Upgraded - the Revell Venator

[The Madhatter]

OK - part 2:

The Triangular shaped ones are also fully detailed, primed and threaded - ready for painting - which I'm aiming to do this weekend (or at least make a start):

The larger rear trenches have been detailed and are awaiting drilling and threading. Now that I have found a faster way to thread, I reckon I should have them done pretty quickly:

I have also painted the super structure and have gloss coated it ready for a wash. Once that's done I'll matte coat it and then thread the fibers through. I just have to finish building the light boxes for the main side windows and then it's done.

part 3 coming up

Edited September 16, 2011 by The Madhatter

[The Madhatter]

I had to make it 3 parts because I had too many pics:

The Super structure so far:

I know the bridges look a little wonky but once they're secured on there they'll be nice and straight.

In this light, it's a little hard to tell the difference from the primer and the actual paint - but trust me - in good light it does look a lot better

As always, thanks for sticking with me and dropping in!

I'll be back again soon with some more pics soon

Cheers

Si

Edited September 16, 2011 by The Madhatter

[ChippyWho]

Still the most unbelievably wonderful, original and authoritative piece of work I've seen in ages; a shoo-in for my POTY (Project Of The Year)! Sorry, no prize as such -but I think my 'F-25 Kfir II' is in line for the Rubber Tortilla Award...

[The Madhatter]

hahahaha - thanks Chippy - your way to nice :blush: So long as you guys are still interested then that's enough of a prize for me :D

Anyway, I'm sure your F-25 can't be all that bad! Are you going to do an "in progress" thread?

[Noumcea]

Mate, I have a question for you.

What did you use to make the rectangular windows for the bridges and superstructure ?

This has been constantly in the back of my mind for when I get to that stage of my build.

You are doing a most excellent job. Hope mine when completed is half as good as yours. that would make me chuffed.

Keep on keeping on !

Cheers,

Dave

[ChippyWho]

hahahaha - thanks Chippy - your way to nice :blush: So long as you guys are still interested then that's enough of a prize for me :D

Anyway, I'm sure your F-25 can't be all that bad! Are you going to do an "in progress" thread?

Yea -if there was any progress! You refer to working at the speed of evolution, well I'm slower than a glacier with the handbrake on.

There is a half-assed report here (for those with acute insomnia):

http://wwwairloungepr.blogspot.com/

-and I'll import the salient bits here eventually, when there is some assembly to speak of.

Cheers Amigo!

Edited September 17, 2011 by ChippyWho

[The Madhatter]

Mate, I have a question for you.

What did you use to make the rectangular windows for the bridges and superstructure ?

This has been constantly in the back of my mind for when I get to that stage of my build.

You are doing a most excellent job. Hope mine when completed is half as good as yours. that would make me chuffed.

Keep on keeping on !

Cheers,

Dave

Gidday Dave - good to see you back here again!

The windows are strips of 1/12 P E Motorcycle Radiator grill made by Acustion n Japan. I know you can get it from Hobby Link Japan: http://www.hlj.com/product/ACS1222

but they are on back order at the moment, so you'll have to wait for them to come back in.

I checked in on your build a couple of weeks back - nice work!! Looking forward to seeing more of your build soon

Chippy - your isn't as bad as you make it out to be - looking forward to seeing more!!

MH

[Fly-n-hi]

Nice work!

Maybe I missed it but was was your "easier" way of threading the fibers?

And, how did you trim them down after painting? Seems like some of them would be hard to reach.

[The Madhatter]

hey mate

well, I was threading the fibers one at a time from the front side through to the back and then placing a small dab of super glue near the tip of each fiber - which, as you can imagine, is incredibly time consuming (especially when you have about 100 fibers or so per trench).

However, it was when I got to the Triangular shaped ones, I happened to flip it over and for some reason decided to poke the fibers through from the backside instead of the front. This way, I could thread a heap of fibers in one go and smear on the superglue at the base. Why it took me so long to do this is anyone's guess but it allowed me to do an entire trench in one night as opposed to 1 week.

As for trimming them, I haven't actually done that yet but I do envision some issues with the deeper ones, but I'm hoping I can get to them ok using the small PE scissors I have.

[Noumcea]

Gidday Dave - good to see you back here again!

The windows are strips of 1/12 P E Motorcycle Radiator grill made by Acustion n Japan. I know you can get it from Hobby Link Japan: http://www.hlj.com/product/ACS1222

but they are on back order at the moment, so you'll have to wait for them to come back in.

I checked in on your build a couple of weeks back - nice work!! Looking forward to seeing more of your build soon

Chippy - your isn't as bad as you make it out to be - looking forward to seeing more!!

MH

MH,

Many thanks for the info mate re the window strips. I will place my order during the week.

My build has slowed down due family and friends from Syd and Melb visiting. That's why I haven't updated my build.

I am also having problems with the FO from the first set of trenches I did months ago (starbord side). Many of them won't light up so I have been removing the orginal fibres and threading new ones. Can't wait to get the trenches done so I can get to work on the spine and engines.

Regarding some of your earliest posts about your build not being screen accurate, I takethose comments with a pinch of salt. Each of the major types of ships used in Star Wars were constantly being modified and evolved. Yours to me would represent one of the last Venators built before the Star Destroyers as seen in the original trilogy became the mainstay of the Imperial fleet.

I am taking a retrospective view to my build in that it was one of the first of this type of ship to be built.

Regarding powering the LEDs I have done a fair bit of research and found that the best best option is from Dick Smith 12 Volt power Supply

Looking forward to more updates from you mate. I'll let you know when I have updated my thread at the RPF.

Cheers.

Dave.

Edited September 18, 2011 by Noumcea

[The Madhatter]

Hey Dave

With your FO's are they splitting/cracked in the middle or are they not square-ish at the lighting end? They (to me) would be the only reason they wouldn't light up - or maybe they are at to much of a bent angle.

As for mine not being screen accurate - by that I mean I've added detail that doesn't exist :D

I'll be powering mine via mains power - which is why each and every LED has a resistor soldered onto it. I'll run them all of a circuit board set in the middle - which I need to start sorting out now.

Finally today - I have finished drilling out all of the trenches. I now only have to thread the larger if the back ones and detail and thread the side hangar bay walls. I've already painted black the larger of the rear walls. I'm going to try and thread the Hangar wall tonight and start detailing it this week.

Once they're done, I'll finish the super structure and then paint the hull plates. The biggest problem I foresee is joining the 2 hull plates - A dry test fit the other day indicated a real nightmare!!!!

However, the finish line will be in sight very soon!

[MarkW]

How has your FO cutting been so far? splintering at the "window" can also be a problem. Since these are very thin, though, it may not be a big deal.

[The Madhatter]

hey Mark

So far so good - have got half way through trimming one of the smaller trenches and it seems to be fine. The only issue I'm having is trimming the recessed ones - they are hard to reach with not only scissors but also a blade.

[HOLMES]

cheers Amen!

I was asked on another forum if they could see the engines lit up and it occurred to me that I hadn't actually taken any photos of them.

Thought I best take care of that

I've cut away the sidewall support ready for installation of the trenches. Hopefully I haven't cut away too much!!!

The Super structure so far:

SIR,

MASTER craftsmen like you are able to turn an inanimate object into a living thing and looking at this, it

is mighty IMPRESSIVE AND ICREDIBLY "alive" to look at and you did a AWESOME job...

I admire it very much

KUDOS

HOLMESY

[Noumcea]

Hey Dave

With your FO's are they splitting/cracked in the middle or are they not square-ish at the lighting end? They (to me) would be the only reason they wouldn't light up - or maybe they are at to much of a bent angle.

As for mine not being screen accurate - by that I mean I've added detail that doesn't exist :D

I'll be powering mine via mains power - which is why each and every LED has a resistor soldered onto it. I'll run them all of a circuit board set in the middle - which I need to start sorting out now.

Finally today - I have finished drilling out all of the trenches. I now only have to thread the larger if the back ones and detail and thread the side hangar bay walls. I've already painted black the larger of the rear walls. I'm going to try and thread the Hangar wall tonight and start detailing it this week.

Once they're done, I'll finish the super structure and then paint the hull plates. The biggest problem I foresee is joining the 2 hull plates - A dry test fit the other day indicated a real nightmare!!!!

However, the finish line will be in sight very soon!

MH,

After reading your list of possible causes I had another look at the trench pieces where the FO is not is either not working or, is just showing tiny pinpoints.

It is the 0.25mm FO that are causing the problem because I bent them to almost 90 degrees. Also found a few that snapped in the middle. The upside is that the problem is restricted to the first two thin trenches on the starboard side. So I only need to replace about 120 or so fibres.

The problem you are having with joining the the upper and lower plates is something I did numerous trial runs on before I glued the port trench pieces in place. I found that the best way is to slot the rear wall to which the engines are attached into the lower hull plate. Don't glue it in.

Next, slot in the nose piece to the bottom hull. This sets the correct height between the upper and lower hull plates.

The next part is a tad tricky. As you have the front trench pieces completed, dry fit the first two in place (left and right) to ensure that FO can be easily accessed for hooking up to the LEDs. When you are happy with that, dry fit the top hull plate. the rear engine plate and nose piece may need a bit of coersion to snap into place. Next, push the two trench pieces into place - initially the top of the pieces may have an outward slant until you give them a little nudge.

Once that is done, remove the top plate and get the glue ready. Like you, I use the thin Tamiya glue with the brush. Give the bottom of the trench pieces some glue plus the part of the bottom plate where they will attach to.

Before the glue dries, drop the top hull plate into position using the rear (engine) panel and the nose piece to correctly aligign the top and bottom hull sections. Once again, push the trench pieces into place.

To make sure that the trench pieces stay where they belong and are properly aligned vertically, use 40mm or 60mm plastic clamps and place them at the forward and rear end of each trench piece. To make sure that the channel at the rear of the top plate doesn't lift from the rear engin plate, use some masking tape to hold it in place.

In a couple of hours after the glue has dried remove the clamps, masking tape and top hull plate. The forward trench pieces will be in place. Keep repeating this process down to the rear of the ship and all the trench pieces will be attached to the bottom hull plate and when you are ready, the top hull plate can be dropped int place and glued, if that is what you are going to do.

Hope that helps mate. Keep up the excelent work.

Dave.

[The Madhatter]

thanks for that Dave

How did you set up your FO's on the smaller trenches? I have been thinking I would have to fix the trenches to the bottom plate, hook them up to the LED boxes (that I am yet to make) and then hope that they are all square enough to mate with the top plate.

I'm definitely going to look at your suggestion about putting the nose section and the rear section on first to get the right height but I am unsure on how I am to hook up FO's on the smaller trenches to the LED's once the top plate is fixed. The space between the 2 plates isn't big enough to be trying to hook up FO's

I'm glad you found the problem with your FO's as well - even though replacing 120 odd fibers won't be an easy task!

[Noumcea]

thanks for that Dave

How did you set up your FO's on the smaller trenches? I have been thinking I would have to fix the trenches to the bottom plate, hook them up to the LED boxes (that I am yet to make) and then hope that they are all square enough to mate with the top plate.

I'm definitely going to look at your suggestion about putting the nose section and the rear section on first to get the right height but I am unsure on how I am to hook up FO's on the smaller trenches to the LED's once the top plate is fixed. The space between the 2 plates isn't big enough to be trying to hook up FO's

I'm glad you found the problem with your FO's as well - even though replacing 120 odd fibers won't be an easy task!

Mate,

The first thing I worked out was where to place the LED driver / circuit boards to make the connection between the all of the FO bundles and the LEDs as space efficient and at the same time, as easy as possible to wire up.

I settled on placing the circuit boards on top of the hangar bay. I dedicated one blue LED for each trench pice plus, a white one for the port and starboard docking bay pieces (for the guidance lighting).

The LEDs were first connected to the circuit boards using various lengths of wire depending upon how far they needed to be from the boards. Each LED was then placed into a 5mm diamater and x 40mm long heat shrink tubing. The tubing was sealed at the rear of each LED to minimise light leaks. I didn't apply any heat to the front part of the tubing covering the LEDs. This left about 20mm of tubing from the lens of the LED to the end og the tubing to insert the FO.

I then bundled together the FO for each trench piece and inserted the bundle into shrink tubing 5mm in diameter and about 30mm length. I made sure that the ends of the FO protruded a few mm from the tubing then, applied heat using a 25 watt soldering iron. This brought the daimeter of the tubing down to 3 - 4mm. The ends of the fibres were then cut using very sharp scissors. I usually use surgical scissors.

The FO bundle of the trench piece was then inserted into the as yet non-shrunk part of the tubing at the front of the LED. I turned on the power and checked that light was transmitted from the LED through the FO to the outside of the trench piece. If I was happy with the result, I would then use the soldering iron to shrink the tubing at the front end of the LED to seal the FO bundle in place.

I know it is a long explanation so I have included a couple of images to help.

Well, it apperas that I cannot directly upload images from my puter so have a look at my RPF thread

The posts that would interest you the most are numbers 51 (image 3), and 65 (image 9).

I hope this helps you mate.

Cheers,

Dave.

Edited September 20, 2011 by Noumcea

[The Madhatter]

Thanks Dave

OK - I'm going to edit this post completely because I didn't ask the question I wanted the answer to correctly (the downside to rushing a post - so I am really sorry about that :blush: )

The way I read your original suggestion on fitting the 2 plates together was that you pushed in the trenches after you had mated the 2 hull plates together, which I was struggling to visualize

Now that i have re-read it for the third or fourth time, I think I get were you were going.

When I did my dry fit the other night, nothing seemed to line up properly. This will be in part because the trenches weren't secured, so everything moved around but I also found the fit of the engine backing to be a foreseeable nightmare - looking at your thread again, I saw you had all of your trenches already secured to the base.

So my question on how you set up your FO's was a bit redundant in retrospect

After actually really thinking about what my issues with the fitting were going to be, I want to know if you had to make any modifications to the plates in order for them to mate properly?

Edited September 20, 2011 by The Madhatter

[Noumcea]

MH,

I remembered that I placed the trench parts into their respective poitions on the bottom plate then on the inside bottom of piece, added a few small pieces of Blu-Tack.

Next, I placed the on the top plate to check for correct positioning of the trenches parts. The top plate was then removed, the trench pieces taken off the bottom plate, applied glue to the bottom edge of the pieces then placed them back onto the bottom plate.

The top plate was then again put into position, the top edge of each trench piece was pushed inwards so that they were vertical then the clamps applied to everything in place.

Once the glue was dry, the clamps and top plate were removed.

I hope that better answers the question mate.

Let me know how its goes.

Happy gluing.

P.S. I didn't need to do any mods to the top or bottom plates except for cutting away the sidewalls so the FO didn't have to be bent at extreme angles.

Dave

Edited September 22, 2011 by Noumcea

[The Madhatter]

yeah that's awesome Dave - I've been pondering the different ways I was going to put it all together so your insight is invaluable!

Thanks again for that - I'll let you know how it goes when I get to it.

Hey, how are you mounting yours? What are you going to use as a base?

EDIT: BTW Holmes - thankyou for your nice words! I completely forgot to thankyou for taking the time to appreciate my work! I'm glad you like it :D

Edited September 22, 2011 by The Madhatter

[HOLMES]

No need to apologise.

[Noumcea]

MH,

Glad to be of help mate. Please keep me posted on how the trench pieces go.

As for mounting, I haven't thought that far ahead yet. One I get the top and bottom halves nearly completed but not joined I will have a serious ponder on how I want to display the ship.

Cheers mate,

Dave.

[The Madhatter]

Cheers Dave - will do

Quick update for everyone. Have started to trim all of the fiber optics back as flush as I can to the surface - however, this is proving extremely hard to do, especially trimming around the added detail. The smaller trenches still need tidying up before any pics are put up

The bottom plate has has some paint added and the inside floors are painted. Still need to make small colour adjustments here and there before I'm happy enough to lay the trenches in.

Thanks for stopping by

MH

[Noumcea]

MH,

Now that I can see which parts of the side walls you have removed and also kept in place can I suggest the following;

1. You have kept the slots at the forward part on the bottom plate where the front pins from parts 43 and 48 would go. This is a great starting point to place the pieces into their correct position.

2. You have also left the mating pins to align the top and bottom plates in place. This will help with correct alignment of dropping the top plate onto the bottom.

3. I would suggest that when you start adding the side trenches you need to do glue parts 43, 45 (forward) and 44, 39. This will get the front and rear set up then the rest of the pieces will slot into place.

Hope that helps mate.

If you have any probs or need guidance when you start attaching the trench pieces, drop me a PM and we can sort out a Skype chat or something.

Cheers mate.

Dave.

[MarkW]

Reminds me of how hideous the old Star Destroyer kit was to get the side walls close to aligned or in place!