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Zvezda Star Destroyer - a new detailing project


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Thanks guys

I'm hoping to install the hangar bay lighting this weekend so will have some pics of that soon. I'm also almost finished detailing the sides, then it's the roof, so once it's all done, I'll take some more pics then.

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Hi again

Thought I'd share some pics of the successful lighting test of the hangar bay. I'm very happy with how it's come out. The light's aren't too strong which is good.

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Not far from finishing the top section. The windows have all been drilled out and is now ready for the fun task of installing the fiber. Joy

Thanks for looking

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3 hours ago, The Madhatter said:

Hi again

Thought I'd share some pics of the successful lighting test of the hangar bay. I'm very happy with how it's come out. The light's aren't too strong which is good.

48219993971_786816bc79_c.jpg

48219990216_56b8b457b6_c.jpg

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48220035362_f6c874491d_c.jpg

Not far from finishing the top section. The windows have all been drilled out and is now ready for the fun task of installing the fiber. Joy

Thanks for looking

That looks perfect! I'm guessing the small red lights are fiber with red lights as their source? Brilliant.....and even better that it's not so bright that it looks like the Sun.

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49 minutes ago, Brett M said:

That looks perfect! I'm guessing the small red lights are fiber with red lights as their source? Brilliant.....and even better that it's not so bright that it looks like the Sun.

Thanks Brett 

Yeah the red dots are fibers connected to a red LED. There are about 6 of them there. Just not all of them are that visible 

Edited by The Madhatter
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Excellent! Its a great kit. It doesn't really need all the stuff I'm doing as its already nicely detailed. Have a look through the other threads about the AM parts available as there's quite a lot. Can't wait to see your build eventually 

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I got asked on another site if I could take a picture of some of the detailing with a recognisable item to help grasp the size I'm working with. I know no one here has asked on this build but many times in the past I have been, so hopefully this will help:

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I've made a start on the roof and will aim to have it done by next week - fingers crossed. That picture is the start of it

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53 minutes ago, The Madhatter said:

thanks guys. It also may to help explain why it takes me forever to produce a decent update as well as having to take breaks form it every now and then :rolleyes:

Haha I would be doing long breaks too. My longest build was 4 years....so I get it!

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4 Years?? Man, I thought I had patience but that trumps anything I've done by a long shot 😁

My Venator took me just over a year but then I also didn't have a child until over half way through and had much more time on my hands

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Hi again everyone

 

I had been asked on another forum for some lighting help and so I did up a very quick photo tutorial on how I use and install SMD's and fiber optics, so I thought I might as well post it here too for anybody to reference if they have never used them before.

The pictures aren't the best as I took them quickly and had crap light today but they will convey the message adequately enough.

 

First up are the Fibers. These are "Hobby Spools" which are available from here. They're cheap and there's more than enough there to light several models. You can make out the sizes on the labels.

 

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Next are 64 strand fiber cables - these are the smallest you can get AFAIK. You can also get 32 strands as well. Pictured are 60 ft and15 ft lengths. These are also the ones I am using for the SD windows.

To use them, cut off the length you want - making sure you have more length than you need to allow for curves etc. You'd need to decide where on the kit you want the attach the light source before you cut.

Once at the length you want, very carefully run a sharp blade along the side of the sleeve from one end to the other. Then gently pry the split apart the sleeve and pull the fibers out - carefully. To roughly and you'll split or fracture the fiber rendering it useless.

 

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Next up are the items you'll need to install onto your subject. In this example, a piece of scrap plastic card, some plastic tube - in this case a 1 cm section of 4.8mm diameter tube. The drill bit is a #80. These fibers are 0.25mm and the next sized fiber up would use a #78 drill bit. The SMD in the picture is 1mm in size.

Heat shrink tube and a lighter.

 

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To install, drill out 2 holes close together on the scrap plastic and run the wires through the card. You can secure the wires on the back with a drop of CA or my preference is PVA as it's less likely to make the plastic coating on the wires brittle by providing some flexibility.

 

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Then glue the tube section over the top of the SMD. Trim off the excess plastic.

 

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Once that's dried, slide the heat shrink tube over the top leaving enough length at one end for crimping. It's where the fiber will go in. Gently heat the tube from below with the lighter until it's shrunk enough to hold everything in place. I usually also seal the ends where the wires exit with PVA and then go one step more and paint the dried seal black to light block it further.

 

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Once that's done, heat and crimp the other end of the heat tube and insert the fibers - again, sealing and securing them with PVA. Again, once dried, paint them black.

Try to avoid painting the fibers themselves as I have had instances where the paint makes the fibers brittle and prone to snapping. I can't tell you enough how annoying it is to have to remove a broken fiber and replace it. PVA doesn't react to the paint..

 

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And 'hey presto', you have lighting on a small scale. Notice that one of those fibers has split in the middle. This means that the end you want lit isn't as bright as the others.

Some other things to consider are: you can naturally use a smaller tube. The length of the tube is also wholly variable according to your size limitations.

You also don't need to shrink wrap the tube either. You can paint the tube black and use model glue to secure it against the subject as well. I prefer to shrink wrap it as it provides better protection for the SMD/LED

If you use an LED - 3mm or more, a good tip to avoid harsh light is to sand the LED itself until it's frosted. This will diffuse the light so much better and provide a nice glow. I'll be doing this on the SD. It should dull the light down enough to make the effect more realistic and so that the SD is not powered by the sun.

 

Well, that just about sums it all up. If you have any questions or you want something clarified, by all means drop me a line.

Happy lighting folks!

 

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Very helpful post for future reference. I considered adding fiber optics to help light certain areas of my Klingon ship, but....never having done it before, I didn't want to pick up supplies. Maybe the next kit! 

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Thanks Brett

It's not as scary as you think 🙂

 

So, here I am with another update.
The roof is finished - or finished enough for now. It's looking pretty good to me. It's hard trying to keep it all in scale but I think I am doing alright.
A test fit of the bridge and neck was okay but I had to remove some stuff off the back left sidewall to allow the neck to slide all the way in. The fit is not the best - I'll be honest, I'm not sure if it's all me, or part me and part kit or just the kit itself. Either way, I'll have to think carefully about how the final construction is going to go.

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Well, that's me done for another couple of weeks I think. I'll be making a start on the lower level sidewalls tonight hopefully, then the main body which will be very time consuming I think.
Till then
Adios amigos

Si

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love the way the detailing adds 'weight' to the ship, giving it more depth and fooling the viewer into believing it's vast scale. Until I studied your pictures, it never occured to me, the importance of using trickery of the eye, to improve the plausibility of a model. You've demonstrated this 'art' very aptly, thank you.

Edited by Artistar
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On 7/27/2019 at 5:47 AM, Artistar said:

the detailing adds 'weight' to the ship, giving it more depth and fooling the viewer into believing it's vast scale. Until I studied your pictures, it never occured to me, the importance of using trickery of the eye, to improve the plausibility of a model.

Those are good points!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you Artistar - I hadn't really given those points much consideration before until now. Quite the compliment, so thank you again

 

Hi guys
Well, it's been 3 weeks and I've done 5/8ths of bugger all. I have made a start on the back end of the top hull plate which you'll see in a sec. I've not really touched it in this time as I have been building a Tarangus Viggen but that's stalled because I just can't bring myself to do the complex paint job.
I have however think I have settled on a suitable base. It's also going to take some work but it'll be worth it. I just can't bring myself to do all this work on this and cheap out on the base. I certainly won't be making the same mistake as the Venator.

 

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I was blabbing on about some small side hangars in one of my last posts somewhere. I don;t think they exist on the filming model but I can safely say I think we're well past that....

 

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You can see why I would think to have them though - those spaces look like they're meant to be like this, although I am wondering how much artistic license Zvezda used when tooling this kit

 

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Sorry to say but this is all I have for you.
Till next time
Happy modelling and thanks for looking in
Si

Edited by The Madhatter
replaced doubled up photo
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