I have officially gone crazy and it's YOUR FAULT, Gearz!

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Gearz

Gearz

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Mar 13, 2006
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Hey..... that's lookin reeeaaally good ekuth!! = Mr Wizard ! Plenty of gravy for future projects.~ I'd love to try your methods out on a Rodger Young model...

Posting Hosting N Permission?... yeeeaahhh... I guess I should include some sort of disclaimer with models... I'm pretty... 'relaxed'... about that sort of thing.~ I hereby give permission to hack chop slice vandalise post re-post re-re-post or otherwise do as you like with the model. ( Except Plagiarism and Profit), and YEP I'd be more than happy to post anything related to, or resulting from the original model.

After all.. this is one aspect of creativity that I love ~ taking one idea and making it better..!!

fiat lux !!!
:-D
 
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Stev0

Active Member
Jan 30, 2006
626
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Ekuth ... I have an awesome idea.

Find a local DVD retailer who is selling the BSG DVDs and offer to display it. A friend of mine did a similar thing when the Starwars DVD sets first went on sale.

Imaging a 5' dia Millenium Falcon all lit up hangin overhead.
 
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Zathros

In the cold blackness of space those lights will beacons of hope. They'll look good in the living room at night too.
 
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papertrain

Member
Jan 12, 2007
54
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and all i have for 8 hours is a little 1/4' scale caboose drawing:grin:
the battle star must use about 3 reams of card stock.............BIGGGG card stock...............
 
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rlwhitt

Active Member
Aug 25, 2006
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Ekuth,

I've just checked in to this thread for the first time in a while, and man, all I can say is WOW! This is one crazy awesome project! The lights just make it killer!

Rick
 
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ekuth

Thanks for all the praise guys. Sorry I haven't updated in a bit, but I've been banging my head against that aforementioned engine glow... :-D

Engine glow? Did somebody say engine glow?

Our engine with no illumination. This is a modified version of the gridwork that Gearz sent me specifically for this model. I decided to go with a light blue vs black gridwork simply to enhance the overall glow effect.

View attachment 6210

Now let's power that engine, shall we? This is with full room illumination. One of my primary goals on this model is to have every last stinking light visible under full room illumination. I hate lighted models that have to be viewed in half-light conditions. Needless to say, this has increased the difficulty factor for me.

View attachment 6211

Now, with the room lights off, just for fun. Looks even better, I know.

View attachment 6212

Getting the diffused glow look is what was bugging me- short of wiring about 30 blue leds together and clustering them behind the gridwork... but even there the light was too focused from the individual LED's. Then, browsing around the net today, I found a fantastic little tidbit that I didnt know about.

Turns out if you carefully cut the top off of the LED (the rounded dome portion) it diffuses the light over a greater area. If you then take and frost the plastic surrounding the diode by gently rubbing it with a fine grit sandpaper, it diffuses it even more.

So, instead of a huge number of blue LED's for each engine section (of which there are four on the Galactica, remember- this is just one shown here) I was able to achieve the effect I was after by only using 5 blue LED's. I wired the LED's into a strip and constructed a support on the back of the engine gridwork that suspends the whole lighting assembly about 1.5 to 2 inches from the actual gridwork. I then took aluminum foil and enclosed the LED support structure to further focus the light toward the grid. Needless to say, this not only solved the problem, but I think it looks great! So, instead of 120 LED's (perhaps) to do the engines, I'll be able to do them with a grand total of 20.

To further diffuse the light, I covered the back of the gridwork with a layer of clear packing tape, then carefully layered strips of matte finish cellophane tape over that. Not only does it help with the glow, it will protect the gridwork from wear and tear.

With that problem solved, I will be getting back into the swing of building again and should have more progress shots to show you soon. :-D
 

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rlc321

Gundam designer wannabe
Nov 17, 2006
495
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robsmechacardcraft.synthasite.com
:-o :-o :-o OMG i wish i could do things like that i tried a amt ertl star trek enterprise b with fibre optics and decided to leave it as i just couldnt do it mmm that was 8 years ago or so i might get it down and give it another bash who knows but to do this with card WOW:wink: amazing work. keep it up.
 
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stagecoach

Member
Aug 24, 2006
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New Hampshire
johns-shipyard.tripod.com
you did it good thing you got that engine tethered off with that wire it could
really go swinging around the room with that plasma flowing out. WOW
great effect.:twisted:
Now how about a tinny humming coil wrapped around a steel core.
need a engine sound.:-o

John
 
Pilot

Pilot

New Member
Jan 15, 2007
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SINAGPORE
The lighting looks fantastic!

Another quick trick for diffusing LEDs is to make them a cozy little coat of hot-melt glue. It has just enough of a haze to tame the hot spot, but it's still plenty clear enough to where it doesn't completely kill the intensity of the light. That probably wouldn't have been the right solution for the engines - looks like you have it right on the money with what you did there - but it can still be useful in spots. :)
 
Elliott

Elliott

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2006
645
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Hi ekuth!

Been following your insanely large build with interest. Any progress to report lately? There have increasingly been rumors of heavy Cylon activity in your sector. This may account for your recent silence. Can you confirm any progress being made? If enemy activity precludes response by normal means please respond by intergalactic carrier pigeon.

Standing by...

Elliott :twisted:
 
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ekuth

Waiting on a shipment of LED's before I can continue with the project... if the Ebay seller would get them to me I'd be happy... :mad:
 
I

ich

New Member
Mar 29, 2007
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Gearz said:
btbb... As long as this thread is for crazy ideas.. imagine what our hobby would be like if we could invent glowing paper!!!! Yeeeaahhhh!!
:razz:
Click to expand...

Uhm acutally there is glowing paper...that sort you put into light for a few minutes and then still glows a bit in the darkness...same stuff used in clocks and watches...
 
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Millenniumfalsehood

Well-Known Member
Mar 17, 2007
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Ark City, Kansas
There's also Lightsheet. It's pretty widespread in watches as the glowing part. There are retailers on the net for it and it's veryuseful for engines as it roduces a nice even glow and it's friendly to paper models as it doesn't get very hot.
 
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