Author Topic: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)  (Read 18540 times)

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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #30 on: 16 Jul , 2016, 15:49 »

July Updates - 2016


Great Apologies for the long delays... Many many issues going on at the moment including some difficulties with the Drydock. More specifically the Chase lighting for the hanger decks. I've been trying to use some optical fibers I had lying around, which would have made for some great lighting effects but, alas, the fibers were way too brittle for the complex bending that needed to be done in the limited space between the hanger deck and the modules. After the fibers snapped on more than one occasion I needed to take a little breather before I pulled all of my hair out. I needed to get a more durable optical fiber, which I did. I found several sizes that were relatively in-expensive. I used a 1mm thick optic fiber for the chase lighting effect. I bought 500' of it hoping that will be more than enough. I still had some difficulty even with the thicker fibers, but I figures out a few different ways to bend them so they wont snap as easily. I first bundled the fibers according to their lighting pattern, then I put those fibers into a styrene sleeve. This would hold all of the fibers together so I can fish them through all of the holes that are on the landing deck. After that I could connect them to their respective LEDs and run them in their proper sequence. I also added some RED LED lighting for a warning track for the shuttles that are in standby for launching on the pad. I still need to straighten out some of the fibers, but the lighting effect is in place and working. Now I can continue on to the smaller hangers. I've also started painting up the Shuttles that will be seen inside the larger hanger. Some of them were cast in clear resin so I can have a lighting effect inside a few of them as well. Well, that's it for now. I was able to get passed this massive hurtle, so now I should be able to get back to my stride once again. There are 17 new pics in the JULY 2016 Updates page and I will try to get a video of the chase lighting effect in place. Thank you again for your patience and I post more next month. Thanks everyone!

Mark
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« Last Edit: 09 Jul , 2017, 08:19 by NemVia »
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #31 on: 17 Jul , 2016, 11:02 »
Here is the video for the chase lighting effects.
https://youtu.be/TUxS4FTIoZU
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Offline SG

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #32 on: 20 Jul , 2016, 02:43 »
Amazing work. You "set phasers to stunning"! ;D

Offline Rokket

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #33 on: 31 Jul , 2016, 01:57 »
SG has said it all!
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #34 on: 07 Oct , 2016, 20:31 »

Thank you, my friends! Appreciate the comments!



October Updates - 2016
Hey Everyone! No I didn't fall off the grid, I've just been extremely busy these past few months. I'm still working on the Drydock, but what I accomplished during August and September was very minimal and not worth the update. But I have a significant update and I hope you'll like it.
First off, I am still working on the lighting effects for the hanger bays. I've built some light sockets for the fiber optic effects, I've also been working on the shuttle craft that will be seen inside the open end hanger bay. They are all painted up and just need decals. I should be able to get those done by the next update. 4 of the shuttles will have some sort of lighting effect in them.
Next I took on the challenge of wiring together two sets of 60 LEDs for the work light Arrays. The soldering was very delicate and tricky. I needed to solder the wires as close to the LEDs as possible because there is a limited amount of space in the work light housing. I could have used the strip LEDs but they don't have the shape I wanted for the actual light fixtures. After getting them all soldered together I took a few lighting test pics which came out really good.
Next I started building the housing for the work lights. These are scratch built pieces with some ribbing details on the backside of the housing. I made these so they would slide over the back of the lighting array. There are some touch-ups and puttying to do but they are finished.
Also in the scratch build department I needed to build the vertical boom arm pivots. This piece will slide into the Boom arm turrets and support the boom arms for the work cranes and work lights. I made a master to be molded with silicon rubber. I then cast 7 of these pieces for the turrets. I also drilled holes into the vertical pivot so I can add the boom arms and wiring.
Lastly I was able to scratch build the boom arms. I used some Plastrux tubing for the main part of the arm. I had to taper one end and lathe the other so it will have some interesting details. I also added some other details. Pieces that I call fins, as well as adding some eyelettes to the boom arms to support some thin rod pieces that come out of the vertical pivot. I don't know what their function is but it makes for interesting details. I managed to complete the two work light booms and assemble the arrays to the boom assembly. Now I need to work on the turret mounts so that all of the work cranes can be connected to the panel frames in some manner.
There are 27 new pics in the October updates - 2016 page if you would like to see how the building process went. Well, that's all for this month. Next month I should most of these items all painted up. See you then.
Mark
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« Last Edit: 09 Jul , 2017, 08:20 by NemVia »
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #35 on: 31 Oct , 2016, 12:16 »

November Updates - 2016
For this month's update I've finished wiring all of the turrets with their lighting effects. I've fed the wires through the bottom section of the turret and through a styrene tube at the back of the base of the turret. This makes it look more the filming miniature versions. After getting this all set up and adding the fiber optic strands to each of the work booms I've also been working on the painting of the Work booms as well as the booms for the Work Light Array. There are 3-4 different colors used on these pieces. The main color was and off Yellow which somewhat resembles the color of our modern day work cranes. There are also gray and rust color stripes added as well as some military green. They were sprayed in layers, masked and then the next color was added. The final color was the yellow. They will need some touch ups to cover up some small pot holes created by the resin-molding process.
On the 1/350 scale dock I was not sure how I would mount these turrets to the dock because at that time there were no good pictures of the dock available. What you saw on the screen was all I could go by. But having seen the filming miniature in person I now know what to do to mount these pieces to the 1/260 scale dock.
There are some specialized mounting brackets that hold the turrets into place, so I'm trying to replicate them as best as I can using styrene. So far they are turning out okay and they look like they'll be able to support the weight of the turrets, especially the light arrays. I should have them all painted up by the next updates. There are 20 new pics under the November Updates - 2016 page. Enjoy and feel free to comment. Thanks everyone. See you next update!
Mark
 
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« Last Edit: 09 Jul , 2017, 08:20 by NemVia »
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #36 on: 01 Feb , 2017, 16:46 »
February Updates - 2017
SO WHAT HAPPENED TO DECEMBER AND JANUARY? ??? ??? ?
Uh..... I dunno..... Just had to take a break. Been busy with work family and a multitude of other things...... BUUUUUUUUUT! I'm ready to get moving again.
The pics are loaded up on the February Updates - 2017 Page.
 Okay, so I really didn't get a whole lot done the last couple of months, But I did manage to work on a few things. The mounting clamps for all of the work booms are now complete and I mad the pincers for the ends of the booms. I kind of improvised on these because I couldn't see any functional need to the Drydocks end pieces as seen in the movie. I will be making alternate pieces that mimic TMP end pieces so they will be interchangeable. They will just slip onto the ends of the booms. Anyway, the booms were cut to the same length when I first made them and I really can't finish them until I get the Enterprise in place. Then the booms will be cut to the appropriate lengths and the end pieces will be put on. I will also cut the optic fiber to be flush with the end of the boom.
Back to the turret clamps. I have these mounted on the bottoms of the swivel shaft and they are painted up to match the panel frames.  I've also started to do some re-wiring on the Enterprise Deflector dish. my client wanted the ramp-up, ramp-down lighting effects added in so I need to run a few more wires through the dorsal. I've also replaced the LED in the dish reflector with a dual color LED. I should have this wired up by next update.
In other areas, I'm starting to apply the decals for all of the shuttles that will go in the Aft Hanger bay. I also needed to take out some of the wiring for the thrusters on the Enterprise model to make room for the Gang way on the Dock. There's just too much packed into it and it might cause problems later on. I've also mounted the Enterprise onto the dock but I'm afraid the ship might just weight too much for the bracket, so I might have to stabilize the ship with some wires. .013mm I think is what I bought.
I know this wasn't much of an update, but I should be back on track during this month. Thank you everyone for your patience. I know this is a long project, but please bear with me and you WILL see it complete. Ahh yes I love that word complete. So check out the pics, let me know what you think and I will see you next month. Take care everyone.
Mark.
 
 
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Offline Rokket

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #37 on: 04 Feb , 2017, 20:58 »
great detail in those clamps! This IS a mighty big project!
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #38 on: 23 Mar , 2017, 14:24 »
Just in case you are trying to get to my website, I had to update my link:

New weblink:
http://www.nemvia.net Please disregard anything with Nemvia.com. I'll explain later.
Mark
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #39 on: 04 Jul , 2017, 11:23 »
July Updates - 2017
Hey Everyone! My apologies to all for the big delay. As you may have noticed my website was hacked and my NemVia.com version of my is no longer functioning for my website. I have had to update my site to NemVia.net and try to clean up as much of the garbage that the hackers have caused and try to get things back in order as best as I could. I've had a few setbacks with the Drydock build, sick relatives and other problems have caused further delays. Although I do have a small update for this month I think you'll find some of it interesting.
I became discouraged when I found out that I made a mis-calculation with my armature for the ship. This armature was to keep the ship level inside the dock and also allow it to appear to be floating while inside the dock. I poured over ways to correct this problem including some extremely thin steel fishing line that would hold the engines level with the dock.  I decided to do what I did with my 1/350 scale dock armature and just bend the heck out of the thing until it help the ship upright and level the way I wanted it to.
Using a pair of pipe wrenches, I found the point where the armature meets the connection rod and pushing in opposite directions I twisted the armature enough to pre-load the tension in order to hold the weight of the ship in place. I have a pic of how I was able to do this in the July Updates - 2017 page. It took me a couple of tries, but I finally got the ship to appear level inside the dock. She FLOATS! I exclaimed! Anyway that was a huge hurtle to get past. Now I can finish the wiring for the main deflector dish and torpedo launchers and finally seal off the saucer section and get ready to add the port side panel frames into  place.
In other areas I had to replace the hanger deck on the aft side of the Dock. Some of the fiber optics were not lining up the way I wanted to so I redid the entire deck. It looks much better now and I have all of the chase lighting done for the entire aft end of the modules. The small hangers have the chase lighting heading into the deck whereas the larger hanger has the lighting running in take-off mode with a few shuttles in position for launch. I have 7 new pics and 4 new videos of the chase lighting effects in this month's updates I should be able to get more done in the upcoming month. Once again I apologize for the long delays. Hang in there and I'll get this thing done soon. Thanks for your patience and keep checking for more updates.
Mark
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #40 on: 15 Jul , 2017, 12:48 »
July Updates - 2017 - Supplemental...
Okay, I usually don't jump ahead of my posts here, but I just had to add this to the blog.... I recently purchased a 80cm motorized camera dolly and I wanted to use it for several special photography effects on the side. But most importantly, when I finished the drydock build I wanted to make a duplicate flyby movie that would match ST:TMP's drydock flyby. I made a few passes with the model in it's unfinished state to get an idea of what I can do for a final project for this build. The results of the tests came out very good even though the lighting was not corrected the models are incomplete, none of the effects lighting is operating and there is no space background. But if you could just ignore all of that and take a look at the video's potential, you might understand why I had to do an early posting of this video. Now I really can't wait to finish this project. Take a look at the test video.  https://youtu.be/n4EtoOLRdgg
See you in a few weeks
Mark
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #41 on: 31 Jul , 2017, 19:41 »

August Updates - 2017
This has been an eventful month. Adding the Test video of the Enterprise flyby to my library has given me a little extra motivation. I want to thank all of you who have checked out the video on youtube.  I am looking forward to making my own ST:TMP version of the flyby when I'm finished, shot for shot. Also I'm planning on making an additional version that would include portions of the Enterprise and Drydock  that were not shown in TMP. Any ideas? Let me know.
In this month's update I've been concentrating on getting all of the wiring done for all of the hanger bays on both the front and aft sides of the dock. I finally was able to hook up all of the chase lighting on all of the hangers as well as their overhead lighting. I wanted to have the overhead lighting on the hangers rather than the rear walls glowing to make the modules appear more like a gigantic space warehouse for supplying and/or repairing any starship that might pull into this humungous dock for repair/refit/resupply.  This is also why I wanted everyone to see inside at least one of the hangers. If I didn't need the support framework on the inside of the modules to hold the model up, I would have made the hanger even deeper into the model. But space was limited. But, I've permanently added the shuttles into the hanger deck and at least four of them are lit. I will be adding crewmembers as well as work bees and cargo containers to add depth of scale to the dock. I also added some red LEDs to the front hanger as seen in TMP. I would guess that the RED lights would be a warning to small craft that it is not safe to enter the dock at this point. That is why on the open hanger on the aft side I'm using green LEDs to indicate it is safe for departure or arrival onto the hanger. The chase lighting on the open hanger is heading outward indicating clearance for launch.
I've also added the top f the module to port side of the dock in one of the pictures. I wanted to make sure it seated the right way and would not interfere with any of the wiring and optical fibers. It fits very snug and can be removed to access the lighting and wiring.
Getting back to the Enterprise, I am adding some super strong magnets to a few parts of the ship. Mainly the saucer and the main deflector dish housing. This will also allow access to some of the wiring. I will be finishing that wiring up as well as for the photon torpedo launchers. There are a few more small details I have to add to the ship and then do another wiring test before I seal everything up. I can then add the Enterprise permanently to the dock structure and wire it into place. After that I can begin adding the port side panel frame assembly. Keep checking for the updates. I can actually see an end coming for this build. FINALLY! Then I can look forward to making some nice HERO shots as well as the long awaited FLYBY Video. Exciting times!
Well that's it for this update. Enjoy the pics in the August Updates 2017 page. Talk to you in a month or so.
Mark
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #42 on: 17 Sep , 2017, 07:25 »
September Updates - 2017
Hi Everyone. I've been making a little more progress with the dock build. I've added some magnets to the engineering section to hole the Deflector dish assembly in place. This will make the Housing removable in case someone needs to get to some of the engineering electronics. I've also added the wiring and LEDs for both the Deflector Ramp on/Ramp off effects as well as adding the Photon torpedo firing effects to the launching tubes. I still need to fix a few of the light leeks but the effect look very nice. I've added a small video for those who would like to view the effects. I've also built some lighting housing for the running lights that are seen on the drydock mainly on the front end. I was having trouble figuring out how I was going to wire these until I found some speaker coil wire which is extremely thin. Once it's painted up it will be difficult to see on the model. I've added 8 pics to the September 2017 page... I've also added a new short video with the Deflector dish  and Photon Torpedo lighting tests. By the next updates I will have the Shuttle bay details added to the outside of the hanger deck and will begin to permanently wire all of the electronics to the circuit boards that are inside the Starboard side overhead modules. See you next update.
Mark
 

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Offline Rokket

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #43 on: 11 Oct , 2017, 15:32 »
again, just WOW!
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Offline NemVia

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Re: 1/260 ST:TMP Drydock Build (WIP)
« Reply #44 on: 01 Jan , 2018, 14:04 »


January Updates - 2018
Hello everyone! My apologies for the delays. I really have been working on my build, but Life just keeps getting in the way of my progress. Hopefully things will be a little better now that my peak season at work has calmed down.
For my project updates I have cast resin pieces for the outside details of the hanger bay lighting effects. I had to make the pieces transparent so you can see the actual lighting effects. I'm in the process of opaqueing the castings to prevent light leaks.
 
I was asked by my client to put some different lighting into the saucer section of the ship. So, I pulled all of the fluorescent lighting and ballasts out and I replaced them with LED lighting strips. This was a very good idea because the lighting will have a longer lifetime in the model. I also put some white styrene strips into the saucer sections behind the viewports to reflect the lighting better. I was originally going to insert some pictures of the corridors onto the strips but there was not enough depth to the pictures. So, I decided to do what I was originally going to do with the corridors and that was to build 3D versions of them. I built one master of the corridor section and made molds so that I could cast as many replicas as needed. I cast them in clear resin so that I could have the lower panels of the corridors lit as seen in the movies. After I cast all of the pieces I masked off all of the light panels. I then sprayed the first color which was FLAT WHITE. This would help reflect some of the lighting to make it appear more even. I then sprayed them FLAT BLACK to hide any light leaks. Next I sprayed them a medium BLUE/GRAY for the tops and bottoms of the corridors. Finally I hand panted the rest of the panels ALUMINUM, for the monochromatic look. After this I sprayed some flat pieces of styrene FLAT RED and then cut several pieces of them, all the same length, to use as the doors to the crews quarters. After all of this was done I then placed all of the finished corridors into an oven at 170F for ten minutes. This allowed the styrene to be pliable and I could then bend them into the shape of the outer rim of the saucer., Next I had to use a belt sander to sand down the tops and bottoms of the corridors to get rid of both the burrs from the casting process and to make them fit into the saucer. I aligned the corridors so they could be seen through the viewports.
Since the back sides of the castings were not painted, I added the LED strips to the backs of each of the corridor strips. Then I put electrical tape over the backs of the strips to prevent too much light from shining back into the model and ruining other lighting effects in the saucer.  It was a lot of work, but worth the effort to give the corridors a little more 3D depth to them when looking through the viewports.  To further help with the light leaks I found these foam rubber sheets at a hobby store and cut them into long strips and cemented them all along the perimeter of the upper saucer piece. This should help block light from showing through the seams of the upper and lower saucer pieces.
I have 16 New pics which can be viewed in the Members Gallery page under the January updates – 2018 album.
I can now finally seal up the saucer and get ready to permanently add the Enterprise into it’s new home in the Dock. Again, thanks for your patience with this build and I apologize for the long wait for this update. Hopefully I can now get this build finished. See you next update.


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« Last Edit: 03 Jan , 2018, 18:33 by NemVia »
...once it's activated, there's no way to stop it! - Scotty - Dma