Thanks Tony

It really is a great kit to work with, what to do with the lighting is causing the biggest headache, mainly because I am expanding it a lot more than what the lighting kit came with.

Also had to learn to solder which has taken a little time to get right too

This going to be all for a few days as its my Birthday tomorrow (37th) and we are going away for a long weekend

Thanks Alan

Nothing planned for today, but long weekend planned away with SWMBO

Just to give you an idea of the lighting, here is todays doodles, the page on the right is basically the lighting kit I purchased and then the page on the left is me expanding it.

I know its a very basic circuit diagram but you get the idea, the LEDs are the little squareish things

You're certainly not hanging around with this one Dave... Coming together very nicely indeed....

Regards

Alan

All those little bits make her come together nicely, great work there

Some lovely detail going into this kit Dave, looks fantastic

Steve

Thanks Steve and Robin

Despite how small and fiddly the parts are it has been a joy to put together so far. The lighting of course is where it will slow down and all my learning of new skills is going

Thanks for your comments Mick, sorry just seen it , I really hope the lighting works as planned too Its all new to me so fingers crossed

A bit of work on the cockpit yesterday and today, this will be my last post on any of my builds for 2 weeks as fly off to Turkey Friday

I applied a coat of Alclad Hi Gloss to seal the decals, actually sprayed the front part as well, its nice and shiny at the moment Not sure if you can see but there is a plastic part from the original cockpit to finsih off the photoetch as it looked rubbish with out it. Lots of cutting and sanding required to get it to fit, still needs some filler though.



The parts I had to customise are Parts G4 & G12 in step one of the instructions



Rear of the cockpit tunnel greebles added as well as a test fit of the cockpit



Close up of the cockpit back wall unlit



Close up of the cockpit back wall lit, not the best picture but I was doing it in low light and dont have a tripod, I was also trying to hold a small torch stuck in the cockpit tube at the same time



Made a start on cockpit seats



Other parts worked on, gun turret interior primed, Radar dish painted in Empire Strikes Back Shade which is also the same colour as the DeAg Millennium Falcon and some other bits and pops for my DeAg Falcon primed.

I had a couple of hours spare so thought I would start trying to work out how I was going to mount the landing lights and sort the spacing out.

I wanted the lights to be recessed slightly to be a more accurate but was struggling with how to do it, these 8mm LEDS are pretty big . started off trying to file on of them down but as much as I tried I just couldnt get it polished back up enough afterwards so scrapped that idea.

I then toyed with making a small light box to mount the LED in, and spent some time working out the spacing.

In the end I just cut several squares of 1mm plasticard into square and glued them all into a tower. Once dry I used a drill to put an 8mm hole through. I liked how this looked and would be very easy to reproduce for the others as well as easy to stick down.

I will use this same method for the 3mm smaller landing lights although I still need to leave the LED on for a while and check for heat build up, I'm sure it will be fine but I want to make sure before I start sticking things in.


8mm holes drilled in kit



Prototype LED holder, will make the final one slightly wider



The result, very happy with how it looks

Thanks Dan

Since my first test proved successful I have gone ahead and drilled out the holes for all the landing lights now, with the exception of the landing struts lights.

Here is my reference photo



I think I need to increase the size of the landing lights at the end of the mandibles from 3mm to 5mm to better match the photo above.



I have encountered a problem with the 6 3mm LEDS at the bottom of this picture, 3 on each side. The landing lights should be recessed and not poking out which is how I want them also, however once the engine light box is in these 6 LEDS only just have enough room if they are sticking out the holes so I have a dilema now;

After racking my brain for quite some time I have ordered some 3mm fibre optic cable to see if I can get enough of a curve to fit in but then also if it produces enough light

Or the other option is to stick with the LEDs and just have those 6 sticking out with the rest recessed.

You can also see in this photo where the 18v power supply will plug in