Grumpy Popeye
New Member
- Joined
- May 14, 2009
- Messages
- 146
My wife gave me this for Christmas last year, and since I got another this year from my SSM secret Santa, so I figured I should get the show on the road and build one!
I've seen some great out of the box builds, but I've also seen some outstanding builds where just a few basic nips and tucks were done that brought the kit to a whole new level! Needless to say, I decided to do some nips and tucks!
First, the head! I used a mini chisel to dig out in between the ribs at the base of the armor plates to give the illusion that the plates are sitting on top of the ribs
I did the same for the plates on the back. Here's a good before and after shot:
...even did the plates on the underside
Since I plan to light this, I needed a plug. I wanted one that could handle more than one circuit and be able to hold the model securely. I've used multi pin DIN plugs with success in the past, so that's what I used here:
just need to make the stand hole bigger, enter the step bit!
(great buy, Canadian Tire had a set of three on sale for $14, I've seen the individual bits sell for fifty a piece!)
HOLY HOLE BATMAN!
Carrying on with the build, here's a shot of the pod garages in place. I've drilled out the six portlights for the red lighting.
You may also notice the shims between the garage pieces, I wanted to make sure the structure was solid.
While on the subject of the garages, I picked up both Paragraphix sets for the bucket, here's a before and after of the garage brass in place.
before:
After:
primed:
glued in place then puttied to smooth out the transitions.
I started setting up bulkheads for the LEDs, I'm using 3mm LEDs for the engines, set up in series of two
The secondary engines will be on a separate switch, as they aren't on all the time in the show.
This is my first fiber optic (FO) build since my first try with the AMT Enterprise D back in the 90's. I was underwhelmed with that project and since then have looked at other lighting solutions. After seeing the great builds on here and SSM where FO was the lighting of choice, I decided to give it another try.
Digging up some leftover bits from that AMT kit, I used the dodgy mini drill to drill out my windows in the "brick" area under the gator head. The strands were then epoxied in place. Good thing I didn't go too overboard, it was got pretty crowded in there!
Once that was done it was time for a light test:
from the front:
More to come!
I've seen some great out of the box builds, but I've also seen some outstanding builds where just a few basic nips and tucks were done that brought the kit to a whole new level! Needless to say, I decided to do some nips and tucks!
First, the head! I used a mini chisel to dig out in between the ribs at the base of the armor plates to give the illusion that the plates are sitting on top of the ribs
I did the same for the plates on the back. Here's a good before and after shot:
...even did the plates on the underside
Since I plan to light this, I needed a plug. I wanted one that could handle more than one circuit and be able to hold the model securely. I've used multi pin DIN plugs with success in the past, so that's what I used here:
just need to make the stand hole bigger, enter the step bit!
(great buy, Canadian Tire had a set of three on sale for $14, I've seen the individual bits sell for fifty a piece!)
HOLY HOLE BATMAN!
Carrying on with the build, here's a shot of the pod garages in place. I've drilled out the six portlights for the red lighting.
You may also notice the shims between the garage pieces, I wanted to make sure the structure was solid.
While on the subject of the garages, I picked up both Paragraphix sets for the bucket, here's a before and after of the garage brass in place.
before:
After:
primed:
glued in place then puttied to smooth out the transitions.
I started setting up bulkheads for the LEDs, I'm using 3mm LEDs for the engines, set up in series of two
The secondary engines will be on a separate switch, as they aren't on all the time in the show.
This is my first fiber optic (FO) build since my first try with the AMT Enterprise D back in the 90's. I was underwhelmed with that project and since then have looked at other lighting solutions. After seeing the great builds on here and SSM where FO was the lighting of choice, I decided to give it another try.
Digging up some leftover bits from that AMT kit, I used the dodgy mini drill to drill out my windows in the "brick" area under the gator head. The strands were then epoxied in place. Good thing I didn't go too overboard, it was got pretty crowded in there!
Once that was done it was time for a light test:
from the front:
More to come!
