Model of The Month: Mass Effect Normandy SR1 with fully functional Lights!

[anthony344]

I decided to start building daishi Normandy SR1 with working lights to set it off. I've scaled it up to 980mm long so she will be big when finish.There's about 35 sheets of parts so i'll be very busy for a long while.

I'm starting at the front of the fuse first. I add balsa in some areas to strength it up & strips of 200g of card.

I'll be going with 5mm SMD super bright LEDs in blue for the engine & i'm thinking of adding dull white LEDs on the fuselarge of the ship but i'll see how it turns out when she is lit up.

While I'm waiting for the LEDs to arrive in the mail i'll start of at the front of the fuselarge of the Normandy.

Here are the pics what i have done.

[Jackrum]

Oh wow! :WATCH:

[lehcyfer]

Big glowing stuff

Very nice Anthony! I hope you post the schematics of the lighting system you use. This kind of information can be beneficial for many who can build but not design electronics.




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[anthony344]

Originally Posted by Zathros

Very nice Anthony! I hope you post the schematics of the lighting system you use. This kind of information can be beneficial for many who can build but not design electronics.




.

I'll do a schematics lighting system for others to use aswell. I will be thinking alot & doing alot bit by bit to how i'm going to set it up right so this will be a very long journey project to do.

I done in the past designing schematics of amplifiers , making amp & building amps so i'm well knowledge about electronics. but i'm going to be use two or three adjustable voltage regulators to operate the light effect in this project & run the power sources through a transformer pack with a DC plug to connect.

I'll get to the info later on in the post once i get every right.

[anthony344]

Originally Posted by lehcyfer

Big glowing stuff

Hi ya lehcyfer , this will be my first big glowing light effect on a ship very exciting.

[anthony344]

Originally Posted by Jackrum

Oh wow! :WATCH:

Thanks jackrum for watching to see how i progress with it.

[ThunderChild]

Really looking forward to seeing this! Good luck Anthony!

[F131]

This is going to be amazing!

[anthony344]

Originally Posted by ThunderChild

Really looking forward to seeing this! Good luck Anthony!

Originally Posted by F131

This is going to be amazing!

Thank guys , hopefully by tomorrow i'll have some more pics up again. but i'll hope the white LEDs arrived tomorrow before the blue LEDs does before i can proceed more on the fuselarge. If the blue LEDs arrives first i'll skip the fuse & go straight to the wings & engine.

[mbnaoj]

wow i will follow this threat

Originally Posted by mbnaoj

wow i will follow this threat

You meant "thread" right?

[anthony344]

Well it was a shame that the white LEDs did not arrived first & it delays the fuselarge a bit longer but at least one of the LEDs arrived here safely & undamaged. The blue LEDs that's right the BLUE arrived( as in The Blues Brothers )

Here is 300 Blue LEDs on a Self-adhesive back , 3M double side adhesive tape under 20 bucks.



I had try out the brightness on these super bright blue LEDs & i gotta say they are bright. at even not fully charged x8 3000mah AA rechargeable battery come out at 10v it almost blind my eyes out. the minimal voltage i can work it at 7v no less & it was dull enough for what i need to work on the white LEDs for the fuselarge.

I've started building on the top inner left & right engine mounts. I had done a slight boo boo at first when assembling the engine mounts.

the confusing part was the engine mounts, see the red triangle shape in pic No.1. i had to match the same way as the red triangle shape in pic No.2. now that's the boo boo i have done.
That what happens when you don't look at pepakura too often an then bang later on you realised you made a boo boo . but not to worry i printed out another one & cut it out an glued it straight over the top of the mistake one & all fixed. Presto.

No.1
No.2

[anthony344]

Here are the two complete build of the left & right lower wing mounts. i have done some balsa V shape re-enforcement to them inside the wing mounts for the size & the stress that they going to hold the wing into place with all those lights to the engine. I might think of putting another support beam in the middle of the V beam what do you think?

The good thing about this ship there is alot of hiding places & storage for wire , do access panels on the Normandy.

I have slightly figure out where to run the wire through to the main voltage controller board that i gonna use but time & building will tell if it will work out how i wanted to be.

Here are the complete Lower wing mounts.

[lehcyfer]

On your place I'd laminate all flat surfaces to thicker card - this way they won't easily get pressed in - this helps tremendously when you will glue elements to them later. Also it is a good idea to glue any exterior details on, when you still have access to the inside of the big elements - this way you can apply pressure from inside, further minimising any dents.