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star trek TNG

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  • Member since
    December 2020
star trek TNG
Posted by Anton on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 4:58 PM

I am making a star trek diorama. Not based on a kit, but 3d printed. The idea is making a enterprise NCC-1701-D that is firing on another ship. Probably a klingon or romulan ship. Not that original but never said I was original. Big Smile

For this I bought 25ml musou black paint from taiwan. But after painting Google tells me it could be counterfeit. Because original manufacturer doesn't sell 25ml. Not sure, because it was really black, but not as black as I expected.  Ah well. Not going to start over.

black

Still pretty black. But I'm really tempted to buy the original to compare. But the price is telling me to stop worrying. It's black, move on.

Let's make a box. I wanted to use a open foam. Because I wanted the sides to be light traps. so black, you cannot see the walls. I didn't have any, so let's compromise. Cut foamboard in half. It's a closed foam. But better than nothing.
cut in half

And glued them together. It's a box. Well done, grab a beer.
glued

I Used the sawdust of cutting it in half to round the corners a bit.

corner

Got a glassfiber thingy ornament, anyone over 30 will know from the 90's, for the fibers.
Thingy

Cut those fibers off, and stick em in the box.

fibers

And make sure all ends line up. Tape is your friend here.

taping

Now some vallejo black, with the musou (?) black over that.

paint

Used uv resin to glue leds to all the strings. 
glue led

Put some tape over the leds against the light bleeding out too much.

tapeled

And we got ourselves a tiny universe.

stars

Now to print some ships.....
tbc

  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 6:32 PM

OOOOKAAAAAY?

 

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: SW Virginia
Posted by Gamera on Thursday, February 11, 2021 11:21 AM

That looks cool and you've got a good start on her! Yes

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

 

  • Member since
    December 2020
Posted by Anton on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 5:14 AM

Due to the cold wather I could not print for a while. (I print in the shed, and the lower temperatures makes the resin go very thick.)

First prints I done earlier where not satisfactory. The idea is to make them from translucent resin, light them from the inside, and scratch away the apint where the windows should be. 
So I printed the saucer section in two parts.
saucer

But they didn't line up. 

This weekend the weather was finaly a bit warmer so I could print again.  So while I was photographing the finished Dreadnought: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/19/t/187299.aspx the printer was quite busy . (I print in the shed and freezing temperatures makes the resin go much thicker.)I 

I printed this time the ship in one piece, and will drill trough the second hull to insert a small LED.

complete ship

complete ship

The bottom was not perfect due to not washing it properly, but a bit of sanding will probably be enough because you will not see it that much.

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: SW Virginia
Posted by Gamera on Thursday, February 25, 2021 9:00 AM

Very nice printed 1701D, looking forward to seeing how the painting and interior lighting works out. 

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

 

  • Member since
    December 2020
Posted by Anton on Thursday, March 18, 2021 4:38 PM

Did not have that much time last weeks so prgress is a tad slow. I've drilled allmost all the holes for the wires. First from bottom to saucer, (Red line) and then directly in the saucer (Blue line) to get a LED in the middle. Would preferably not drilled into a visible area, but this was the best way. The wires for the nacelles come in from behind.(Dark red line)  I forgot to draw a extra hole that starts at the same hole as the red line, but leads a LED to just behind the reflector dish.

holes

Soldered some 0402 leds onto enamelled copper wire. And those things are a tad hard to solder because of the size.

led

I know you can buy those pre soldered. But paying 10 euro's for 20 cents of material... Nah, do it myself. (Not always the wisest course of action. I know. If you take time=money into this I should have bought them. But It's a hobby, not a business. So I'm soldering the leds.)

But managed it:
led shining

Made one specially with two leds back to back to illuminate both sides of the saucer section. (Phone had a hard time focussing.)
double led

After a while I got a few soldered. The carped monster had his fair share of leds too.
all leds.

I've got allmost all the leds in.
allmost

from top.

I used UV resin as glue so it stays transparant.

Need to do the other nacelle. And then: Paint!

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: SW Virginia
Posted by Gamera on Friday, March 19, 2021 10:22 AM

Oh that looks cool! Nice work!!! Heart

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

 

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Fort Knox
Posted by Rob Gronovius on Friday, March 19, 2021 12:01 PM

Wow, this is some work! I am very impressed with your 3D Enterprise.

  • Member since
    June 2017
Posted by UnwaryPaladin on Monday, March 22, 2021 5:37 AM

Amazing! Don't know how you work with things so small.

  • Member since
    December 2020
Posted by Anton on Thursday, March 25, 2021 6:07 PM

Small update. I wanted to make a cover so I don't damage the fibers. So made one from foamboard. Fits nicely while keeping some room for wiring.

cover

But was a tad naked, plain. so what to do with this cube... This star trek diorama, needs a nice cube... 

So started cutting old sprues up. (Always pays to keep some of those.) And sourced some, PLA printer fillament. 3 Kinds of steel wire, and stretched sprue.
And after some cutting and gluing.
one side
And some more cutting and gluing.
And more cutting and gluing.
And some cutting.
And gluing.
(Why am I doing these things to myself?)
And some more cutting and gluing I had:
cube

Still need to drill holes for green leds on the outside, and it's ready for painting.

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: SW Virginia
Posted by Gamera on Friday, March 26, 2021 11:20 AM

Lol, neat idea! Looking forward to seeing the green leds all lighted up. 

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

 

  • Member since
    January 2021
Posted by JoeSMG on Saturday, March 27, 2021 4:39 PM

Love what you're doing here! Very imaginative and extreamly well executed. I've had very little luck drilling my resin prints and you make it look easy, well done. Your ability to work with tiny components to good effect impresses me to no end.

Funny to hear you resin print in a shed too. My wife will not allow it in the house :)

Once again I'm looking forward to watching your posts file in.

- Joe the SMG

  • Member since
    June 2010
  • From: Australia
Posted by OctaneOrange on Tuesday, March 30, 2021 4:44 AM
nice work. look forward to seeing more
  • Member since
    December 2020
Posted by Anton on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 1:04 PM

After some paint and adding green LED's the cube looked a lot less like a cube with crap, and more like a borg cube.

cube lit

And test fitted the inside.borg cube test fit

The enterprise received two coats of silver. (To reflect some of the light back inside. Not sure about how effective it is, but cannot hurt.) After that a ton of black coats. And a coat of Vallejo 70.907 Pale Grey Blue. I bought Vallejo 70.973 Light sea grey for the aztec panelling. But not sure If I'm doing the panelling. 
enterprise-d

Made some translucent paint by mixing varnish with red, and varnish with blue to paint the reflector dish and nacelles. 
nacelles and dish
And with lights dimmed.
nacelles

Here you can see the effect of the windows. Scratched a few. The effect works, but not satisfied with my consistency. It will be a bit messy. So after consideration I ordered some diy printable waterslide decals, and I'm going to make a decal with the windows on it. So I can decide better where to scratch them out. As side effect I can add the aztec panelling as well.
windows

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: SW Virginia
Posted by Gamera on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 3:08 PM

Oh that's coming along soooooooo well! Great job on the 1701D and the cube.  

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

 

  • Member since
    January 2021
Posted by JoeSMG on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 10:24 PM

Anton

And with lights dimmed.
nacelles

Comming along nicely.

The above is my favorite picture so far.

The head on shot is excellent too and really shows off your beautiful work on the reflector dish but the lighting on the nacelles in this shot looks crazy cool.

I can see how the windows would be difficult to nail and Aztec paneling? Yikes!

You're heading into rough seas for sure.

 

- Joe the SMG

  • Member since
    December 2020
Posted by Anton on Wednesday, April 14, 2021 4:14 AM

First time using the DIY decals. I sealed the Inkjet print with Micro Liquid Decal Film. decal

turned out all right. I used a lot of coats. (That was recommended.) But perhaps too many. Will use less next time. 
decal on

Not perfectly aligned. After a matt varnish coating it will probably be fine. The aztec panneling is there, but on this scale hardly noticeable. So it doesn't matter that much.

Used a small rotary tool to cut windows. Moment of truth. Will my idea work?

Yep. not entirely satisfied, but well enough.

windows

Meanwhile I gave the Bird's of prey a layer of silver, black, and last green paint. One is meant to be seen from the front. The other from the back.
bird of prey
And these got lights as well.
bird of prey lights
Sadly my canon printer broke. 1403 print head error. So I cannot print the decals for the secondary hull until I either fix the printer, or buy a new one.

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: SW Virginia
Posted by Gamera on Thursday, April 15, 2021 11:28 AM

They both look friggin' perfect to me!!! 

Good luck with getting your printer back up and running. 

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

 

  • Member since
    January 2021
Posted by JoeSMG on Saturday, May 1, 2021 11:58 AM

Don't know how you do it but keep it up!

The Enterprise looks amazing all lit up and the Warbirds couldn't be better.

I am curious to see how you place the models and their wiring into the cube, in an atractive and cleaver way.

The pressures is on Anton!

Also will there be Phaser beams??

Smile

- Joe the SMG

  • Member since
    July 2014
Posted by modelcrazy on Saturday, May 1, 2021 12:09 PM

This look flippin great Anton, very cool! Yes I just love that Borg Cube.

Steve

Building a kit from your stash is like cutting a head off a Hydra, two more take it's place.

 

 

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/

  • Member since
    December 2020
Posted by Anton on Sunday, May 9, 2021 2:32 PM

Thanks all : )

Ordered a new print head. It came. But it was DOA, so going to take even longer. Angry


@JoeSMG
Of course there's going to be phaser beams Smile Probably will use a red LED filament. I tried lighting clear rods from one end. And special side-glow fibers, but the filament looked best. A bit thoo thick, bit it shines perfectly. 


  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: SW Virginia
Posted by Gamera on Wednesday, June 2, 2021 11:45 AM

Looking forward to the next episode! Hopefully you'll have your print head soon!

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

 

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