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Bill Lehner's Romulan Bird of Prey part 2 |
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The nicest part of the BOP model I saved for last, the lighting of the warp engines.
This is easily the best effect on this model. After many attempts at experimenting with different lighting this is how I got the radial effect in the domes. Using the car license plate styrene I Vac-U-Formed 2 domes from a 12mm arts and craft wooden bead that were cut in half. Also from the arts and craft store I bought a package of 12mm plastic half crystals that had chrome backs. I sanded the crystal backs until the chrome came off and applied Future Floor Wax on the back of the crystals to make them clear. After experimenting with different color crystals and determining the pink crystal was the best looking engine dome color for the BOP I glued the crystal, the facet side going into the domes, on the domes with white glue. This effect with a white high intensity LED mounted in the domes made a bright area in the center of the dome with radial lines fading to the domes edges. To brighten the darker area and lower the "hot spots" in the center of the domes I used a small piece of cotton in the hot spot area. The cotton scatters the light into the darker areas of the dome and dims the brighter central area. Experiment until you have the right amount of cotton then glue the cotton on the back of the crystal with white glue. Don't worry if the glued cotton area looks dark when it is first glued on. The glue will dry clear and the domes will look normal again. The domes were finally glued into place with a couple of watered down coats of white glue painted into the dome seams
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The warp engine interior had foil in the interior walls so the high intensity LED would reflect more light into the domes.
An unexpected but happy effect happened at the exhaust end of the warp engines. There is enough light reflecting off from the domed part of the engine front to reflect all the way to the exhaust end to give the back of the engine a nice bluish-white glow.
Power for the model and display uses a small, common, "wall wart", 9-volt, 100 milliamp DC transformer.
Using LEDs are great because they are solid state, durable, long lasting and very power efficient. I could get away with using a small transformer.
I have heard that LEDs have a life span
of 100,000 hours. It that is true then the life span of these lights is over 10 years of continuous use.
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Resistors are used to drop the current down to a safe level for the LEDs power requirement of 20 milliamps (ma). The LED in the
saucer, dome lights, impulse engine and plasma weapon each use an 800-ohm resistor in an electrically parallel power connection while the two yellow LEDs in the display are connected electrically in series use a
400-ohm resistor.
Your local Radio Shack will have these resistors in a package of five and sell them for 49 cents a pack.
Don't get too worried about getting the exact resistor values; anything close, within 10%, will work.
I custom tested each LED and matched resistors so all LEDs would draw only 20 milliamps with the power
supply I was using.
Custom matching LED resistor values insure that the light output is consistent, especially in the engine domes. You don't have to do this step but I did not want the LEDs to be over-driven with power. The LEDs running with only 20 milliamps will last a long, long time. Although high intensity LEDs can and are driven to twice the power the light output is not a lot more and the life of the LED is greatly shortened.
The 9-volt system power was planned so if I wanted to I could, at a later date, use the display on battery power. And using a 9-volt system will have reserve voltage so if the power changes the lights
will not flicker or dim.
I have run the lights off a single 9-volt battery and the model lighting system is easily just as bright as using the transformer.
The model base is lit with two standard
yellow LED "suns" that are mounted on an acrylic picture frame that I bought at an arts and craft store. .25mm fiber optic strands were attached to the base of the LEDs from underneath the frame and
attached through small holes on the display that were drilled using a #79 bit and a pin vice. These fiber optic strands made shining stars in a glowing field of glitter that was sprinkled on the frame.
The LED suns do serve a second purpose. In the dark the LEDs glow just bright enough to illuminate the Bird of Prey decal.
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The display was painted on the back side of the acrylic frame to protect the paint so all painting had to be done in a reverse order.
First was a coat of white glue airbrushed on to hold the glitter. Next came sprinkled glitter. When the glue dried I airbrushed a couple of squirts of metallic buffable paint to break the monotony of black and then finally the flat black paint. Then the fiber optic stars were applied to make lit stars. A simple Radio Shack on/off switch and a super glued power connector was put in the base. The display base came out exceptionally well!
The shaft holding the model is a pen barrel painted black.
Inside the shaft is where the electrical wiring feeds from the model to the base. The pen barrel tip is pointed up and into a hole in the center bottom of the model so the Bird of Prey can easily be re-angled.
Painting the Bird of Prey was easy. Testors light aircraft gray out of the can was used for the painting the overall space ship with many coats of future floor wax as a protective coat.
The one
problem you might have is to be careful to prevent light leaking through the model.
This will happen to any lit model. You must make sure the model is well shielded internally from stray light leaking out of the model. The light will shine through the plastic if it is not painted or sealed well. For the lit areas of the Bird of Prey I used glued foil to seal the interior with a layer of white paint to reflect the light. On the outside the painted plastic also acts as a light seal. These extra steps might be overkill in light sealing but I didn't want to have to tear the model apart later because of a small light leak.
Boy that big decal was a pain to apply! The decals were after-market decals from JTGraphics. While applying the large "belly bird" decals the tail section of the main decal just started
crumbling into 7 small, unusable, pieces. $20 down the drain, literally! Before I put the decals on I made a scan of them, just in case. I simply remade the bird decal.
The original and after-market
decals looked to "cartoony" for my taste because the decals had too much contrast and were too perfect.
I wanted a more realistic looking bird on ship. Using my computer and my favorite software program, PhotoImpact, I took the scanned image and lightened up the black areas of the decals to a dark purple with a brown tint. I also modified the color on the bird. I thought that this was a proud bird and would not have a monotonous salmon orange color to it. The Romulan ship builders would paint a more colorful bird on the ship's belly. I modified the images orange colors by adjusting the brightness and contrast in PhotoImpact in certain areas of the bird, especially in the feathers. The decal color adjustments made quite a difference. The decal has more eye appeal and is more dramatic now.
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Even my new "belly bird" decal was a tough decal to work with; I ended up tearing one section of the body of the
decal.
Since I was going to weather the BOP later the tear could be made to look like battle damage. The tear was effectively masked and looked great after the weathering. If I had to apply another bird decal I would float the decal in water/white glue mixture until it floated off the backing sheet then apply it to the model.
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While I was re-making the decals I decided to add a little enhancement decals to the BOP.
While the bottom of the ship had the dramatic bird, the topside of the mode was a boring slab of gray. The upper section of the ship needed some color and feathers much like the Franklin Mint Bird of Prey pewter ship I added upper wing and tail feather decals. I also added shuttle bay door decals to go behind the superstructure. And the ship needed windows and markers to show me where to add the sensor arrays. Painting windows would be far too hard and monotonous but a decal of windows would be easy to apply.
Scanning one of the templates I used to build the angled sides as a guide, I made windows, with little people in them, and sensor array marking to make a one-piece decal that would slide into place on the
walls of the BOP.
The decals looked strange drooping downward but when I applied them they magically straightened into place. When the decal was dry I used a pin vice to drill holes where the sensor would go through the decal and pushed the mushroomed tip fiber optic into place.
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panels were clustered in the damage area to complete the repaired look. For lighter area rectangles I airbrushed lighter grays onto
Scotch transparent tape and cut out little squares to paste onto the model. Doing it this way made it easy to play with the placement of the panels. Later, with a couple more coats of Future Floor Way
airbrushed on, the tape would be very permanent. Now the ship has a couple of subtle raised panels now for variety.
To finish the model coats of Future Floor Wax were applied and when the coats were dry
the model was scrubbed with #0000 steel wool and a coat of Brasso metal polish was applied. The Brasso really brought out the shine.
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The finished model with the addition of a little painted battle damage and weathering, angled sides, a thinned and modified tail
has improved the model. To enhance the model the homemade windows, upper and tail wing decals add nice detail.
With the modification of the tail, adding rear engine lights and decals the model accuracy has been greatly improved closely look like the TV prop.
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The Romulans finally have a proud, bold and handsome Bird of Prey to battle against the Federation space ships. It does not have to
cloak itself and slink away in shame. From any angle the ship is draws attention to it. It is now proud to show off its 'bird belly' and the lighting. It also make a great night light!
Bill Lehner
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