Thanks for the comments. I just got notification that my photo etch flooring has shipped. So hopefully this week, I'll get to put in the real floor. Until now, it's just been a print out I did in photoshop. So this should also be a game changer, since I plan on having one service hatch open, and plan on lighting it as well.

I pre-ordered directly from Paragrafix. I just saw on his Facebook page that he fulfilled the pre-orders and most wholesale orders, so he may not have gotten enough in stock on the first run. Paul is pretty cool though. I've never dealt with Paragrafix until this order, but if you email him he'll respond and let you know what's up pretty quick.

[quote=colson]Thanks guys. The fiber optics are actually very cheap. I got them on Ebay. 175 ft of various colored .25mm fiber optics WITH and LED illuminator for $10.99. Here's a link. If this auction is done, just look at the seller. He's got tons of fiber optics. For me I got them in 2 days since I'm local. But anywhere in the states should be really quick.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/...3D2%26sd%3D371303479438[/quote]

AM also endorsing this guy for the fiber optics good deals and very quick to ship.

That looks amazing. I'm so doing this with mine.

Minor update on my photo etch hold flooring. So I just primed and painted the floor.









Then did some weathering on it, cut out some i-beams and put it in place to check it out.










I also did a little test with some EL Wire to light up below. While the grate is on the lower hatch, it is cut out below and has light as well which can be slightly seen through the grate.







Again, this is all just a test fitting at this point and a test of lighting. I'm really liking the way the photo etch floor looks.

I've been painting my entire hold with a light airbrush coat of Metallic Gray from Tamiya over gray Tamiya primer. Then black wash and Tamiya pastels for weathering. Mostly rust, sand and a little soot from the pastels. I'm hoping to put the entire hold together this weekend for another test fit. I'm still working on other details in the hold, so it'll still be a while before it's truly complete.

With the floor etch, did you prime both sides before gluing it to the hold floor, or did you only do the top? I haven't worked with PE really, so I'm not sure of the optimal order of operations.
I was thinking of gluing it down, then priming the whole floor at once.

Thoughts?

I got sidetracked by working on a wall of the hold (photos later), but I did glue in the EL wire for my hold floor and painted the i-beams.

I also decided to try something. There's nothing beneath the hatch but empty space, or I assume black when assembled. So I grabbed a still shot of when Solo is in the hatch during the asteroid field chase. I erased Solo and shrank it down to scale with the model. Then printed it out on presentation paper and put underneath. I think it adds some nice depth.






Anyway, back to the EL wire. I decided to hot glue the wire in place, which worked out pretty well.








And the final result...






Looking at the film, the light in the hatch is slightly colored, though more towards a green tint. But I think it looks pretty nice. And you can see it illuminate beneath the closed hatch as well.

So I also did some work on the opposite wall that I haven't touched yet. Started out by cutting out the missing holes in the wall.

















And I cut out of styrene the little frames to go around the curved cut outs.







I've also noticed how the little passageway to the left of the corridor will be black behind it. There's nothing there. So I grabbed a still from Empire where the passage was unobstructed, and printed it out on presentation paper and placed behind. Looks pretty decent.










I then wanted to make the little light. I cut out a piece of plastic form the MPC Millenium Falcon that was the correct shape roughly and size. I then routed out the inside of the plastic piece.









The light has 3 little stripes on it. There's pretty much no way I'm going to paint a clean line that thin, so I took very thin wire, painted it black, then laid across the light and glued it down. Lookin pretty good.









An LED will fit in nicely.





Then cut out a hole in the wall for the LED.










I then did more detail for the wall. I used a piece of wire I painted gray to do the curved area on the right.














I also decided to use the corridor cover from the photo etch.








I then had to cut out little styrene strips to put in the wall to hold the photo etch.







I then added some wire around the corridor and placed on the photo etch piece.








Add more wires and cables to the wall...







And there you have it with a working LED. I still need to add more detail to the right of my wall cutout, but that will come later.

I'm using Tamiya gray primer, then doing a light airbrush coating of Tamiya Metallic Gray.