Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

I recently tried 5-min epoxy for windows and wouldn't recommend that. It's so thick it wouldn't flow in to fill the windows completely (that was an easy fix), and bubbles got trapped in there (not an easy fix). I may have to redo them, or just live with it.

And don't forget to read the sticky about it!

Fill 'em with something clear. I used Micro Krystal Kleer in the past, just painting it in. Another method, and I know Don Matthys was suggesting this, is to tape over the outside and fill from the inside with clear resin. I tried it on my KBoP recently using clear epoxy, but wasn't satisfied with t...

I think this is exactly the right forum, Sean! I also like the thin plating Nick Sagan made with vinyl. I would have worried about adhesion (Vinyl to plastic and paint to vinyl) but maybe it's not really a problem. I'd like to get one of those Silhouette things for that. You could also cut masks, sc...

Make sure the board still works by hooking it up to a good 9V battery. If the board's okay, make sure the adapter is wired to the board with the correct polarity. If that's right, the problem is probably that the adapter is putting out something other than steady DC, like rectified AC. This makes yo...

I just got a bunch of 3.6V zeners for like a penny apiece, but haven't tried using them yet. Soon as I do I'll post something here. 3.6V is good for a lot of green, blue, UV, and white LEDs. As I understand it, you put the reverse biased zener in parallel with the LEDs it's controlling the voltage f...

Nie rozumiem. To jest spam?

Thanks, glad you liked it. It's fun to cobble together some electronics to see what lighting effects you can come up with.

Okay, I linked to the post in the WIP thread for this project: http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/viewtopic.php?t=102501&highlight= Scroll down page two, thirteenth post. It was a PITA to video the lighting effects as some of the wires were just twisted together or plugged into the breadboard, ...

My 78L05 (and other goodies) came from Jameco today so I was able to try out my idea of putting a load between the input of the voltage regulator and its output to reduce the heat dissipation in the regulator. So the 78L05 had two loads connected to it. The regulated 5V output went to the lighting e...

The last few times I went to a planetarium (Hayden, Fels, and NJ State Museum), those traditional projectors had been replaced by a system that has a serious flaw. Brighter stars are merely larger. Ugh. The Fels planetarium especially had a neat projector originally. It used slides of the night sky ...

OK, this is what I did. 1. I used the text, "DC step down power supply +voltmeter" 2. Select Sort by, "Lowest first" *ahem* You'll find a few from there. Yeah, last time I pasted in your phrase "PSU step down module." Wow, $8 plus free shipping. For $24 they come with ...

Wow, that's neat! I just checked eBay and didn't find any with the built in voltmeter, but they do have some dirt cheap power supplies. Meanwhile I'm waiting on parts. There's a Radio Shack walking distance from my house, but no surprise 7805 was out of stock. So instead of paying $2 for one 7805, I...

Thanks for the info, Sloucher. The board draws 58mA using 3 fresh AA cells (4.8V with no load). It's only driving 12 LEDs. I guess heat dissipation won't be an issue in this case, though I'm still curious to see what happens if I bypass current from the supply pin to the load pin. A more efficient, ...

No, it's not just LEDs--there's a board for some of the LEDs that uses 3 AA cells. It's from a string of mini Christmas lights with effects. I'm using it for a pulsing glow for the engines. Everything else is 9V, mainly because other lighting effects require 2 LEDs in series (one flashing or flicker...

I have circuits requiring 9VDC and 4.5VDC in my KBoP and would like to power it externally with just 9V. I'm thinking of using a 7805 to provide the second voltage (5 volts probably wouldn't overdrive the 4.5V circuit). However, voltage regulators get HOT (I've gotten nasty burns from them) and the ...

I promised to show a pic of the results of my prize from the ODBC. Finally, here it is--a pic of my nephew with his Naboo starfighter: http://bellerophon-modeler.blogspot.com/2013/01/charlies-model.html He's 11 years old and builds those prepainted snap-togethers that all right-thinking modelers des...

You're building this!

Ambitious! My ambitious plan is to build the Golden Gate Bridge and environs in 1/1400 scale, as they will appear in the 24th century. Care to wager who will finish first?

And your math is spot on, now that your data is correct.

A breadboard and voltmeter are very useful, too. If you don't know what resistor value an LED needs, plug it into the breadboard with a resistor in series, with your supply voltage applied. Since LEDs typically operate with about 20 ma of current, use a resistor that won't pass more than say 10 ma: ...

Just be careful you don't accentuate the edge of the carrier film.

The KBoP is nicely done, but that kitbashed "General Li" is really over the top! Jose and Arvel, great work! I don't mind getting beat by you guys! (This time! :twisted: ) The world needs more modelers, and I've got this nephew who's so crazy into Star Wars, he's made this immense fleet of...

Cool work! Could make a drinking game out of it, too: "Spot the Greeble." You guys have a lot of cool stuff at http://www.oddboyz.co.uk/ so I linked to it!

Too bad the pics have to be changed to links, per forum rules.

BTW, if you've announced that you successfully entered this contest and there's only one entry, haven't you violated the anonymity rule? Or even if there's more than one entry--then people know one of them is yours and can possibly guess which. Lol, you inferred that I entered, I never stated so. B...

Bigarv65, if you thought you had to go to all that trouble to find out what the rules were, you must have suspected there was a problem with the rules. You sought an answer before entering and got one, but I didn't read your post, just the rules and people's build posts. I'm sure that Lonewolf and N...

I just took it from people posting their builds that it wasn't anonymous. I was also satisfied that it was my bad. Until I re-read the rules, that is. Anonymity was mentioned as a goal in the preamble, but it was not listed as a rule. I get enough of this at work. I don't need it intruding into my h...

El Gato, don't you know you have to follow the rules? Even the unwritten rules that are only implied! Doing a one-day build is a good kick-start if you're in an AMS rut, but it's not fun being in a rush, either. There has to be some happy medium between this and taking forever to finish some grandio...

I don't see any such implication in Rule 5, but hey, it's your contest, run it any way you like.

Aw, crap! You know, even if I'd followed the rules, it would be an easy inference who built it. :evil: Wait a second! Here are the rules you posted. Where does it say you can't show off your entry on this forum? After some PMs with Nicholas, we’re trying to streamline the One-Day Build Challenge (“O...

Did it! Here's the proof. I was working on it right up until about 5 minutes before the deadline and had to run upstairs to get the camera; luckily I hadn't misplaced it.

Okay, this time I'm gonna nail it! I started at 1:49pm EDT, and it's already assembled, primered, puttied and sanded (repeatedly), and I've printed decals for it. It's Bandai Star Blazers Mini No. 10, a Comet Empire missile cruiser ( here it is at Starship Schematics Database ). I posted pictures of...