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Venator Cruiser


Madhatter

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HI everyone

This is my first submission here to Britmodeller - it's my take on the Revell Venator.

It took just on 15 months to make. There are about 46 LED's, some of which connect up to about 20 Ft of Fiber Optic thread

I've lost count of how many hours this took, but aside from a few mistakes with the lighting, I'm really happy with it.

There are still some fibers left to black out along the trenches to make it not so clustered, but they be done soon

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Thanks for looking!

MH

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thanks very much guys!

I'm also really happy with how the docking bay doors came out - I got a bit worried there for a moment when the expensive "yellow" LED was more amber than yellow, but a white LED dipped in clear yellow yielded a much more desireable result

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I'm going to add some more pics of the Venator (just because I can)

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It was after everything had gone together that I peeked underneath and look at what I found: :angry::poo:

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No idea on how to fix it either. Grrrrr - so if you have any suggestions, I'm willing to listen

Thanks

MH

Edited by Madhatter
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OK, so it wasn't as hard to fix as I made it out to be - I was just pi**ed at myself for making the mistake- even though I have no idea on how it actually occurred. All the dry fitting went perfectly and even when it was installed - it was square....? Dunno....

Anyway, after I got over myself, I think I fixed the issue:

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OK, I'm going to stop now....

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thanks guys - glad you like it :cheers:

OK, Fiber Optics are surprisingly easy to install - trust me, if I can do it, anyone can. Here is the link I used to help get me started a while ago - I found it to be very helpful:

http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/viewtopic.php?t=82731

I bought some drill bits specifically for use with a Dremel tool (or any other motorised tool I guess) from here:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ME:L:OC:AU:1123

Circuit work is also really simple. Red to Positive and Black to negative. Solder on a resistor to the positive leg (usually the longest of the 2) of an LED and then attach a wire to both legs and then solder them onto a circuit board - easy. Don't worry if you don't know what resistor to use - when you buy them from the electronics shop, ask them to help you choose the right one for the power supply you intend to use.

Here are some links to help you understand how to solder and how to wire up some LED's etc:

http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/solder.htm

http://www.instructables.com/id/LEDs-for-Beginners/

And finally, I bought the fiber optic end glow cable from Paul at http://thefiberopticstore.com/purchase/endglowcable.htm

He is a very, very nice guy and delivers it to you promptly for a great price. I bought 20ft or so of cable from him for this project and it was worth every cent.

The thing with FO's to remember is allow plenty of time to drill out the holes and make sure you drill exactly where you want them - so really plan ahead first and again; TAKE YOUR TIME! I can't stress that enough....

I hope this helps you. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask

Thanks again for your comments everyone

See you again soon

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Thanks for all the links and info - extremely useful. I have a part-built AMT Star Destroyer sitting in my office - it would be good to put fibre in it (it was not the version that came with fibre)

anthony

it's definitely worth the effort!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

gidday mate. The base color is Gunze #332 with various panels either a lighter or darker shade from the base (just a drop of white or black/dark gray)

Hope to see your build online soon - can't get enough of the Venator! :)

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gidday mate. The base color is Gunze #332 with various panels either a lighter or darker shade from the base (just a drop of white or black/dark gray)

Hope to see your build online soon - can't get enough of the Venator! :)

Mmm well that's a bit of a problem as I cant get Gunze paints locally. My model shop stocks Vallejo colours, though under pressure he's started stocking Tamiya.

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The more of this sort of model I see the more I like them. The lights add something special and as said above brings it to life. This is a really tasty build, thanks for showing us.

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