Edu craft 1:144 LUT

[closet astronaut]

Originally Posted by darbyvet

Progress on my LUT build.Added the stairs for the first three levels-very fiddly.Also added equipment boxes and girders.Was quite tedious rolling all the paper tubes for the girders.About 50 hours so far.

Looking good so far. This was my first big detailed model iin this hobby. I didn't roll all those tubes, I used straws and painted them red. A word of advice, before attaching the swing arms make sure you have the rocket built and sitting on the hold downs. I didn't use the hold downs that come with the kit, I used the hold downs from Greelt's 1/48 launch pad, I shrunk them down. They are much better than the ones in the kit. If you'r interested..there's a group of photos of the 1/48 Sat-V I built last year, just click on the photo of the rocket pointing into the sky.

Here'e the link to the launch pad.The Lower Hudson Valley Paper Model E-Gift Shop - Photo Gallery - Miscellaneous/Other

[darbyvet]

Thanks for the tip.That Saturn V is an amazing build.I have a resin kit of the f1 engine that is very detailed.Your paper version looks just as good!
I think I am going to use the paper LUT to display my Saturn 1B so I will be building edu crafts milkstool kit.That link for the hold down arms will really help me build accurate ones for my brass LUT build.

[obwand10]

YAY! Another Milkstool build.

[closet astronaut]

Yea...obwand did the milkstool on his and it turned out great, you can probably find his thread a couple of pages back.

[obwand10]

Originally Posted by closet astronaut

Yea...obwand did the milkstool on his and it turned out great, you can probably find his thread a couple of pages back.

Thanks!!
darbyvet, your buid is turning out amazing. It's going alot faster than mine did.!!
EDIT- I know the brass one has non-complete instructions, so I'll try to help as much as I can(If you need it)(We ALL will), here is a great link w/ a lot of reference-Index of /maw

[darbyvet]

Thanks Guys,
I did see obwands milkstool.I agree it looks great. I am really getting a lot of info from building this kit as to how the LUT was built. I have just about everything figured out for the brass kit except the lighting.I need over 200 lights and I cantfind any dollhouse kits that support so many lights.

[obwand10]

Fibre Optics?

[The-EDSEL]

That is likely the best
Very few bulbs, but MANY points of light.

I know, I have 2 built "Plastic" Sci-Fi kits using Fiber-Optics.
One I punched so many holes in, I needed a second Fiber bundle!!!!

[darbyvet]

Thanks Guys,
I was looking at fiber optics.I can get 40 inch long strands from Plastruct so I can run them down the elevator shaft into the MLP base and hide the light source in there. I was planning to use 1 strand per light.Do you think that will give me enough light? I figured on using 6 lights per level and some of the swing arms also have lights so I will need 130-140 strands at least. I plan on making the light fixture out of resin so I can cast them to save time and then painting the inside of the fixture silver and the outside white.This would match some of the photos I have seen of the lights on the LUT. I am not sure how I would provide light for this many fibers.Would I need a couple of bulbs set up in a black lined box and have the fivers enter the box at one end?

[The-EDSEL]

The number of light bulbs to light the Optics depends on the
maximum size of light box you can hide with-in or under the model
and how large each bundle of fiber ends up.
In the Star Destroyer, I could only drill 4 holes for optic bundles in
one end-cap of the bulb holder. I punched so many holes in the hull,
I have 4 G-O-W bulbs for all the bundles.

A couple tricks for the light boxes.
First paint the flat black on the inside, then add Bright Chrome Foil/mylar
to increase reflectivity.
The flat black will help prevent bleed through of unwanted light.
The Chrome will brighten the light to the optic fibers.

Another trick, Heat polish the end at the light bulb, and heat
then Mushroom the end in the scale fixture to look more like a bulb there.
(Epoxy can be used for this effect too)

What size fibers are you looking at using??
Individual fibers should be between .o2 and .o3 inch diameter for correct scale appearance.
Too large and you will notice them too much when off.

You can paint/tint the ends for specific color lights too.

I need to get a better camera to take a few pictures of the
Star Destroyer & "Enterprise Incident" Lit up in the dark
Mine does not like to take Night time pic's!!