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

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.:mrgreen:

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.
 

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Z

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. :)




.
 
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.:wave:
 
Blue LEDs arrived & building top inner engine mounts

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 ):grin:

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

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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 :sad:. 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.:mrgreen: Presto.

No.1
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No.2
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Finish build the lower wing mounts

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.:mrgreen:

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.
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lehcyfer

Member
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.
 
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.

Thanks lehcyfer for the info:thumb: , i have used 1.5mm card board for the engine mounts top , bottom surface & 0.8mm card stock on the Wing mounts top , bottom surface & with a V shape beam across for less twiss to the wing mounts.

Sorry i forget to add the details of the materials that i'm using for strength of the Engine & Wing mounts in the previous post.

As for gluing the wing & engine to the mounts there won't be a problem in pressure from the top & bottom of the mounts to leave any dents, it's only going to be a side pressure to the wings & the mounts. But most majority of the mounts are at a good strength that i done it, for to take the punishment of stress & pressure.

As for the wing on flat surface for strength i'm going with 2.5mm balsa. that i got stacks lying around my hobby room going to waist.:rolleyes:

The wing it self is going to have one white LEDs at the front of the wing & the main vents on the engine at the top is going to have two white LEDs. but i have not work out how many LEDs i'm going to add on the engine glow yet so i'm not at that point yet.
 
Only a test out design engine glow.

Ok i been working on designing a mesh for the engine glow to work, since from yesterday but this is what i can came up with. but nothing else i can think in my mind to design a different one it's a blank right now. I need some opinion if this looks ok or it needs some changing to it to make it feel life like & see truly like a engine glow.

If anyone got a better way to do a better engine glow than mine, Please feel free to post up a design or anything to give me more to think up in designing one. Thanks:thumb:

Here is the mesh that i made up & a test build with the engine glow on & turned off.

I used some 4 ply tissue paper in the back & a blue 2 ply tissue at the front to isolate the light a bit but still show through. It is still bright to shine on my wall.

In the mesh i design i put near of 25 engine reflector beams across of the engine case to show abit of effect to the engine but i'm not sure if it any good or looks good with the Normandy SR1.
 

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& more pics of engine glow

More pics.
 

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Z

Zathros

Other than straightening out the vertical pieces a little, I think it looks magnificent! Please, even if hand drawn, could you put up a schematic of your electronics? :)
 
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