Star Trek: Voyager Revell 1/670 fully lit

[Tarabas93]

Hello

 

I'm new to this forum and I would like to post pictures from my build of  Revell Star Trek U.S.S. Voyager 1:670.

 

But first the introduction:

My name is Lukas and I'm from Czech Republic {please excuse my English skill} . Decided to post here, in a UK forum, because I noticed that the community of sci-fi builders is much bigger here and in my domestic forums and also the overall attitude of the people here seems more welcoming where in CZ forums I was often surprised how toxic and offensive people can be.

I'm building plastic models for a few years now, starting with planes then ships {historic and modern non-millitary} but last year i tried my first sci-fi builds {bandai SW} and found out that so far this is the area of plastic scale models which excited me most as i'm like huge sci-fi nerd 🙂

 

Now to the build:

By building this spaceship i'm basically fulfilling my child dream. As Star trek: Voyager was my favorite TV show and i always wanted to build the Voyager and have it for show on shelf.

With this build I will be aiming for a fully lit version with heavy modifications as some of the details of this kit are not good i will try to recreate them as best as my skills allow me 🙂

This also my first attempt to light the model, for that purpose I bought a lighting kit from Ebay.

 

I will try to upload pictures of my progress regularly. Any suggestions and the tips along with some healthy critique will be most welcomed.

 

Hope you like my work

Lukas

 

 

 

 

[Tarabas93]

 

Details on bottom of engineering section will be completely sanded off and recreated

[Thom216]

First, welcome to the forum! And second, damn nice work so far! that masked dish had my eyes popping!

[Tarabas93]

Thank you very much good Sir 🙂 Masking it like that was real pain but i'm hopping it will look good once deflector will be lit. I'm also thinning about sanding down a bit of back of the dish in order to disperse light from LED better and avoiding hot spots.

[Tarabas93]

Hello

 

Raised 'details' from original Revell parts were sanded off as they didnt look good at all. Also applying some putty to fill the seams and repair some damage :

 

 

 

 

 

New parts cut from plastic sheet and prepared. Only suitable part what i had available for replacement of warp core was head of R2-D2 from old bandai kit, so there will be some SW mark on this ship 🙂

 

 

 

[Tarabas93]

Hello

 

Details on bottom of engineering section  has been recreated, had to replace R2 head for warp core for another droid head of same scale as the original was get damaged during process ( that's now 2 SW droids decapitated for this project)🙂 It is popping up a little bit, but I decide that I like actually.

 

 

 

Here i also decide to sanded off and recreate another details of upper par of engineering section as original details were just not good on my piece.

 

 

[HoolioPaulio]

Welcome to the forum.  Great start, looking ace already.  Can't wait to see it finished.

[S-boat 55]

Very tidy pe work 

[Tarabas93]

Thank you guys, its a first time I'm working with PE parts and first time I will be first time trying to lit up the model. So fingers crossed it will come out good 🙂

[Norman]

Welcome Lukas ! loving your work

 

Looking forward to next stage !

[Jinx]

I love the Voyager! Can’t wait to see this build.

[Tarabas93]

Hello Guys

 

Thank you for warm welcome and kind words. Voyager its my beloved ship from childhood, although this project will be really long run I'm enjoying it greatly.

 

I made some small progress on rear part of engineering section of the ship. PE parts are on the place and also drill holes for navigation, port and starboard beacons which I probably solve by using 1mm fiber optic.

 

Original details before sanding them off

 

PE parts on place, plastic suffered some damage during sanding, i have to use putty to rectify that.

 

 

Drilled holes for future wiring and I also decided to remove original details from the sides as they look ugly. I will attempt to recreate them once those two parts will be eventually glued together

 

 

Started to work on the nacelles pylons by drilling out space for impulse engines intake and placing the PE parts. Details on sides of the pylons will be also sanded off and recreated as I didn't like them one bit 🙂

 

[Ollie White]

Hi Lukas ! This model is looking amazing so far . WOW! Look forward to more updates. Thanks for sharing your work.

[Tarabas93]

Hello Guys

 

Uploading some pictures of small progress what i made recently.

There haven't been much time lately but i always considered this build to be a 'long-term' 🙂🙂

 

I decide sand off original detail and replaced it with mine on both nacelles 

 

 

Grills on both pylons have been drilled out

 

 

I have also done light-blocking and all parts. First few layers of black color and atop gloss white color

 

 

 

I'am preparing for first step of LED installing starting from nacelles and work my way to whole rear section of the ship. I waiting on last delivery of LED diodes as when i tried to play with them i managed to fried one 🙂 But i guess this is a part of the process try and error, so fingers crossed it will smoother road now.

 

Best regards

[modelerdave]

This looks great! Excellent work! 

[Tarabas93]

Hello Guys

 

Thanks for support and kind words.

 

I done some small progress on warp nacelles:

 

 

I decide to solve starboard and port beacons by drilling hole, stick thru a piece of fiber optic, attach 3mm diode underneath and light block it so it didn't interfere with blue warp light.

Fiber optic parts will be shortened to proper length after painting.

 

 

This is how it turn out. I'm not going show you how it is look like from bottom because its mess really ,especially a solder which I'm basically learning on this project  🙂

But important is that is working as intended 🙂

 

 

And this is how its look like test fitted together with blue warp light {without clear plastic part}.

 

I did lot of sanding of clear parts of both nacelles to get 'milk' effect . I'm hoping it will hide the wiring well enough.

 

What I learned the hard way during work is, that is much better to solder resistors and cables to diodes before they were placed on plastic 😞  Because I initially solder them after they were put on place, I again was able to damage the plastic and then make lot of efforts to rectify that errors. Lesson learned I guess 🙂

 

Next on my list is to make a red light in front parts of nacelles. For that I will again use a 3mm diodes and I will have create some dividing parts from plastic to separate the red light from the blue warp light.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Tarabas93

[Reelyator]

On 15/01/2021 at 08:20, Tarabas93 said:

....Masking it like that was real pain but i'm hopping it will look good once deflector will be lit. I'm also thinning about sanding down a bit of back of the dish in order to disperse light from LED better and avoiding hot spots.....

 

REALY Impressive👍

 

Are you planning to paint black Light blocking to the OUTER Side of the Deflector Dish??

[Tarabas93]

On 5/9/2021 at 10:17 AM, Reelyator said:

 

REALY Impressive👍

 

Are you planning to paint black Light blocking to the OUTER Side of the Deflector Dish??

 

Hello 🙂

 

Thank you for kind words.

 

I guess i wont do light-blocking from outside of deflector dish. My plan was to paint deflector dish with this bronze/orange color from outside according to how i mask it on picture and "milk" transparent plastic  from bottom using sandpaper in order to defuse the light a little, but that's it i guess.

 

Do you thing it will be worth to do it?

[Screech]

Great Progress on the kit!

[Tarabas93]

5 hours ago, Screech said:

Great Progress on the kit!

 

Thank you kindly Sir 🙂

[Reelyator]

23 hours ago, Tarabas93 said:

 

...I guess i wont do light-blocking from outside of deflector dish. My plan was to paint deflector dish with this bronze/orange color from outside according to how i mask it on picture and "milk" transparent plastic  from bottom using sandpaper in order to defuse the light a little, but that's it i guess.

Do you thing it will be worth to do it?

....this will depend on the outcome:-) But definitely a smart and doable approach!

 

I am not sure if such tiny orange stripes on a white surface will produce a visible structure due to the  low contrast between white and orange.

 

Instead of sanding you could think abous spraying some clear white on the Dish backsite. Maybe this way it is easier to adjust the defusion to the desired level... but this is just guessing.

[Tarabas93]

On 5/11/2021 at 2:26 PM, Reelyator said:

....this will depend on the outcome:-) But definitely a smart and doable approach!

 

I am not sure if such tiny orange stripes on a white surface will produce a visible structure due to the  low contrast between white and orange.

 

Instead of sanding you could think abous spraying some clear white on the Dish backsite. Maybe this way it is easier to adjust the defusion to the desired level... but this is just guessing.

 

Hello

 

I didn't actually thought about that but I guess you might be right that structure of the striped might get lost when the dish is lit. And it wont be much of hassle to spray black layer first and that cover with orange/bronze color.

Although it will take me a while to work my way from the back of this to start working on the deflector but once I get there I will do it.

 

Thanks for the great tip🙂🙂

[Tarabas93]

Hello

 

Reporting with some progress.

 

I'am still working on back of the ship. Both nacelles are now done and i progress with rear parts of the ship where nacelles the will be attached.

 

I had to figure out how to squeeze all light effects into this small space. After few fails i was able to come with working solution, its not pretty but it is working. Light effects are separated and don't melt together.

 

 

I hid the optic fiber for position beacons under the alu foil together with their LED's. These will be connected to different circuit.

The LED's  for port and starboard beacons I separate using two pieces of this thick putty, it basically create barrier so the light wont interfere with light in second section.

 

I was not really sure whether so share this because it is not pretty but i figured it might help somebody in their future builds.

 

 

 What is now ahead of me is the completing whole rear section together. It will quite challenge as model parts does not really fit well and since i add lot of cables, glue and LED's i didn't help it at all.

 

Expecting lot of putty work and lot sanding, wish me luck.

 

Lukas

Edited July 19, 2021 by Tarabas93

[SteveR]

I have this model, still in it's box. I also want to light it but I've been completely intimidated by the windows and having to cut them all out! Very nice work there @Tarabas93 ! 

[Tarabas93]

Hello Guys

 

Thanks for support and kind words from everyone.

 

I want to share pictures with some progress i have made recently.

 

The rear section of engineering hull has been put to place. It has been lot of putty work to cover all the seams.

The hole for stand is just temporary as i still don't know how thick tube i will use for it or how to create some nice stand, i you have any ideas feel free to share them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On these pictures the light from rear window is actually not that bright, i made these pictures using phone camera which exaggerate it way too much. In reality you can cleary see the window and recognize the ribs.

 

Here its clearly visible that i have huuge light leak issue under one of beacons. The seam which was there was actually covered with putty and sanded clear to nice flat surface but light bleeding thru the white putty.

I'am hoping that few layers of sprayed black primer will do the job.

 

And i also started to work on deflector dish which will be lit with one 5mm LED.

My goal currently is to get the light disperesed as much as possible to have nice spread glow.

 

 

I'am looking forward to have the bottom part of the ship finaly done and move main saucer 🙂

 

Have a nice day

Lukáš

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Tarabas93