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