Pt. 10 The Navigation Console

So I've already painted the navigation console.  Had to use my hobby magnifying glass to paint it.

And here you have a size reference to see how small I've been having to paint.

 


Now that little black square in the center, there is actually some type of lever that should be in there that's in the movie.

So I've taken a very small piece of wire, cut all of the insulation off except for a little tiny piece.

I then painted it silver...

And placed it in the center of the black square for a switch.

 Now there's a little tiny piece with a red dot that is supposed to be placed over the little square in the upper right.  This piece is supposed to represent a red light.  Not for me.  Found a 2mm LED that should do the trick.

So I drill out the console for the LED.

 Next step is to drill the little red dot of the little piece.  WELLLLL, that didn't go so well.  The piece, being so small, while holding it with tweezers and starting to drill just flew away, lost forever.  I have a plan, but I'll deal with that later.

For now, it's on to drilling holes for the fiber optics.

And there we have it.  All drilled out with 45 holes for 45 fibers.

And with the 45 fibers run into it.  

Time to attach the red LED.

And there we have the console so far.

Now for that little piece that flew away.  My plan is to glue several pieces of styrene together....

Drill out a hole the correct diameter....

Then mask off and cut around the hole for the correct size of the piece.

And there we have it.  A new piece with the hole already in it.  You can see by the size why it flew off when I started drilling.

BUT, another problem happened when drilling the holes for the fibers.  At the bottom of the console is a binocular looking thing that should have blue light in it, which can be seen below.

Well, upon trying to drill out the center of those, because they are so small, the diameter of the fiber is to close to the diameter of the binocular, and left no real outer area.  Basically, they got ripped off by the drill.   Ugh!!!

So here's my idea for this.  I used some shrink tubing for covering soldered wires.  They're nice and round and the right diameter.

I can actually get 3 fibers inside the tubes. This is useful, because the actual binocular unit in the movie just has a blue glow because the light source is down inside.  So because 3 fibers emit more light, I can pull them down inside the tube more and just get the light emitting, rather than the source.

Painted the shrink tube silver and glued to the console.

And the console back in the hall set.   And you can see it's more of just a blue glow in the center rather than a harsh light.

That's a lot of fibers.

That about does it for now and pack 2 of parts.   I have been notified that my next set of parts has shipped, so I'm expecting them sometime this week, which will give me more pieces for this hall interior and some final touches for the cockpit.

MORE TO COME.....

Pt. 9 Hall seat and bed area

So it's on to the hall interior of the Falcon.  So much to do, don't know where to start.  First thing I notice is the entrance wall is missing some detail.  If you notice the picture below from the film, there are actually some cutouts in the wall housing various cables and hoses.  Mine must have this as well.

So we start with the bare wall.

I need to mask of the area where my cutouts will be going

And do a rough drawing of how they will look.

I then start by drilling holes around the inside so I have a place to start cutting and filing from.

Time to start cutting and filing down smooth.

Looking pretty good.   Doesn't need to be absolutely perfect, because it will be hidden by trim.

Now it's time to prime all of the hall pieces so I can get painting.

 

 But first,  if you'll notice again in the photo above from the film, there is also a silver trim around the cutouts. So using some .010mm styrene, I'm going to cut out some trimming for the cutouts.

Then paint them silver.

 And apply to the wall.   Now that is looking pretty good.

I've decided to also create a box housing to go behind to put the wires in for hoses and tubing.  I may also put some very tiny model bits in there as well to look hi tech.

So here's my box created from the .010 mm styrene

Painted black...

And then placed behind the cutout for test fitting.  No permanent installation until I do wires and stuff inside.

Now it's on to the seating area.   I start out by putting together the bed.

The bed then fits inside the seating console.

Now, if you'll notice in the movie shot below, there's a light just above the seat and below the bed. 

The model does come with a piece that is supposed to be painted and look like a light.  Most people paint the ends white and the center rod gray.

Come on, if you're following my blog, you know by now that that's not good enough.  Everything needs to work where possible.  So I've taken 2-  3mm LED bulbs and soldered them together.  I've filed down the rounded ends and made them flat.  You can see in the movie photo above the ends are flat, not round like the piece above.

I then airbrushed the bulbs white, so they don't look like LED bulbs.  And when not on, it'll give a little illusion that they're lights.

Just a tad bigger than the actual piece that comes with the kit.  I'll make it work.

Step 2 was figuring out what to do in the area between the bulbs.   I thought I'd try to cut a little piece of a stirring straw and wrap it around.

Once wrapped, glued and painted, it doesn't look to bad.  Especially when lit.

 Next step is the bed area.  Putty is needed to fill the seams from the 2 pieces.

Primed...

And painted.  I don't really like the way the photos are coming out of this paint.  To the eye it's very cool looking.  It's a metallic gray.  Has more of a metallic sheen to it than the speckled look from the photo.

Then painting the seating console.  The white and blue are actually buttons.  The bigger round ones that are red and yellow are lights.  I've painted these for now, but come on, you know.  They're getting replaced with fibers.

So now time to drill out some holes so I can do a cutout for the LED's to fit in place.

It barely fits in the cutout I did, but it's enough and looks clean once in.

Then of course, running fiber optics to the seating console.

 But you don't get to see it lit yet.

To finish off this area, I need to do the seat.

I've primed and puttied the seat.  The model comes with cushions to completely wrap from end to end, but in the movie, the seat back stops at the edge of the bed area and then is just a bench.  So I've puttied in the holes for the seat back and will level it out as in the films.

Once sanded, I paint the seat

And now for the big test fit and lighting.  Looking pretty good I must say.

STAY TUNED.  MORE TO FOLLOW SOON WITH THE NAVIGATION CONSOLE.