papasmurf

Thanks Ed, that's a good suggestion, however I am using several different types of flashing emitters, that's how you get a "matrix" effect. If you check out the film clip of the interior, you'll see those effects can't be done with a single light source. Yes, it's more time consuming, messy, and you have dozens of strands to deal with, but the final results make it worth it. Shapes of lighting, are controlled by apertures, and rear lighting techniques. And......Magic!

The Orange Sun is a lightsheet panel, not very bright in comparison with LEDS, but yes, you can cut it into segments. To light up a Cockpit, it may work.

Thanks, yep, digital camera's don't do well in dark shots, misinterpret dark areas and transfer them as black. The weather was bad that day, dark and raining, so I had less ambient light to work with. There's some flm clips of this build, on my U Tube channel, here's a link http://www.youtube.com/user/mercs32118

Thanks Mark, indeed, I am no photographer, and when the client got this delivered, he was quick to point that out!

This is the most recent project completed, a "Lost in Space" diorama, with a fully lighted and detailed Jupiter 2 Saucer, alien terrain base, and fiber optic Star background. Several hundred fiber optic strands were used in this, as well as various LED's and other lghting gadgets. The large Orange Sun rising over the Montains is Lightsheet, the Blue Planet was created with a refracting mirror, and offset lighting. Here's a few images of the finished item in the Studio. The 12 inch Polar Lights Jupiter 2 kit, mounted on a custom resin base, and scratchbuilt Starfield, measured aprox. 24 inches by 20 inches.

Thanks Mike, good to be back!

Thanks Dude!!

Well Hello y'all! Papa Smurf has been extremely busy, but I thought you might like to see a few images of the John Long Phaser 1 kit I recently completed. You can also see a nice little film clip on my website, www.simonmercs.biz, on the Video Gallery page. This was a fairly difficult kit to assemble, as it has an internal "clockwork" style mechanism, and a lighting system. It was made of resin, metal, and brass parts, and took around 8 weeks to construct for my client. 1/1 scale, ad a nice "heavy" feel also added to the realism aspect of the finished piece. Here'a few images of the finished item, I'll try to pop back in a little more often, just went through 3 months of home renovation, and spent too much money doing so. Hope your new Mods are keeping this section interesting, and a good day to all my friends!

Thanks very much, up to my eyeballs with the Yamato project right now, will post pictures upon completion! Welcome to IPMS SNG!

Looks AWESOME!! Great detailing, just superb looking! Very nicely done Mike! I also read your KITT article with great interest Ed, the Dash instrument's images, and using the Lazer Tag toy's circuit in the front end, was really interesting!

KEWL!!!

That would be the Polar Lights Refit kit Mark! And, it would indeed be, a very cool display!

Hi Jon! Yep, seems it was a fairly common rite of modeling, to build Star Trek themes. And trying to get them "perfect", is a disease that still infects me today, 'cause it's near impossible. But trying to is the "challenge", or the "obssession", depending on your viewpoint. Like your "Enterprise's" idea, that would definitely eat up some display space! Welcome to IPMS, and thanks for posting!

No problem, when I saw your post, I went right for the kit. I often see series of other kits, in the same theme, printed on one side of the box. Thought I might have a quick response for you on that. I'll keep my eyes open as well, might run into something over the next few weeks.

Well, oddly enough, the 1/700th scale Yamato is my next project! I looked on the box, a very old Bandai kit, but didn't see any additional images, of other kits in the series, on the boxside. You can try sites like HLJ (Hobby Links Japan), which sell Japanese kits directly in America. If anyone can get a hard to find Bandai kit, it would be my first look in the hunt. Good luck on that, it might well exist. If anyone knows anything about this Bandai kit, please post your information!

Nice logical thinking James, that was a great suggestion! Now we can see this most interesting project progress, very cool guys!

That's a lot of work!! And, very well executed indeed!

I wasn't aware of that Mike, that's unfortunate. Perhaps Jim Botaitis, at JBots, would still have his version. I'd pop off a quick e-mail to JT, and see "what's up" on that, was a good seller for him. Wonder why it would stop being so, with Trek so in the lime-light at this time Just trying to help, home-made decals are usually rather thick, and unwieldly. I stopped using the "do it yourself" decal kits some years ago, perhaps they are better nowadays. Back to the "Smurf-Cave", gotta get to work this morning..................I'll check back in later.

Looks like a good coupling to the Primary Hull, well done! There are sites that sell very nice decals which allow you to designate a Starship in any letters, and numbers, all in the proper font style and scale your looking for. Federation Models has various sets available for all sorts of different kits. I believe Starship Modeler's store has many as well. There is also JT Graphics, and many others. If you do a Google search for "Star Trek decal vendors", or something like that, you should get plenty of sites. However, if you can create ones your happy with, for less money, that sounds good too!

Indeed, that's a great help to all of us, much appreciated actually! Model and art supplies are so expensive nowadays, hints like these are worth their weight in gold!

Additional info. on this product, Parafilm is available in 4 inch, and 20 inch widths as well. Some of these sizes are in 125-250 foot long rolls! Quite a lot of masking material for anyone! These larger widths are available through medical supply wholesalers, I tried cardinal.com for a test search. It appears as if you need an account with these guys to buy there, however, further searches may find it in easier places to buy it. They sell in cases, so it might be pricey to buy from a wholesale outfit, that is geared towards medical facility accounts. Frisket is very expensive, and not the greatest, in certain applications. This sounds like a good alternative without the risks of Press and Seal. Great post, and thanks for the links Bruce!

Thanks very much Bruce, that's an interesting product. Goes to show, how you can learn something new, every day. That's what I really appreciate out of a Forum, some good useful information, along with tips and tricks. We have that here at IPMS, and that's cool in my book!

I've used sketch and Art paper for large areas before, but have not heard of Parafilm. Where is this material purchased Bruce? Sounds like it would be smart to check that out, before risking any more work with Press and Seal. I have found that the residue is problematic in different cases, as stated previously. And even lo-tack Frisket, presents certain residual marking problems. Please provide a purchase location, or link to the product if possible, thanks!

Jeez, I turn away to attend to something else, look back, and you've started all over again! Doing a project several times, in different ways, is a great learning tool. I wouldn't have called it an "Epic Fail" however, and I've always used the term "Epic Faillure", which it wasn't. Yes, that magical "force", which flings uncooperative models into solid objects, has materialized in my Studio on occasion, weird isn't it? Your determination to get this done to your expectations, is admirable. Easy does it.............

Thanks Mark!