Constitution Class Polar Lights Refit 1/350 scale UPDATE #3

Greetings!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day with the person they love...

This build will go over completing the lower saucer section and attaching it to the upper saucer, completing the Primary Hull.

A sneak preview (for those on Facebook):

Let's get started!

LOWER SAUCER SUB-ASSEMBLY

Much like the Upper Saucer, my first task was to prime both sides of the saucer section with first gray primer.

Then white primer.  Note, the lower sensor array is dry fitted so as to provide a mask outline for where the part attaches to the model.

On the inside, I recoated with a cheap white paint I have (which tends to sputter - actually I recoated it with a black primer, then the white primer, but the black paint would rub off and I had to seal it first.  Lesson learned.)

One of two things I did when painting the lower saucer, I masked off the area where the neck connects with it and drilled it out with a 3/8" drill bit for the wiring to go through.

The lower hull in this picture is already for painting!  White pearl paint as the primary hull colour.  The 4 small areas, at 90 degrees to each other are the landing legs.  In an emergency, the ship can jettison the engineering section and use the saucer as a grand life boat.

This has never been shown on camera of this version of the Refit Constitution Class, but Mego, the toy company released the Enterprise, Klingon Cruiser (as Ennemey Ship - yup, that's the spelling on the box art), and Vulcan Shuttle in the following ad which shows the Enterprise.

Vintage 1970s Star Trek Toy Commercial

The other 4 ports next to the landing legs are access ports for other bulk storage.

Before I applied the Pearl white, I first masked off the sensor dome area with tape.

And finally the individual panels painted...

I used a Sharpie marker to outline the egress doors for personnel, as seen in Star Trek The Motion Picture:

Spock's Space Walk in Star Trek The Motion Picture

My next step was to cut out an access hole for the part so I could add lights.

LOWER PLANETARY AND NAVIGATIONAL SENSOR DOME ARRAY

Boy, that's a mouthful!!  Say that 5 times fast, lol...

This part serves to balance the upper hull modifications and as a platform for the external lighting.  First, I had previously painted each of the emitter ends of the sensor array.

It is unfortunate that this part is made so off entered, it would be very difficult to make the necessary corrections.  This one goes on the rear.

I used15 minute epoxy on the clear parts.  I also scrapped the edges clean as model cement sticks better to plastic than paint.

Here is the part in place on the lower half of the saucer.

As previously shown, here is the lower sensor platform glued in place from the inside of the saucer.  I left two post holes for alignment (of the original four)

I used a Dremel tool to remove more material, including the posts and use black Tulip to seal any lighting gaps.

Below are the remaining clear parts to be inserted into the lower saucer: 3 segments of 6 window ports, and 4 reaction control thrusters (aka RCS).

Once these were glued in with Microscale Krystal Kleer, I did a light test with a good, old fashioned goose-neck lamp with a 60 Watt bulb.  (I am not a fan of CFCL bulbs as they contain toxic mercury, and give off a poor light and LED bulbs are still too expensive...I digress).

LIGHTING

There are only three light systems on this subassembly: spots from the Lower Sensor Array, flashing navigational lights and a LED to illuminate the Impulse Deflection Crystal.

Lower Sensor Array

As seen in the original series (TOS) motion pictures, 1 through 6, the Constitution Class Refit had many sources of self illumination.  On the lower sensor dome, it seems to light up the entire underside of the ship, which looks amazing on screen but is actually nearly impossible to recreate off screen.

First illuminated in Star Trek The Motion Picture

Standard illumination in Star Trek The Motion Picture

Standard illumination in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Here's the wiring that went into lighting that section:  3 5mm LEDs for the Fore, Starboard and Port light emitters and 3 3mm LEDs for the rear emitter.

This is the box art from the Ertl/AMT 1/537 Refit model kit (that model takes a lot of work to make it look like this one).

So the light doesn't bleed in from other areas of the ship, I used black card stock and fabric tape to ensure no light leaks.

Flashing Nav Lights & Anti Collision Lights

As I mentioned in the previous blog entry, I purchased a MK102 dual LED 9V Flasher.  It will run on 12V.  It is a very simple kit to put together.  One pre-printed circuit board, two LEDs, 4 resistors (all the same), 2 capacitors, 2 transistors and 2 potentiometers, oh and a 9V battery cable.

It takes you through step by step instructions and gives you a schematic diagram.  Velleman makes some really wonderful and simple electronic kits.  This is a great one to build if one is interested in electronics.

Assembly is easy, you insert the parts into correct position on the board (which is labeled).  The you solder the part on the back and trim off the excess.

Here's mine completed:  I omitted the kit's LEDs and replaced the batter clip lead with a 2-pin connector, same with the one going to the LED bus which all 10 LEDs will blink on the ship.  I used opposite male/female connectors so if the board ever needs to be replaced, it doesn't get wired wrong.

For the anti-collision strobes, I'm using a simple technique, using a 5V flashing LED which has a similar blink rate and in series connect my LED bus to that.

The flashing LED later on gets painted Black or covered up so as to not let light leak into the model.

Impulse Deflection Crystal

I previously shown this in my other build of the Enterprise A/Brattain, but I will put it here again.  The following shows a progression of the studio model in different scenarios from it's early inception to it's final appearance in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Clearly there are two different colours (just like I mentioned before the Impulse Engine has appeared both amber and blue at different times), Amber and Blue.  Well it just so happens, I have a dual LED which is blue/amber.  (In the last shot where it appears green, I suspect the clear part has 'yellowed, making it appear green - in a future build I may choose to use an RGB to simulate any colour).  The blue/amber LED is a special LED designed to illuminate the Deflector Dish.

Dual LED - normally an LED has only two leads, this one has three - it's bipolar.

The most effective way to light this part is from below.  I had previously found the centre of the crystal and drilled through the lower saucer.  Like most of my LEDs, I tend to hot glue them in place. The trench where the 'neck' connects with the saucer has been left unpainted for maximum glue adherence.  

amber mode

blue mode

A Minor Repair to the Upper Hull...

Previously, I had a warm white SMD to light up the registry, but these things are so delicate, from just the handling so I decided to use the smallest LED I have which is 1.8 mm and bore out a new opening for it....

It's not pretty at the moment, but for right now, I'm ensuring all the electronics work first, then I can clean everything up.  I need to touch up a few areas and I want to add more detail to the bridge area.

To drill through the B/C deck, there is about 3/16 of an inch of plastic to go through, not exactly like a knife cutting through butter.

Bringing it all together and final wiring

Once I got the rest of the lower saucer's lights installed, it was time to install the main wiring to the saucer.

Long before I started this project, I had a plan of what  circuits I wanted to control by the flip of a switch on the base of the model.  The first model I completed like this was my USS Defiant NCC-1764 build, and it's a simple two switch, plus Black/UV Light.  This build will feature at least 8-9 switches, plus a main power switch. and lights in the base.  To do this you need multiple wires, and the easiest way is to colour code them.  For individual wires I use a coated magnet wire which comes in a dozen colours.  For the mains, I use telephone and ethernet wire.

Ethernet cable CAT 5e split open

And to connect the upper and lower saucer, I'm using a cable connector (about $6 for this one) which allows the saucer halves to be easily connected.

Here is all of the extra wiring all laid out.

Everything connected...

...and now the pulling of the cable.

And finally here it is in all of it's glory:

USS Enterprise Lighting Test - Star Trek The Motion Picture

That's it for now...next I will be light-blocking and sealing up the saucer and starting to move down the ship and putting together the neck and strut assemblies.  But first I usually like to let my LEDs run for 24 hours or more, because if anything is to burn out, it will in that time.

Happy model building!!!

All still images taken of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek are being used for educational use only.  This blog does not claim rights of ownership over any images sourced from the internet.