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The client specified that the ENTERPRISE model sit atop a Display Cabinet, under a clear acrylic cover. Here I'm working on
building up the cabinet from half-inch thick interior grade plywood. Set into the forward face of the Display Cabinet is a well to later receive the control panel from which all lighting aboard the model
would be controlled. Model building does not always involve... err... model building!
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Nearing completion of the Display Cabinet. Once the four faces of the cabinet were smooth the entire box affair was skinned with
a fine wood veneer. To facilitate movement of the display, the base of the cabinet was equipped with four caster wheels. Here I'm applying some touch-up putty to fill dings around the recessed control
panel area.
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I outside sourced four acid-etched brass placards, these needed to enhance the display. Here I'm drilling out holes to pass the
control stems of switches and potentiometers that will mount to the underside of the 'control panel'
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At this point I have already skinned the Display Cabinet with a veneer. I'm drilling out holes through which will pass
decorative brad fasteners at the perimeter of each placard. The actual means of attachment of the placards to the cabinet was contact-cement.
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The control panel featured a lock and key switch to power up the models lighting and sound circuits. Switches turned the lights
on and off and potentiometers permitted alteration of the running light blink rates and 'rotational' speed of the arrayed LED's under each Warp Engine semi-opaque dome.
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The lit ENTERPRISE sitting atop its flexible Support Stand. All circuits for blinking and dimming of lights were located on the
underside of the Display Cabinet mounted control panel. The output from the control panel was then hard-wired up through the Support Stand and on to the many LED's mounted within the Primary Hull,
Dorsal, Hangar Bay, Warp Engines, and Secondary Hull. The apparent brightness of the lights seen here is the result of a long exposure.
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As the white styrene plastic used is pretty much opaque to light I was compelled to equip the model with an array of round
and rectangular clear lenses to represent the many 'windows' aboard the ENTERPRISE. Before committing any specific window arrangement aboard the model I first tested the concept on this plastic sheet
'test article'. The Test Article permitted me to identify problems and to work out fixes before committing an operation on the actual model.
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The finished unlit model showing off the many clear acrylic windows set flush onto the Primary Hull, Dorsal, and Secondary Hull.
The two Warp Engine domes were vacuformed from clear styrene and painted lightly with red - back lighting each dome with an array of circular arranged LED's, sequence by a chase circuit, gave the desired
effect of 'energy' being manipulated within the front end of each engine (insert Trekki techno-babble rational here).
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First step before inlaying window lenses into the model was to mark-off, with the aid of a pencil loaded surface gauge, where
each row of windows goes. Here I'm marking off the various levels of windows for the Dorsal piece. The same was done for the Secondary and Primary Hull.
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After marking off the model sections with window location, I began cutting out the window lens opening with the aid of knife,
drill, moto-tool burs, and jeweler's files. Here I'm inserting a length of pre-cut acrylic into a rectangular hole. Care was taken to leave at least a sixteenth-of-an-inch excess of lens material
standing proud of the models surface. After each lens was inserted it was secured in place with CA adhesive.
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Once a significant number of acrylic window lens pieces had been installed, they were ground nearly even with the models surface
with a moto-tool burr. From that point each lens was worked flush with file and sand-paper.
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I only used fiber optic material for those few round 'portholes' near the stern of the Secondary Hull. The annular space between
the installed Hangar Bay piece and the hull precluded the use of back lighting LED's. So. I used the flexible, small sized fiber optic cord to transfer light from an internal lamp to the aft positioned
portholes.
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I'm jumping ahead a bit here to show you the end-game: All the acrylic and fiber optic window lens have been inserted, ground
and polished flush with the Secondary Hull and Dorsal. The windows had been masked, and primer and a heavy coating of black paint were applied. Then, the window masking was pulled off. Internal LED's
were positioned and lit to check their placement. It's important that the lighting be worked out long before the model components are assembled and painted.
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The black coat of paint is a 'light block' - black has the most opacity of the paints and will do much to prevent
light leakage through the underlying putty and primer. Don't count on the primer and final color coats to block off unwanted light penetration! Sometimes light leakage is revealed only after everything's
completed and you start taking a series of long exposure shots - then it's way too late to fix the problem!
Part 6 will cover the bridge and more
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