“But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters! “

My apologies, dear readers, for the lengthy break in the narrative. But sometimes real life gets in the way of one’s hobbies.

In our last episode, our fearless hero had decided on where to source the custom parts for the reconstruction.

As it turns out, I’ve used almost every one of Tony’s 3D-printed gems; the exceptions being the Engine Louvre Arms, the Engine Nozzles and the Engine Fuel Towers. The Arms and the Towers are great, but a lot of work to retrofit for little gain in my opinion. I’ve opted out from using the nozzles as I’ve crafted my own engine module using CREE LEDs and a diffuser made from……. I’ll tell ya later!

The next step was to disassemble the original model; hopefully without damaging too many bits. Fortunately the only parts that couldn’t be salvaged were the docking rings and the landing gear, so no great loss. However, I opted to use the bottom hull piece from the 1996 kit that I’d acquired on eBay. This allowed me to use the older piece as a test “buck” for the extra landing gear pods and the new loading ramp.

Another design element had to be lighting. Ever since I was a kid, I loved the idea of lighting up my models; and having been an Electronics Technician for many years, adding LED lighting was an obvious choice.

You’ve seen the initial test of the engine lighting in my “feasibility study”. After a bit of scrounging with Google, I came across this diagram, which I’m using as a template for the lower hull lighting:

After due consideration, I’ve decided against including the “4 lamp unit” lights because:

i) They “magically” appear upon landing and disappear again in flight!

ii) I can’t bring myself to punch 4 x 10mm holes in the hull. I just don’t think that it’ll look that good.

So I’ll forgo the quest for screen accuracy for the sake of style and balance, and I’m sure that it won’t be the last time.

In the interests of saving space and power, most of the lighting will be done via fibre-optic filament from ultra-bright LEDs inside little aluminium tubes, an idea I got from a visit to thefiberopticstore.com, in particular from Tim “Rat Daddy” Nolan’s Republic Star Destroyer project. The LEDs themselves were sourced from various sellers on eBay, where you can get lots of 100 units for under AU$5, including shipping!

When the first lot of 3D parts arrived, it was time for a mock-up.

Next time: “Adding the new landing gear pods”, or “Why I drink!”