Got some more work done at lunch last Friday...

I followed RossW's advice and brushed on liquid insulation to the LED strip solder joints:

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IMG_4410 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Then I started working on dry fitting the shuttle bay into the hull. First thing was to carve a trench into the hull directly over the ceiling trench of the bay. I made it deep enough for the spine light insert to sit flush with the inside surface. This would also avoid impinging on the delicate wiring of the SMD LEDs in the trench:

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IMG_4400 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After gluing the 4 LED harness to the back wall of the bay I realized that, as is,  there was no way on earth to close the hull halves due to the bulbs sticking out too far so I carved trenches about 1/16" deep into the hull at the back of the bay:

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IMG_4401 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Then I did another dry fit with much better results:

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IMG_4402 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I was able to get the hull almost completely closed. In fact, even brute force squeezing didn't get it much tighter. Once I apply glue and clamp it tight to dry there should be no gaps to speak of; and if there are, I can easily putty them:

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IMG_4403 by trekriffic, on Flickr

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IMG_4404 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Light test with just the 4 back/side wall bulbs lit. I'll need to address  the light leakage around the edge of the bay doorframe. I might try sticking some rolled AVES onto the hull along the frame line before inserting the bay so when I glue and clamp it will be squeezed in good and tight between the hull and the frame. Then I can trim away the excess before lightblocking the AVES with black enamel.Then I'll give the frame and doors a shot of the hull color. That should do the trick I think:

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IMG_4406 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The outside windows light up pretty well. As you can see, I'll have to light block where I dug the trenches:

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IMG_4407 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I'm really looking forward to getting the hull closed up with the overhead SMD lights on and the superbright LED shining thru the rear gallery windows in addition to the back/sidewall LEDs. I think the bay will be plenty well lit after all the LEDs are operating.