Daniel Bram’s Lighted Voyager

This was the first of my Voyager line. It’s the original release model so cutting open the windows was tricky. First I punched out all the lit windows with a hammer and screwdriver. In order to make the windows the right shape of the windows (long oval not wide rectangles) I covered all openings and poured liquid polyester into the holes I created. I then masked the little oval shapes with latex before painting. Lighting the deflector dish was tricky since the transparency of the parts are reversed (you know the problem) so I made a cast of the deflector dish from latex and cast it with transparent resin.

I used small (about 1 1/2 Inch) fluorescent lights I took apart from some cheap night-light (the ones with all the spelling mistakes on the back). and installed 4 in total – in the saucer, secondary hull, and two blue ones of the nacelles.

I used an enamel aerosol spray fro the local hardware shop for the hull base color. The interior was covered with black and then a white layer for a more uniform distribution of light.

in order to create the effect of engines/deflector on/off, I painted a thin layer of copper over those transparent parts which, upon lighting, shine through it make the color invisible.

The dark windows, special detailing, and escape hatch numbering were painted using a black gel pen. The sensor array detailing was created by drybrushing it with aluminum. and adding some copper and red areas.

The model is mounted on a copper pipe painted black for the electricity to get to the ship, and since the Starfleet emblem was too small for this heavy model I used the one from my Enterprise-E kit.

Total buildup time: Approx 2.5 Weeks

Daniel Bram