Hey Everyone! No I didn't fall off the grid, I've just been extremely busy these past few months. I'm still working on the Drydock, but what I accomplished during August and September was very minimal and not worth the update. But I have a significant update and I hope you'll like it.
First off, I am still working on the lighting effects for the hanger bays. I've built some light sockets for the fiber optic effects, I've also been working on the shuttle craft that will be seen inside the open end hanger bay. They are all painted up and just need decals. I should be able to get those done by the next update. 4 of the shuttles will have some sort of lighting effect in them.
Next I took on the challenge of wiring together two sets of 60 LEDs for the work light Arrays. The soldering was very delicate and tricky. I needed to solder the wires as close to the LEDs as possible because there is a limited amount of space in the work light housing. I could have used the strip LEDs but they don't have the shape I wanted for the actual light fixtures. After getting them all soldered together I took a few lighting test pics which came out really good.
Next I started building the housing for the work lights. These are scratch built pieces with some ribbing details on the backside of the housing. I made these so they would slide over the back of the lighting array. There are some touch-ups and puttying to do but they are finished.
Also in the scratch build department I needed to build the vertical boom arm pivots. This piece will slide into the Boom arm turrets and support the boom arms for the work cranes and work lights. I made a master to be molded with silicon rubber. I then cast 7 of these pieces for the turrets. I also drilled holes into the vertical pivot so I can add the boom arms and wiring.
Lastly I was able to scratch build the boom arms. I used some Plastrux tubing for the main part of the arm. I had to taper one end and lathe the other so it will have some interesting details. I also added some other details. Pieces that I call fins, as well as adding some eyelettes to the boom arms to support some thin rod pieces that come out of the vertical pivot. I don't know what their function is but it makes for interesting details. I managed to complete the two work light booms and assemble the arrays to the boom assembly. Now I need to work on the turret mounts so that all of the work cranes can be connected to the panel frames in some manner.
There are 27 new pics in the October updates - 2016 page if you would like to see how the building process went. Well, that's all for this month. Next month I should most of these items all painted up. See you then.
Mark