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The gun tips were modified to aim slightly inwards (they are perfectly straight forward on
the kit) and some strips of Evergreen close up the underside of the baffles, making them appear solid (otherwise, you can see into the part from below).
As far as painting, I generally darkened
the colors in the instructions as they seemed a bit light to me. An overall coat of dark green, then about a half dozen other greens, lighter, darker, different tones. Looking back, the
instructions were more accurate than I thought. The red wing pattern on the bottom was hand painted, the baffles were done in lighter and darker steel tones.
Details were picked out in
contrasting greens, grays and browns. A dusting of rust color went over the ship with an airbrush, and finally a wash with silver to give the panel edges that "chipped" look.
I also
decided to get into a modest but advanced bit of lighting on my KBOP. I have a flashing LED (pre-manufactured to flash) in the torpedo tube. Under the body in the "shoulders" area, are
two rectangular LED's, permanently lit. The engine is where I got fancy. I used a project for and LED flasher out of a Radio Shack project book. I used the faster flashing speed on the circuit so
that the LED's in the engine have a strobing effect, re-creating the engine effect seen in Star Trek III:The Search For Spock.
All these LED's are in turn wired to a single 1/8" female audio
jack on the bottom of the kit. This mates to the male counterpart on top of the display stand - a plastic picture
frame box with a piece of Evergreen tubing. The wiring runs down through the tubing, all connections are inside the box. The stand is wired so that it can run by batteries under normal conditions. For shows and extended times of display, a second female audio jack accepts a power adapter. The jack is wired to cut off the batteries when the adapter is plugged in (just like anything else you have that switches from one power source to the other). The nameplate is dry transfer lettering on a strip of brass, attached to the stand with double stick tape.
Send your comments to John
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