ST:TMP Drydock (WIP)

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August Updates - 2017
This has been an eventful month. Adding the Test video of the Enterprise flyby to my library has given me a little extra motivation. I want to thank all of you who have checked out the video on youtube. I am looking forward to making my own ST:TMP version of the flyby when I'm finished, shot for shot. Also I'm planning on making an additional version that would include portions of the Enterprise and Drydock that were not shown in TMP. Any ideas? Let me know.

In this month's update I've been concentrating on getting all of the wiring done for all of the hanger bays on both the front and aft sides of the dock. I finally was able to hook up all of the chase lighting on all of the hangers as well as their overhead lighting. I wanted to have the overhead lighting on the hangers rather than the rear walls glowing to make the modules appear more like a gigantic space warehouse for supplying and/or repairing any starship that might pull into this humungous dock for repair/refit/resupply. This is also why I wanted everyone to see inside at least one of the hangers. If I didn't need the support framework on the inside of the modules to hold the model up, I would have made the hanger even deeper into the model. But space was limited. But, I've permanently added the shuttles into the hanger deck and at least four of them are lit. I will be adding crewmembers as well as work bees and cargo containers to add depth of scale to the dock. I also added some red LEDs to the front hanger as seen in TMP. I would guess that the RED lights would be a warning to small craft that it is not safe to enter the dock at this point. That is why on the open hanger on the aft side I'm using green LEDs to indicate it is safe for departure or arrival onto the hanger. The chase lighting on the open hanger is heading outward indicating clearance for launch.

I've also added the top f the module to port side of the dock in one of the pictures. I wanted to make sure it seated the right way and would not interfere with any of the wiring and optical fibers. It fits very snug and can be removed to access the lighting and wiring.

Getting back to the Enterprise, I am adding some super strong magnets to a few parts of the ship. Mainly the saucer and the main deflector dish housing. This will also allow access to some of the wiring. I will be finishing that wiring up as well as for the photon torpedo launchers. There are a few more small details I have to add to the ship and then do another wiring test before I seal everything up. I can then add the Enterprise permanently to the dock structure and wire it into place. After that I can begin adding the port side panel frame assembly. Keep checking for the updates. I can actually see an end coming for this build. FINALLY! Then I can look forward to making some nice HERO shots as well as the long awaited FLYBY Video. Exciting times!

Well that's it for this update. Enjoy the pics in the August Updates 2017 page. Talk to you in a month or so.

Mark

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September Updates - 2017
Hi Everyone. I've been making a little more progress with the dock build. I've added some magnets to the engineering section to hole the Deflector dish assembly in place. This will make the Housing removable in case someone needs to get to some of the engineering electronics. I've also added the wiring and LEDs for both the Deflector Ramp on/Ramp off effects as well as adding the Photon torpedo firing effects to the launching tubes. I still need to fix a few of the light leeks but the effect look very nice. I've added a small video for those who would like to view the effects. I've also built some lighting housing for the running lights that are seen on the drydock mainly on the front end. I was having trouble figuring out how I was going to wire these until I found some speaker coil wire which is extremely thin. Once it's painted up it will be difficult to see on the model. I've added 8 pics to the September 2017 page... I've also added a new short video with the Deflector dish and Photon Torpedo lighting tests. By the next updates I will have the Shuttle bay details added to the outside of the hanger deck and will begin to permanently wire all of the electronics to the circuit boards that are inside the Starboard side overhead modules. See you next update.
Mark


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January Updates - 2018
Hello everyone! My apologies for the delays. I really have been working on my build, but Life just keeps getting in the way of my progress. Hopefully things will be a little better now that my peak season at work has calmed down.
For my project updates I have cast resin pieces for the outside details of the hanger bay lighting effects. I had to make the pieces transparent so you can see the actual lighting effects. I'm in the process of opaqueing the castings to prevent light leaks.

I was asked by my client to put some different lighting into the saucer section of the ship. So, I pulled all of the fluorescent lighting and ballasts out and I replaced them with LED lighting strips. This was a very good idea because the lighting will have a longer lifetime in the model. I also put some white styrene strips into the saucer sections behind the viewports to reflect the lighting better. I was originally going to insert some pictures of the corridors onto the strips but there was not enough depth to the pictures. So, I decided to do what I was originally going to do with the corridors and that was to build 3D versions of them. I built one master of the corridor section and made molds so that I could cast as many replicas as needed. I cast them in clear resin so that I could have the lower panels of the corridors lit as seen in the movies. After I cast all of the pieces I masked off all of the light panels. I then sprayed the first color which was FLAT WHITE. This would help reflect some of the lighting to make it appear more even. I then sprayed them FLAT BLACK to hide any light leaks. Next I sprayed them a medium BLUE/GRAY for the tops and bottoms of the corridors. Finally I hand panted the rest of the panels ALUMINUM, for the monochromatic look. After this I sprayed some flat pieces of styrene FLAT RED and then cut several pieces of them, all the same length, to use as the doors to the crews quarters. After all of this was done I then placed all of the finished corridors into an oven at 170F for ten minutes. This allowed the styrene to be pliable and I could then bend them into the shape of the outer rim of the saucer., Next I had to use a belt sander to sand down the tops and bottoms of the corridors to get rid of both the burrs from the casting process and to make them fit into the saucer. I aligned the corridors so they could be seen through the viewports.
Since the back sides of the castings were not painted, I added the LED strips to the backs of each of the corridor strips. Then I put electrical tape over the backs of the strips to prevent too much light from shining back into the model and ruining other lighting effects in the saucer. It was a lot of work, but worth the effort to give the corridors a little more 3D depth to them when looking through the viewports. To further help with the light leaks I found these foam rubber sheets at a hobby store and cut them into long strips and cemented them all along the perimeter of the upper saucer piece. This should help block light from showing through the seams of the upper and lower saucer pieces.
I have 16 New pics which can be viewed in the Members Gallery page under the January updates – 2018 album.
I can now finally seal up the saucer and get ready to permanently add the Enterprise into it’s new home in the Dock. Again, thanks for your patience with this build and I apologize for the long wait for this update. Hopefully I can now get this build finished. See you next update.


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February Updates - 2018
Hi Everyone! This months updates are pretty good. First I have started to add the Black Velvet Material to the Base of the model. This will help make the model appear to floating over the base. The panel frames will be supported by two screws on each side of the frames to hold the structure up and help keep it level. This is also a very good sign because it means that I will soon be adding the Enterprise permanently into the drydock, then adding the port side panel frame assembly into place. I've added all of the wiring and some new lighting to the rear hanger bay on the dock by using the LED light strips. They have some interesting details on the strips that would make the lights appear to be a natural fixture on the dock. I will also be replacing the lightings on all the other hanger on the dock as well. It just looks better.
On the Enterprise I was originally going to use magnets to hold the two saucer halves together, but because the pieces don't line up very well, I've decided to permanently seal up the saucer. The LEDs should last quite a long time and even if there were a problem it would be impossible to work on the Enterprise in the dock unless I take the whole port side off of the dock and remove the ship. That Ain't gonna happen. In cementing the saucer together, I've found a lot of other gaps that needed to be fixed or repaired. The bottom impulse engine does not meet up with the saucer, so I had to use some styrene and putty to fix that problem. Also, the collar of the Dorsal was not molded very well so I had to replace that as well and then putty, sand and repaint all of these areas. Where the pylons meet the secondary hull there was a gap at that point, so I've puttied that as well on both pylons. The reason for holding off on that was because the model was going to be handled a lot before I added it to the drydock and I knew because of the stresses and weight of the model there would be cracks forming in the putty. So I waited until now so there would be less handling of the model. I also did the same with the Deflector Housing. Because of the way the Secondary hull was molded and put together the two halves did not line-up, so there was a gap on the port side where the pieces would meet. I was originally going to use magnets with this part as well, but decided to seal it permanently and putty up the seam to get rid of the gaps.
There are just a few more touch-ups to do and then the Enterprise will finally be added to the dock. I can then add the Port Side Panel framework and begin the final wiring of the model.
On a side note, there might be another delay with this build as my landlord decided not to pay his mortgage and has gone into foreclosure with our unit so we will be moving to another location. But I will try to get back to this project asap.
I have 11 new pics in the February Updates - 2018 page. Check-em out and I'll get back to you soon. Have a great month everyone.
Mark.

http://www.NemVia.net

[Guest]

Simply WOW!!!

This project started long before I became a member here and I've just gone through all the posts in this thread and it's one bonkers project for sure - just like I want them to be!!! :smiling:

I've planned to build a totally "electrified" Into Darkness U.S.S. Enterprise 1/500 as soon as some of my other projects are finished but this is in a totally different scale...
I've begun designing the custom PCB's that's going to control all the leds and I've made round PCB's for 0402 leds to create the spinning light effect behind the blue discs on the nacelles so I have everything done before the building stage, but I'm sure there'll be several changes during the build to tweak the electronics and lights.

Very interesting!!!

[Guest]

Alway a pleasure looking at your work Mark, looks like Scotty is giving an ear full to a cadet on the left :smiling:

Have fun, John

[Guest]

JUNE UPDATES - 2018 My Apologies everyone, Mom passed away in March so My Wife and I have been busy taking care of the related matters. But everything has calmed down now so I was able to start up again on the drydock. I left off on adding the Black velvet to the display base of the model. I was able to finish this plus add some support screws for the light panel frame assembly. These will help keep the frames from swaying and sagging. With the Enterprise touched up I was able to add it permanently to the dock. The ship is now locked into place with two screws. The ship is now free floating inside the structure. I also began running all of the wiring from the ship up the through the armature structure. As soon as I add the travel pod docking pod to the outside of the dock I can then seal up the armature arm and paint it to look like the rest of the dock. Now comes the painful part of the assembly where I have to add the port side panel frame assembly. In order to make it fit around the armature support arm I had to cut into two of the panel frames. This unfortunately weakens the structure a bit until I can re-support the frames so they won't sag. I also had to secure all of the frames to the overhead modules via some lock-nuts screws and dome nuts. It took a while to adjust everything together, but now the Enterprise is completely surrounded by the dock. Next I will be testing all of the wiring to make sure everything lights up. I've also taken all of the work-cranes and lights out and will soon be adding them to the structure. Then of course they all have to be wired in. I have 7 new pics in the June Updates - 2018 page. Don't be alarmed if the panels do not appear strait. I still have to tweak the support frames but at least you'll be able to see a little bit of progress. That's it for this update and it's good to be back. See you soon! http://www.NemVia.net

[stillp]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Pete

[Guest]

Thanks Pete, I appreciate your sympathy.

JULY UPDATES - 2018
Back on track for this month! I was able to Finish off the top of the display base by tacking down the Velvet material so that is now set. I can now prepare to add the trim and begin work on the lighting controls. In This month's update I have made some lighting test shots of the light panels and mark lighting. But first I had to square off the frame of the drydock. This needed to be done because the added weight of the Enterprise was causing one side of the dock to sag. So I had to level off the top of the dock by adding a cable and a turnbuckle to help even things out. This also allowed me to make the side panels square with the rest of the dock.. Next I have to do some tweaking of the individual panels to make sure they are all straight. I am now running all of the ships wiring down the back of the support frame to the switch board which will control certain lighting effects on both the ship and the dock. The new pics are posted on the July Updates - 2018 page. For now you can use the pull down menu to the right of the menu bar and the page is at the bottom. The lighting test shots came out pretty good. Check 'em out and I'll see you on the next update.
Mark
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AUGUST UPDATES - 2018 Wiring, Wiring, WIRING! Yes, that's pretty much all that I've been doing this last month. Wiring and double checking the circuits to make sure they're working. I've had to do this because there were so many loose wired from both the Enterprise and the Dock that I needed to start getting these out of the way so I can do more wiring and lighting. Really there are only a few more effects that need to be added and then I can start working on the display stand switches and trim work. Besides the wiring I've sealed the open hanger on the aft end of the dock. The ceiling is now permenetly cemented to the structure. I will be adding a mirror to the back end of the hanger to give the appearance that the Hanger goes much farther back into the modules than it actually does. She's coming together. Please hang in there. See you next month. Mark

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