Revell - Maquis Fighter

[Grendels]

Black construction paper will work for those boxes. Light will not leak past black construction paper. I have used it many times in the past.

 

[Igard]

Thanks Q. For me, it's the most tedious part of the build. I found it much harder than with my USS Spitfire (Defiant) build.

@Grendels, That's interesting. The same stuff they make South Park with. I would never have thunk it.

 

[Solander]

This is incredibly cool build, Igard! Tons of awesome ideas for my future Maquis Fighter.
Thanks for sharing it with us, and keep up the great work!

 

[Igard]

Cheers, Sol. Wow 10 days since my last update! I bet you guys thought I'd given up on it. ;D

It's looking kind of messy, but I think I can handle it. I actually planned this out, but it's much harder than I expected. I should have used thinner wire from the start as it's just too crowded in here.

You can see where I put the flasher circuit, the battery holder and the switch. All held in place with some plastic repair adhesive, this stuff's never falling off!

I was hoping to use a push button switch that would stay on when pressed. I waited for one to arrive in the post, but it was HUGE! Obviously had to be big to fit all the transistors etc.

Also, I'll not use tin foil to block light again, it's really hard. Gonna get some of that construction paper Grendels was talking about.

The ventral hull. You can see I've got some nice thin wire for this. Should be easier to manage when I connect the 2 hulls together.

 

[punkpigpen]

That doesnt look messy it looks pretty neat to me! I use a much thinner wire when lighting. and if it gets crowded i can use the handle of my metal file and spin the wire around it snug, and coil it.

 

[Grendels]

I usually use pick up wire, the kind that is used for telephones. But it is looking good!

 

[Igard]

Thanks guys. I forgot to mentiont the push switch or 'momentary' switch was far too big to fit, so I've had to use a simple toggle switch. I don't want that to be on the outside 'cos it doesn't look right, so it's just sitting next to the battery. That means when I want to turn them on, I've got to open the hatch to do so.

Oh yeah, and my first time using fibre optics. Keeping it simple. Hopefully get some test lighting pics done either tonight, if I stay up late, or tomorrow night if I'm not too busy.

 

[fumblethumbs]

Yeah Igard, your light boxes and wiring look really tidy. Nice job my man. Mine usually look like a pit of snakes. Looking forward to those light test pics!!

 

[Quaralane]

Looks a lot better than the inside of the last model I lit up.
Some nice work going on in there

 

[Igard]

Thankyou, gents. Maybe I'm too neat then? It took ages to get everything like this. Well, I spent about 3 hours just now soldering the lights to the switch and the battery.

It all looked like it was going perfectly. Even got my camera ready for some light test pics.

Switched it on, and it all looked great. Flashers were working, everything good.

Switched off, and noticed the flashers were constantly on (not flashing) quite dull. Looks like I wired the switch up wrongly to the flasher circuit, or the battery. ???

What a major bummer.

Don't know if I can get this sorted tomorrow. Got some family stuff to attend to, so might not get a chance! Ahh hate that feeling of leaving something undone!

Well, family comes first. Might be Sunday before I can really sit down and fix this!

Those lights did look good though. There's always that.

Rambling. Tired. Sleep now. Night folks. zzzzzzzzzz

 

[Igard]

Ok, all working now. Silly me, went and connected the positives of the LEDs straight to the battery instead of the switch!

Since there are flashing lights, and I'm so proud of getting this to work, I made a youtube vid!

Warning, it's one of those awkward ones where I don't speak. Just shy. :

It's a bit long and boring, but you can watch out for the little blunder I made during filming.

Maquis Raider Light test

And, of course, some pics.

I put some fibre optic in for the torpedo tubes.

I read a schematic that these are sensors (the box art shows them firing phasers). So a bit of blue sensor optics there.

Compared to the USS Spitfire, this thing's really bright. Bare in mind thought, that there are parts to cover those lights.

OK, I timed it so that I took the picture when the lights flashed! I'm so sad. Proud, but sad. ;D

 

[Quaralane]

Looking beautiful here

 

[punkpigpen]

This is coming out absolutely sick!

 

[Grendels]

Looking good!

 

[Igard]

Thanks all! I just rewatched that vid and you can't see it all that well, but I knocked over an open bottle of super glue! Thankfully, it's almost empty and didn't spill! Phew!! It happens just as I switch the light off (when I was looking at the light switch and not what I was doing). ;D

 

[Igard]

Well, it failed its light test. Or should I say, I failed it.

The flashers stopped working after a few hours of switching on and off.

Tried re-soldering the wires to the flasher circuit and also secured some loose connections on the board.

Again, all worked fine for about 1 hour of constant use.

I simply switched off, and switched on again. Without upsetting any wires or moving the model.

This time ALL the LEDs are out! Pressing some connections only gets the slightest of light from a couple of them. Pressing gently on the capacitor on the board, gets a couple of the engine lights to come on.

Can't express how gutted I am right now.

Just too many problems. I feel like I've overstretched myself with my ambitious attempt at putting a flasher and the battery holder inside the ship. Just too much going on.

Trying to run before I can crawl, and I've landed flat on my face.

I'm extra gutted because I had it all working. I was even showing it to people. I was proud as punch.

I'm not happy right now. I don't want to say anything premature, but I think this is going into a cold dark corner for a while until I'm more experienced with wiring electronics. That seems like a logical course of action at this juncture.

I'll have another look tomorrow, but right now, I don't see how I could do any better than I did just now.

Absolutely gutted. Sorry to sound so miserable folks, but it's kind of therapeutic to vent this stuff here.

If anyone has any suggestions apart from rewiring the whole thing. I'm not doing that, because I'll just do the same thing again. Better to put it aside for the time being.

Could it be that the flasher circuit requires more than 6 volts? Could I have used a wrong resistor somewhere? Is there too much/too little current? I don't know what could cause this, aside from me neglecting something.

Sorry for all this emotion guys. I really hate this right now.

Anyway, thanks if you read all this, you really didn't have to. Wouldn't blame you for skipping some.

 

[Quaralane]

Sorry to hear about the problem.
Hopefully, sopme time away and a fresh perspective can help you find the source of the problem

 

[Bouryaki]

Hey Isgard,

you've done a fantastic job thus far, so imagine...........

It's 40 minutes into the episode, the unnamed red shirts on your crew have all been killed. The vulcan (I can't remember his name, is it Tuvok?) has a head injury and has regressed to a child like state skipping around the bridge singing bedtime songs.

The ship has suffered major damage but you are the captain and you will get through this. There is no way your going to transfer to voyager unless someone does something dramatic with the Captain Janeway's voice.

What you do in the last 15 minutes of the episode will decide the fate of your crew...............

Don't give up.

Regards,

Craig.

 

[Grendels]

What are you using for the flashing circuit? Is it a kit, or something you and a friend came up with?

I know a little bit about a couple of timing chips, and might be able to help out with debugging.

 

[punkpigpen]

oh noooooooooooooOOOO!!!