1/350 TOS Enterprise AB

alan
Ensign

Today, your investing the rest of your life into it!!

Posts: 37

1/350 TOS Enterprise AB Aug 10, 2013 1:09:48 GMT -6

Quote

Post by alan on Aug 10, 2013 1:09:48 GMT -6

Hi Everyone

Well I have started the Enterprise build and I am enjoying every minute of this project. Sorry I don't have any photo's loaded but I will fix that tomorrow. So far I have thoroughly washed the model and all its parts. I have also finished light blocking all the appropriate parts with one coat of mat black and one coat of semi gloss silver. Wally I know you said high gloss white but I already had the silver in my kit and the budget for this project has been reached ..............past by a couple of bucks.

So I have commenced work on the lighting and I must admit I was very nervous as my LED experience is fairly low. Well I put together a circuit for the top saucer and I must admit it took a long long time to get it to work. I'm having serious doubts about the connectors and thinking of soldering the lights. Further, I might suspend the build and practice a little soldering of lights and thin wire as I have no experience soldering at all.

Happy to hear your comments.

Hours spent on the model so far 10 hours. I estimate at this pace the model will be finisher around half past May 2014. hahahahaha

Admin
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 51

1/350 TOS Enterprise AB Aug 10, 2013 9:17:28 GMT -6 alan likes this

Quote

Post by Admin on Aug 10, 2013 9:17:28 GMT -6

Ok don't panic, and your correct in getting rid of the polor lights connectors, in the end I should have done it.
now LED's must be wired with all the positive and all the negatives together you just can't grab a bulb and solider it in,
it has to match up with the incoming flow of current the + must go on the positive side of the led and the - must
go on the negative side of the led. I included a picture on how to tell the + and - of an led. If you look at the picture
the long lead of the bulb is the positive and the short lead is the the negative also their is a
flat side on the bulb just in case you cut the leads you can still tell the positive and negative. OK now for the gray area
of led's and that is resistors now they regulate the flow of current that get to your led's so you don't blow them out.
There are two way's of finding out the size of a resistor you need (1) read and learn OHM's Law it's not that hard or when
you go to the electronic store ask them, the best advise I could give you is use led strip tape and it's probably what
you are using anyway. now when you install them you should run them in a parallel circuit I have also put a picture
of how to wire a parallel circuit, the best thing about wiring them this way is if one strip gos out
the rest stay lit. As far as soldering 1st keep the tip clean go to the dollar store and get a copper scrubbing pad and
put that in a jar every time you do a few joints just stick it in the jar move it up and down and it's clean. 2nd use a
Ronsin core solder, not only does this save you a step ( you don't have to flux the parts) but but it's just cleaner to use.
3rd "Tin" the ends of the wire all this means is putting solder on the wire before you connect it to your Led's
4th take it easy your in no rush slow wins the race. Be sure to hot glue the strips down the last thing you
want are your lights moving around after everything is glued. Well I hoped this helped, if their is something you still
have questions about any part of the build feel free to ask away.

Wally, Starfleet Model Academy

alan
Ensign

Today, your investing the rest of your life into it!!

Posts: 37

1/350 TOS Enterprise AB Aug 10, 2013 18:50:12 GMT -6

Quote

Post by alan on Aug 10, 2013 18:50:12 GMT -6

Thank you Wally I appreciate the advice and you taking the time to give me a detailed response. I will definitely take it nice and slow and ensure I enjoy this project. As you might be detecting in my posts I am a neat freak (detailed masking for light blocking) hahaha so I will definitely ensure the wire and lights etc are soldered and appropriately hot glued into place. Thank you once again for the advice and I think you should be aware your You Tube posts are being constantly watched and paused as I progress with my model.

alan
Ensign

Today, your investing the rest of your life into it!!

Posts: 37

1/350 TOS Enterprise AB Sept 14, 2013 5:13:42 GMT -6

Quote

Post by alan on Sept 14, 2013 5:13:42 GMT -6

Thanks for the detailed response!!

I have finally received my magnet wire, I ended up having to buy it from the USA as I couldn't find a supplier here in Australia. Happy to report that I have followed your instructions and I have completed two lights and many many more to go. I won't bore you with how long it took me but they work and they look good. So the parallel lighting circuit has begun!!!

Post by alan on Aug 10, 2013 1:09:48 GMT -6

Post by Admin on Aug 10, 2013 9:17:28 GMT -6

Post by alan on Aug 10, 2013 18:50:12 GMT -6

Post by alan on Sept 14, 2013 5:13:42 GMT -6

Shoutbox