I’ve always wanted to light a Star Trek starship and I recently acquired a Klingon Bird of Prey and decided I should try to light it. However, I have no experience lighting any model, or any thing for that matter. Anything from tips or full instructions is welcome.
The most common technqiues used on SF models are:
1.) Fiber optics: this involves drilling holes into the model and running the fibers from the lightsource to the holes.
There are some Fiber optic Kits on the market that should contain everything you need.
2.) Light bulbs and LED’s: Those can be hooked up to wiring circuits to provide things like flashing lights, running lights, strobe effects, etc.
3.) Light sheets: This is a sheet that lights up evenly and is often used for things like the engine on the Millenium falcon, warp nacelles, or similar.
Takes soldering, care, pricey and can be hard to get.
3.) El-Wire: This is looks similar to fiber-optic but instead of transfering the light from end to end the whole fiber glows like a neon tube. Can be had from a variety of sources.
Different applications will require either one of the above. There are a few other techniques available, but I would not recommend them to an in-experienced modeler.
The Nov 2003 issue covers this topic on this model. Here is a link to this online article: http://www.finescale.com/fsm/html/issues/2003/2003_11_issue.asp
Also I recently finished this model (unlighted). Be prepared for big time seam filling. Good Luck.
Welcome to the forum Trekkie. Good luck on your project.
mark956
Tell me more about this “El-wire”. this sounds like the perfect way to illuminate the “flux capacitor” on my Delorean Time Machine. I have drilled the fibre optic sized holes but like you said the FO only light on the tips.
Not a problem, here is a link to their site.
You will need to shop around a bit for the best price and accesories, over here we buy them in fixed length section(connectors attached) that we can couple and pre-wired power sources.
Best of luck with ligthing your Kit.