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Old 06-23-2009, 11:01 PM
Millenniumfalsehood Millenniumfalsehood is offline
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Super-detailed and lit Leopard-class Dropship

I'm a crazy modeler. I start projects like a 50" Imperial Star Destroyer, a 1:2256 Kuat Drive Yards, a "Starfleet Museum" of over 1,000 ship designs.

So I think this is actually a step *backwards* for me. :D

Let me start off with what I'm building. This is the Leopard-class which Kjev graciously uploaded, which I'm super-detailing.



Yes, those are lighting supplies:



I'm not only lighting the bridge and putting spot-lights over each hatchway, but I'm making the anti-collision lights blink and the engines will have 'candle-light effect' circuit boards installed, which will have an on/off switch so I can use it as gaming terrain (now that I've got a copy of Battletech).

First I constructed a 1/4 scale model of the final kit to get a feel of what tough points there are in the construction, and so I can make the mistakes on a small scale 'throwaway' model.



You can see I missed the little note that said which engine went to which side.


The first thing I constructed for this ship is the engines. I should probably mention now that I printed two copies so I can have spares and make laminated parts.



I cut out one of the engine outlets and then used it to make marks on a piece of opaque cardboard in order to make a light box. I then took the engine outlet and plied and pulled at it so I could strip away some of the layered paper (this works with any type of paper). This way I can make a blue filter to put over the bright white 3mm LEDs.







Then I glued the blue filter over the aperture, white side out so I could airbrush a very light coat of gray over it later. I then cut out a 1 cm strip of the cardboard and scored it to fit over the light box.





I then superglued a 3mm white LED into the opening on the narrow end of the cone.



After those steps were completed and the glue dried I commenced adding some cardboard exhaust manifolds (or whatever technobabble thingy that happen to be).



Once that was dried, I glued it into the assembled engine housing.



Then I repeated the whole thing and ended up with two ready-to-install engines.



I still need to solder wires to the engine LEDs, but I want to wait until I finish the fuselage so I can see how long to make the wires so they'll reach the flame circuits. I'll be painting the insides of the engines black so light doesn't bleed through. I hope I can get it into all the little crevices so I don't have any light leaks.
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  #2  
Old 06-23-2009, 11:08 PM
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ltla9000311 ltla9000311 is offline
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WOW! You're doing what I've only THOUGHT about doing on some of my other models! Keep the pictures coming!

By the way, could you give some specifics on the electronics and where you got them?
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Old 06-23-2009, 11:17 PM
Millenniumfalsehood Millenniumfalsehood is offline
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Yessiree Bob! :D

The flame circuits are from tealight candles from Walgreens. At Christmastime they had a big sale and I grabbed about 20 tealight candles. They have two features which I was head over heals for: number one, they used LEDs which are soldered to a circuit board, so I can desolder them and use them as a generic starship engine light. The second thing is the on/off switch, which is one of those push on/push off switches that is miniaturized. I like being able to just push the switch instead of having to flip it.

The blinking circuit is from Radio Shack. They have these little blinking lights that come with a battery, and all you have to do is desolder the LED and snip the leads to the batteries. They even mark the circuit board with the positive and negative terminals.

The white LEDs are from a small string I got from ACE Hardware after Christmas.

The SPST switch is from another type of tealight candle available at Walmart. The difference between these and the Walgreens ones is that the circuit is actually mounted inside the LED itself, so you're limited to a single color: yellow.

The resistors and the rest of the LEDs I got stock from Radio Shack, and I'm crudly trying to apply Ohm's Law by experimenting with the different resistance levels to get a good balance of brightness and safety.

Hope that helps!
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Old 06-23-2009, 11:30 PM
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The Orange The Orange is offline
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"Take a good look at it folks, it doesn't get any more real than this!"

Looking really promising MF, that reminds me, what happened to that Star Destroyer you were building over at Zealot?
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Old 06-23-2009, 11:33 PM
Millenniumfalsehood Millenniumfalsehood is offline
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Uh, will you accept "indefinite hold"? :o

Yeah, as happens on lots of projects I was in the middle of it, I got stalled on a part, and then "OOO! Shiney!" I saw another project that looked more fun.

Actually I'll be picking it up later. Its just on hold for now.
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Old 06-23-2009, 11:45 PM
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The Orange The Orange is offline
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Ah the "indefinite hold" all papermodelers run into that eventually [Or regularly] It's exactly how I feel, get started on a project and just see something that just looks appealing... I have to say though, it was [still is] an awesome build, and I loved how you detailed the hangar of the ISD using Q-tips(?)

I'm definitely going to learn alot about detailing in this thread, the LED's are getting me pumped! I think I might use your technique to light my Autumn :p

Keep it up!
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Old 06-24-2009, 07:26 AM
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Gearz Gearz is offline
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Nice one MF ~ I wish there more of these 'how I did it' type posts.

A step backwards ?!?!? ~ Don't step backwards to quickly, or you'll crash into me coming the other way
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Old 06-24-2009, 03:48 PM
Millenniumfalsehood Millenniumfalsehood is offline
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I think I'm about to roast me a dog . . .

I woke up this morning and let him outside, then without thinking I let him back in. He ran up the stairs and I stayed downstairs to wind up his leash. When I got upstairs what did I see but him on the floor chewing up one of the engines! And he didn't start with the narrow end that I could have easily replaced. He ate all those little vanes that I worked on last night.

Here's pic of the devilish culprit:



Quite innocent-looking, ain't he? But don't let that fool you. He's a devil in disguise.

But I'm not going to let that daunt me. As the great Clark W. Griswold once said, "We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tapp-danced with Danny f*****g Kay!"

we so need the 'twisted' smilie back . . .
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Old 06-24-2009, 10:32 PM
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kjev kjev is offline
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WOW! I am so thrilled to see this. When I designed it, all I had in mind were a couple of turret options PPCs (Particle Projection Cannons) or an LRM-20 rack (Long-Range Missile, salvos of 20). I had in mind making opening bay doors.

This is absolutely beautiful work MF! I am honored that you would take so much time with my humble design. It's really made my day.

K'Jev
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Old 06-24-2009, 10:38 PM
Millenniumfalsehood Millenniumfalsehood is offline
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Hey, 'tis a worthy design! I'm really glad someone finally made a Leopard, or a dropship of *any* kind from Battletech. Of course, a Union-class would be really great, hint-hint. :D

Okay, I've gotten the two fins done.

First off I cut out the fins as they are, and then bifurcated them so I can thicken them up. After that I cut out the anti-collision lights so I can use them for alignment purposes.



I then laid one of the pieces over some cardstock and cut out the shape, including the formation light hole. Then I started layering it. I then used one of the LEDs as a guide to cut out a hole the exact shape of the LED, but I merely scored the hole for the wiring to give it support while I cut out the rest of the laminated layers.



When that was finished and reached the last layer of cardstock (as determined by the thickness of the LED), I cut out the hole for the wiring and glued the laminations to the final layer.



I then commenced to gluing the outer layers on, starting with the back layer. Then I soldered short lead wires to the LED.



After the solder cooled I glued the other outer layer to the assembly. The wires are purposly short so I can measure the length of the leads for the blinker circuit.



I would show you the other fin, but you get the idea. I'll be covering the edges with extra gray from one of the unused parts, but I want to putty over the roughness, sand it smooth, and make sure there are no light bleeds. If there are, I can paint over them with black and then plate over it with the gray card. I'll also be putting small gray rings around the lenses and gluing little clear frosted-styrene half-spheres over the LEDs so the light will be visible front-to-back.
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