Ethan Shalev’s Voyager
This is Revells’ original release of the Voyager, not the special edition. Once I took a look at the model and its size, I decided it had to be lit. The process of lighting it included a lot of trial and error, which I’ll spare from you. Here’s how the model was built:
Warp engines:
For the warp engines, I looked for a very small fluorescent bulb. I wasn’t going to order those “toothpick size” bulbs online, because I was afraid of international shipping problems. I ended up finding a fluorescent night light, that was just the right size. These night lights were available in white, blue, green and several other colors. I went for the white one, so I can properly light the warp engine, the Bussard collector, and the green/ red formation lights.
I took the hinges that connect the engines to the body and cut them in the middle, and glues it to the engines, leaving a few millimeters in the middle for the wires to pass. When test lighting it, I found that light leaked into the pylons. I decided to take advantage of this: I lit the impulse engines, by cutting them out and filling them with scotch tape painted clear red. I lined the parts with aluminum foil in order to make the best of the light.
Main hull:
The mail hull was also lit with the same fluorescent night light bulbs, but I first had to open up the windows. I selected windows at random (a little more then half of them), and with a micro drill, I made as many holes in each one as I could. This would mean approximately 6 holes per window. And for over one hundred windows, this job took quite some time. After drilling through the windows, I took a #11 exacto blade, and cut out the remaining plastic. Once this was done, I had the saucer and engineering hull full of holes.
In order to fill these holes, I used liquid Polyester. I’d cover the windows from the outside with scotch tape, and then apply a drop of the polyester using a toothpick. I did this one area at a time, or the liquid would leak all over. After allowing the polyester to harden for a day at least, I removed the scotch tape. On a few windows, air bubbles surfaces toward the outer side. These don’t look good, but I didn’t bother filling them, since they’re hardly noticeable.
In order to get a good lighting effect, I painted the hull from the inside several layers of black, and over that, a Gloss white. I tried any other possibility (silver, flat white, etc.), and found this to be the best. I then placed the bulbs in the saucer section and engineering hull, and had them raised to the middle of them using plastic tubes I made from stuff around the house.
Deflector Dish:
The deflector dish was brilliantly cast in solid styrene, and the brownish “antenna” was made clear. I had to make the blue part transparent, and this was probably the greatest challenge I faces with this model.
I used liquid latex as a mold for this part, by pouring a millimeter or so of it at a time into the deflector. Once I had a mold that covered the deflector to the top, I removed it from the original piece, to reveal a perfect negative of the original part. I then placed the latex mold in a deep container, and surrounded it with play-doe. I then poured liquid polyester over this, and let it dry for several days. Once it dried, it looked just like the original part, only it was transparent. The polyester became a little opaque, but once I used a clear blue paint over it from both sides, it remained perfectly clear. I then cut the original deflector out of it’s housing (the same part on the model) and glued the one I made in it’s place.
The base and mounting the model:
I wanted to keep the model detachable from it’s base, and I was not going to use the base that came with the model, since it looked too plain for me. For the base I used a hollow block of wood with a hole in it’s center, which I bought in an art shop, as a make-it-yourself clock. I connected to this a pipe I bough it the same store (originally a wand chime). In order to attach the two, I inserted a nail through the holes in the top of the wind chime where the string is meant to go, and placed it in a small cup of liquid polyester. (this stuff is so versatile!)
Once this hardened, I glued it to the wooden base. On it’s other end, I connected an earphone jack, which would hold the model in place and lead the power into it. In the base, I also put a holder for two AA batteries, and for an external power supply.
Inside the model, I made a new hole for the female jack (would that be Jill?), since I didn’t like where the original one was. In order to hold this jack in place, I used glue, spare sprue, and a lighter. It didn’t sit well until I set the area on fire, and melted the mess into a heap of hard goo. Since the base was now a little further back, I had to rebalance the model. I did this with a small amount of play-do, stuffed in the shuttle bay. This also helped block light leaks in that area.
General wiring:
Once I had all the separate parts assembled, I soldered the wires together, in serial, because parallel wiring only got one bulb lit at a time. Each of the four bulbs I used was a 1 watt bulb, and I used a 5 watt power drive, that came as part of a flash light, in Radio Shack. I glued the power drive to the saucer section, and had the wires run from there to the rest of the ship.
The only lights not coming from fluorescent bulbs, are the two formation lights near the shuttle bay. I couldn’t get the light there, so I used red and green LEDs for these.
Painting:
For the over all color, I used a gray spray can, since I don’t have an air brush. Prior to painting, I had to cover all the windows and other clear parts. I did this using the liquid latex, applied with a thin paint brush. I sprayed two or three coats, until I got a nice even finish. All the details were painted by hand using a mix of tan, red, yellow and some military brown. I didn’t go for the studio model look or the “As seen on TV” look either. I was going for something close to these, but that looked good without being too anal about it.
After I finished the painting, I covered the model with a coat of flat gloss. Decals were then applied, and over them- another layer of finish, and that was it.
Ethan Shalev
