Battlestar Galactica

[coops213]

Well it's been quite some time since I last posted here, or did anything whif/modelling/profile related for that matter. I just moved out of home a few months ago and started my first full time job out of uni, so it's taken a bit to get into the swing of things.

Anyway, to get back into things I thought I'd try something a bit different. My first project in the new house is Moebius Models Battletar Galactica (1/4105 scale).

I wanted to do a bit more than build it out of box, so I started looking at ways to light it up. In the "head" I've put a white and drilled out a few small portholes.


There's a blue LED in each engine pod and behing each of the two fuselage engines:


In each hanger pod I've put two white LEDs, and four red LEDs shining down into each hangar retraction bay:


And the mess that results:


Originally I planned to control all the lights from a microcontroller board (like an Arduino Pro mini or similar) so that I could selectively dim each colour. Though after some quick sums I don't think this can provide enough current. I might just run it all off a 5v regulator and two 3v button cells. Either way it's going to be tricky to try and fit this all into the supplied base.

Cheers,

Chris

[rickshaw]

Put the base on a small circuit box and paint it the same colour as the base. 

[buzzbomb]

Base it with a power supply if you can.
Those button 3v batteries will not give you a lot of display time and in the scheme of things are quite expensive.


Like what have done so far though

[The Rat]

In the "head" I've put a white and drilled out a few small portholes.

In the head?! Do you have a 1/4105 scale toilet to go in there? 

[coops213]

Put the base on a small circuit box and paint it the same colour as the base. 

I think I'll end up doing this, I'll probably run out of space otherwise. The kit base is an odd shape though, I'll have to pick the box carefully so it doesn't look silly.

Base it with a power supply if you can.
Those button 3v batteries will not give you a lot of display time and in the scheme of things are quite expensive.


Like what have done so far though

Thanks buzzbomb. I was considering 3v cr2032 batteries to fit them in the small base. They have about 200mAh capacity, though with more space I may just use 4 AA batteries (~2000mAh each). Power supply isn't really an option as I can't be sure there'd be power available where I want to display it. The plan is not to just have an on/off switch, but to have a push button to bring the lights on and have them go off automatically after say 30 seconds. I can do this with a simple 555 timer but I'll have much more control with a microcontroller.

[GTX]

Bloody Electrical Engineers...always playing with wires!   Welcome back Chris, looking forward to the end result.

[coops213]

Bit of an update. Closed up the hull and tested that the LEDs still worked.

Engine pods:


Hangar bays:


Portholes:


Landing pods (a bit of spill coming through the mounting arms, but should be ok when painted):


All good so far! Time to get it mounted properly and base coated now.

Chris

[GTX]

Looking good.

[Pablo1965]

This is going well, and looks great.

[saintkatanalegacy]

cuing epic music along with epic build

[coops213]

cuing epic music along with epic build

Awesome! I've been trying to find the name of that song for some time now, thanks!

[trekaddict]

This one's better.