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.