Here's a composite I put together in MS Paint using my recently completed 1/1000 scale Miranda class USS Saratoga... Battle of Wolf 359 by trekriffic, on Flickr Here's another familiar image... IMG_9195 by trekriffic, on Flickr The model is 9-1/2" long, fully lit with flashing formation and strobe lights... IMG_9182 by trekriffic, on Flickr
Fantastic! Your work is excellent as always. And I'm impressed with the aztek decals. Appropriately subtle. --Alex
wow mindboggling level of perfection, couldnt even imagine u can create something like this, the lights are amazing, great stuff all around
Thanks a lot guys! Here are some more pics of this model... IMG_8982 by trekriffic, on Flickr IMG_8991 by trekriffic, on Flickr IMG_9014 by trekriffic, on Flickr IMG_9026 by trekriffic, on Flickr IMG_9091 by trekriffic, on Flickr IMG_9173 by trekriffic, on Flickr IMG_9148 by trekriffic, on Flickr And here it is getting up close and personal with the whale probe in ST IV... Probe by trekriffic, on Flickr
My God that's beautiful. Even in my prime model building years, I would never have tried to light something that small and still somehow make it look that good. Well done, sir!
Sweet! Would it be too much trouble for you to draw up a wiring diagram for this? I'm curious as to how to do stuff like this myself. Best I can do right now is just attach a lightbulb to a battery.
Outstanding image of Wolf 359! That Miranda class build simply does not look 1/1000 even before the lighting is turned on... eh- one question. Didn't Sisko's Saratoga have those antenna pods instead of the weapons pod on the roll bar? There have been several Saratoga, the whale probe Saratoga was the one with the stock roll bar IIRC...
^^^ Yes. You are correct that the Saratoga in this thread would actually be the one that was shown in the beginning of TVH. It even has the correct registry number of NCC-1887. Sisko's was NCC-31911. Still an awesomely beautiful build, though.
Thanks for the video, your work is beyond awesome. How are the lights projected on the nacelles' reg numbers? Or is that cheated by glowing the inside? Mark
Good catch! Yes, as 137th Gebirg noted above, the Saratoga that fought at Wolf 359 was actually the NCC-31911 and it had the two large outboard sensor pods instead of the rollbar. I took some liberties with the historical record obviously but it wasn't intentional. I didn't realize my error until the composite was finished and then debated whether I should even show it afterwards. Still, I was so pleased with how the model looked in the image, I couldn't resist sharing it, even if it's not true to canon.
I used the Raytheon Effect to backlight ship's registry on the saucer and nacelles. It was my first attempt at it and I was pretty happy with the results, if it's cheating, well, so be it. It's a nice effect when done right.
Here's the wiring diagram provided by Tenacontrols for the nav/flasher wiring. It's a parallel wired circuit running off a 12 volt wall adapter. You can also run it off a 9V battery. There is a slide switch located in the base where the wall adapter plugs in: The rest of the window lighting was basically the same type of parallel wiring with some series wiring for stern impulse engines and shuttle bay door lights. Here's a photo of the power jack cemented into the stern half of the lower saucer and the nav/flasher board placed in the center of the saucer: Here you can see the wiring for the lower hull formation lights. They flash one second on, one second off. The strobes at the ends of the nacelles and the top of the bridge deck do a fast blink, then one second off: Upper hull flasher wiring: Window illumination was provided mostly by using LED strips lights like this one in the nacelle: The nacelles used a strip of white translucent milk jug type plastic to diffuse the glow. A strip of transparent blue film gives them their blue color: Upper saucer strips: Nacelle glow after the ParaGrafix photo-etch grill was painted metallic black and attached using Elmers clear glue: Here you can see one of the two LED strips in the lower saucer. I aligned them on each side so they'd be right under the angled windows at the front of the "secondary hull": Anyway, it looks like a rat's nest in this photo taken just prior to sealing up the hull and, you know, it sort of is. Unfortunately, I don't really work from diagrams preferring to just trim and solder wires on the fly as I go along. It's pretty easy if you just remember the basics of parallel and series wired circuits and know which value of resistor is needed. The main thing was to keep wires from crossing into any of the Raytheon Effect zones so as not to have shadows cast on the plastic from inside. The other trick was to keep window brightness to scale and avoid beaconing by not having LEDs pointing directly at a window. Otherwise it looks like the cabin behind the window is lit like the surface of the sun which just doesn't make sense for anyone to have a room that bright. Anyway, I've probably bored everyone to tears with this stuff. If you want to see more in progress pics you can find them here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/29607470@N08/sets/72157649031293118 All photos have titles and/or descriptions describing what I'm doing in the image.
Wow! That was much more than I was expecting, many thanks! I may never do something like this, but at least I know where to start now.