Thanks Q!

Stuff to do with the impulse engines...

I'm pretty old school when it comes to the original series Enterprise so at first I thought I'd just leave the impulse engines dark. But then I got to thinking how neat they looked lit up in the remastered episodes so... I came up with an idea for having it both ways.

First thing was to cannibalize the push light. In addition to 3 LEDs the light also had a pushbutton switch inside. A little desoldering freed it from the circuit board:

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IMG_4630 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The switch was wired up with the "N" wiring harness and connected to an LED for testing with power from the PC board. It worked quite well:

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IMG_4633 by trekriffic, on Flickr

A shaft was cut from Evergreen rod with a black tip cut from some scrap kit window smoked plastic to fit in the hole between the vents. It was then glued with epoxy to the switch button:

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IMG_4637 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The switch  was the perfect size to fit inside the back of the impulse deck directly behind the hole in the center between the exhaust vents which I drilled out. I also cut new clear plastic for the exhaust vents as the original kit part had gotten scratched and clouded while I mucked about positioning the switch:

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IMG_4642 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The switch was glued in with CA and the new vent covers were glued in with Krystal Klear. The kit impulse vent decals were also applied from the inside:

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IMG_4644 by trekriffic, on Flickr

A light box was constructed for each vent with an amber LED glued to the back wall. The LEDs were also painted with Tamiya transparent orange acylic. The insides of the boxes were painted black except for the rear wall which was covered in reflective foil:

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IMG_4645 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Here are the impulse engines in their dark mode more like what we saw in the original episodes:

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IMG_4652 by trekriffic, on Flickr

And here thay are with the pushbutton switch pushed in and lit up like the remastered episodes:

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IMG_4650 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I was able to spread out the light using a few layers of .030  styrene sheet pressed in just behind the clear vent  covers. The styrene sheet came with a semi-opaque protective film on both sides to prevent scratching; I left the film in place and it did a great job as a diffuser.

The impulse engines were then glued into the lower saucer hull:

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IMG_4653 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The next thing I need to figure out is if I want to do something similar with the nacelle screens or just leave them dark.  It might be possible to have a pushbutton in each warp engine, perhaps accessible through a small hole in the recessed ring just in front of the endcaps. I'd need to remove some of the foam tubing to wire up the SMD LEDs though.

Decisions.... decisions...

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me while I was preoccupied with chores.

More to come!