shot of the spinner working. I could not use the flash or the lights would not show.

A video of the spinners with some speed adjustment.

            On that note, I am thinking that I may not bother installing the clear accurate bridge. Looking at that process it will be a tough job trying to get the gaps filled in and look seamless. I know there are people out there that can do that, but I have not had much experience with it. Though it means this build will not be as accurate. I am OK with that, as I hope down the road to pick up the Polar Lights 1/350 scale Enterprise which is twice the size of the one I am working on now, and far more accurate. They have a similar sized Refit/A that I have been lusting after for about 5 years (the model usually sells for over $100, and I really do not have room for a 3 foot long Enterprise right now).

            For the clear cap, which now looks grey, I found some Krylon frosted glass paint. I gave the inside of the cap 6 or 7 coats. I was hoping it would dry a white color, but instead I got that grey. It will not look all that appealing when the electronics are off, but it does work. For some reason I always want my lit ships to look like they are without power when the lights are off. That means using colored lights in thinks like warp grills and then frosting the grill so they look clear when off. I am basing all this off of a single episode of TNG where we see the Enterprise adrift and the blue and red of the warp nacelles is instead a frosted clear. I have another paint I might try on the other cap and if that looks better strip the paint off the first one and redo it.

            I have not done much with the vanships recently. For some reason I just have not felt like working on them. I am enjoying the lighting work more than the construction at this point. I assume I’ll be back to working on them soon enough. For now, I sign off until after I have run 13.1 miles through Anaheim on Mothers’ Day.

Vanships!

The last few weeks have been pretty full with a number of Shakespeare 400 events, but after out little birthday/deathday on the 23^rd, things should lighten up. I have not been idle, however. I’ve been working on kitbashing a few vanships as I wait for some parts to arrive for the Enterprise. I have two more or less complete. One based on the military vanship from the first series, and another based on Dio’s vanship from the second. If you have not seen Last Exile, I would recommend it. These are parted out from a number of airplane and tank parts I have, as well as some sprue and a few things from the greebles box. I have a third one in process now, and hope to build a fourth, larger one. These are nice to build as I just work with the parts, looking for one that fits and then start cutting and filing. I use my needle files to shape the edges, get the right angles, and even add curves to glue onto the curved pieces. This is really relaxing for me. I kind of zen out as I am working, coming out to get water, or stretch my legs a bit. It lets my brain work on something different from my dissertation, something that needs my hands as well as my intellect. Somehow it is easier to write after spending a weekend building a kitbashed model. 

Vanships have a specific look to them. They always have some kind of rounded antena like structure at the end of the ship. This is the flight/thrust unit for this ship. The idea is that a specific fluid is pumped through the pipes, and it generates both the lift and thrust. Vanships always have the small wings up front with wheels, as well as some kind of radiator like grill in the front.  They seat two, a pilot and a navigator, one behind the other. With the military vanship I have pilots and the rest of the cockpit, but I wanted to paint them before I set them in the model. I do not have pilots for the racing vanship, so it will just have an empty cockpit. There is still a bit of work to do on these models, add the windshields, some more greebles, and the like.

military vanship

Military style vanship

racing vanship and cockpit

racing vanship

The parts I was waiting for did come in late this week. These include clear caps for the bussard collectors, and a more accurate, clear, bridge, and the bottom dome of the saucer. So there are three ways to do windows on models like these. One way is to have the entire ship modeled in clear plastic. This way you can just put lights on the inside and then paint the outside. You either mask the windows, or remove the paint to get them to light up. The models for TNG were done that way. A few companies make kits like that, but they are expensive. With this clear resin piece I will be doing some of that. I will stick a white LED in the piece, then mask the windows so after painting they glow. The other two methods are to use fiber optics. This works the best for tiny windows, or round windows as the fiber optics are round. You can link them directly to the LED giving off a pretty bright light, or shorten them and have them act like real windows. The final way is to use a clear resin or epoxy to fill the window. You use tape on the outside to hold the liquid in place until it sets, remove the tape and you have a window. This can be problematic due to the material you chose. I’ve done it with a water clear epoxy, but it has yellowed over time. I do not know much about working with resin to try that angle. Aside from the bridge module, I am not decided how I am going to light the rest of the windows. Some are round, so for those I will most likely use fiber optics. For the square ones I have been looking for some square side glow fiber optic which is soft and I should be able to cut to shape, but so far it is only available in large quantities from China. I am hoping, after the half marathon in May, to start forging ahead with the Enterprise.

The new clear bussard domes next to the original ones. 

The new bridge section next to the old one.

My final round of electronics came in as well. I’ve been playing with the 4060 circuit I use for blinkers to try and find one that can look a bit like the fan blades in the TOS Enterprise’s bussard collectors. I think I will be going with this sequence. I have a variable resister attaches so I can play with the speed. I will probably go with a pretty fast speed. The video below shows the sequence with four LEDs. i adjust the speed just to show the possibilities.

Let There Be Lights

Though I have not posted in a while, I have been busy with some small things. We spent last weekend at a conference in Denver, and spent a day in Salt Lake with old friends, leaving little time for project work. Over the week I have done some more organizing and ordered a few tools. The power adapter I use to simulate a 9v battery also came in, so I now have power to begin to work on the electronics.  I also restored an old computer system so I now have music, video, and internet access at my work station. This allows me to look thing up without coming back inside.

desk with computer screen

After school today we went to Home Depot for me to get some wood for a tool rack. Based on Adam Savages tool rack in this video, I built a small rack that holds my most used hand tools, pliers, clippers and nips, files, x-acto knives, and pin vices. I can move the rack forward and have quick access to all the tools I use. The rack is not perfect, but it does make for a better work flow. 

new tool rack

After dinner I spent some time test fitting the parts of the Enterprise, then bored out the holes for the wires that I will need to run for the power. I used my handy Dremel tool that Coowee got me a few years ago for my birthday. It makes quick work of this kind of plastic, and gives me some solid control. I used needle files and an x-acto to finish off the edges. They are somewhat ragged, but they will not be seen once the model is assembled. 

joint on the bottom of the pylon

The joint for the pylon to fit in seen from the inside of the engineering hull.

joint on the bottom of the saucer

top of the neck where it connects to the saucer

I did tinker on the blinking circuit I am hoping to use on the bussard collectors. I believe my 4060 chips are all somewhat fried. I did get some blinking, but without the proper resister and capacitor, so I was a bit skeptical. It also was intermittently not working. I have ordered new components, as the others I have were out in that garage for over a year, and before that were moved from Portland. Hopefully I can get something running when they get here. 

I also did some work on the stand. Normally I use project boxes to make stands where I can easily mount power hookups and switches. This base, however, is a nice round dome. I thought it would be cool to make it look like a planet that the Enterprise is orbiting. I think I am going to go for a satellite like our moon, or Pluto with craters and ridges. I carved out a notch on one side to place the power hook up. I will sort out a switch next, then find some kind of clay I can use to sculpt the planet details, hiding as best I can the switch and hookup. I think that will be a cool effect. 

stand with the pole provided in the kit before modification

notch cut for the power hookup

Finally, I have been researching airbrushes and compressors, trying to get a good brush for a good price. A lot of people say it is a $300-$350 start up. I think I can get what I want for under $200, but I still need to do some more research on that. I will only be able to get so far until I have the airbrush as some of the pieces would benefit from being painted before assembly. 

Now that I have the power adapter I can show a few other projects in process. This is my Klingon D-7 warship, the original. I have a good paint job one it, but there was problems with my masking on the front windows. This means a repaint. I did not do this with an airbrush, but with a rattle can and a brush. The paint, I think, is just too thick for the masking method. I have the same problem with my Romulan Bird of Prey model. Only a few of the windows are exposed at the moment while I try to figure out how to fix the problem. The rear impulse engines for the Klingon ship are my own add on. The Romulan ship has them as well, but they are still masked at this point.

D-7 that needs a new paint job. The lights still work. 

 

  

Romulan bird of prey in need of new paint.

 

These other two are a pair of kitbashed Star Fleet ships I made a few years ago. They need some clean up, some filler, and then painted. Their blinker boards are not working either, for some reason. I need to crack open the bases and see if I can figure out why. These were fun to build. The warp grills on the one with the round saucer are made from engine housings from a ‘50s bomber, the top of some clear pens Valah likes (they were dead), and the ends of some clear plastic forks. I used other parts of the forks for the engine grills on the triangular one. The pictures do not exactly show how cool the lights are. 

 

With the term coming to a close, and a half marathon in Disneyland at the beginning of May, I expect that progress will be slow. Hopefully after that, as summer term gets started, I will begin to make some real progress.