Project: Battlewagon

[LemonJello]

Having just returned from an extended business trip out of the country, I find myself with a little down time, so this is how I've been spending the last few afternoons/evenings:

I'm building a space battlewagon, along the lines of a cross with the Nostromo and Space Battleship Yamato. No name or back story (yet), but that will come as I continue to work.  Oh, and I'm going to attempt to light this one with some fiber optic kits I found on Micro Mark's website.

Anyway, on to the pictures:

Donor Kits:

I'll use most, if not all of the guns and superstructure from these two to give my beast its firepower

The fiber optics:

I have two of these kits, each has about 50 individual strands, so that should give me plenty of lights, right?

The hull:

The main hull components are two powdered drink packet containers that will be clad in Evergreen .10 styrene sheet and other bits

Progress to date:

There will be battle damage and sloppy repair patches in places to give it that "well worn" look

The Engineering section:

I'm planning on using about 10 of the fiber optic strands to light this area. Any tips/tricks to reflect the light given off?

Markings will be cobbled together from on-hand spares and scraps, and I'm leaning to a non-standard paint scheme - but who knows? There's plenty of time before I get to that point.

Oh, I had to cut the containers into sections in order to be able to run the fiber optics where I wanted them, I tried with just the two sections, but she almost went for her maiden voyage across the room until I pulled out the razor saw and went to work.

[scooter]

Good luck.  I once had the crazy idea to turn Tamiya's 1/350th scale Yamoto into the Space Battleship Yamato.  Thankfully, Bandi's solved that problem.

[TsrJoe]

looks fun, paint the interior black to hide any light leakage, the fibres can be trimmed and sanded too to make wider end points if cut at an angle, or if glowing rods are required sanding the fibre itself enables the light to scatter through the sides of the rods, of course if you need more just trim the ones which are long and add them to the light source 

[Taiidantomcat]

Having just returned from an extended business trip out of the country,

Welcome back, Leatherneck 

Great start! curious to see how it develops

[deathjester]

looks fun, paint the interior black to hide any light leakage, the fibres can be trimmed and sanded too to make wider end points if cut at an angle, or if glowing rods are required sanding the fibre itself enables the light to scatter through the sides of the rods, of course if you need more just trim the ones which are long and add them to the light source 

I read that you were supposed to paint the inside silver to maximise the spread of light within the model - that was a build of one of the large scale Enterprise kits.  Sorry to add confusion and delay, as they say in Thomas the Tank Engine.....

[Hobbes]

You could use plexiglass parts to spread the light: shine the light into one side of the plexiglass plate, and all of the plate's edges will light up.

[RPadavan2]

If you want to take time away from the build get some clear, colored plastic/glass beads from an arts and craft store.  The facets in the beads will diffract the light at different angles.  Plus you can use the different colors for different sections of the ship, like warning/marker lights, red or orange for the engine glow, yellow or blue or clear for portholes or docking bays (or even small sections of plexiglass or clear styrene covered in clear paints for the docking bays).

[RussC]

Are they full-hull or waterline models? For a space dreadnought, full is the way to go.
 
Maybe think about Macross and build a giant robo using the two battleships as arms 
 
Following with interest.

[scooter]

looks fun, paint the interior black to hide any light leakage, the fibres can be trimmed and sanded too to make wider end points if cut at an angle, or if glowing rods are required sanding the fibre itself enables the light to scatter through the sides of the rods, of course if you need more just trim the ones which are long and add them to the light source 

I read that you were supposed to paint the inside silver to maximise the spread of light within the model - that was a build of one of the large scale Enterprise kits.  Sorry to add confusion and delay, as they say in Thomas the Tank Engine.....

Use black for the interior base coat and silver on top of that.  That should prevent light leakage and provide max light spread.

[LemonJello]

Progress pics will be added soon, but I definitely appreciate all the advice. I'm going to give the black then silver interior a try and I'll be playing with my collection of clear Tamiya paints and clear plastic bits for added effects with the fiber optic lights. I'll also raid the daughters' beads to see what is available as well.

Oh, the battleship donors are waterline models, but I'm going to carve up most of the superstructure and turret rings - the hulls may turn up in a future addition to the "fleet" though.

Here's a pic of the progress to date:



The bow section is on the left, and the stern/propulsion section is on the right.