# Lighted, kitbashed "warp engine"



## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

This is the first step in a larger kitbash project. This will be the engine pod of an original starship design. The base kit for the engine is the Pegasus Mercury 9 rocket.

The photo below shows the engine in its powered on state. This view is from the front of the engine looking backwards. The dome in the front is illuminated by 3 LEDs taken from flickering tea candles I picked up at Walmart after Christmas (3 for $1). The LEDs are yellow, the dome is painted transparent red, and the inside of the dome is packed with acrylic "chunks" which resemble uncut diamonds that I got from Michael's. The effect they create is that of a "hot" energy source for the engine.










The photo below shows the rear of the engine. There are three (3) lighted panels at the engine's mid-point, and a transparent blue hemisphere in the tail that is lighted by a blue LED within. This photo also shows the 3 primary Tamiya colors used to paint the model, Light Ghost Grey, Neutral Gray (USAF), and Light Blue. The tail end of the engine is actually the forward end of the Mercury 9. I'm using the main body of that kit oriented backwards.










The third photo shows the engine in its powered down state. I have not yet decided what I'm going to do with the 2 "fins". They will either be greebled/decaled into radiators of some sort, or perhaps platforms for weapons or something else. The engine just looked cooler with them on it so I retained them. On the Mercury 9 these are actually used as connect points for 2 of the models large fins/wings.










This shot shows a rectangular piece that sticks out of the bottom of the engine. A pylon will be built up around this piece to connect the engine to the main body of the ship. This is also where the power wires exit the engine. They will be fed into the main body of the ship. The engine uses a total of 5 LEDs running off of a 6v power supply. I'm using 6v due to plans to include a circuit board that runs at 6v elsewhere in the model.










This final photo shows the engine pod from the side. The deeply engraved panel lines in pieces made masking panels for detail painting trivial.










I have some seams and minor light leaks to fix, and decals to add (_much_ later), but this is basically how the engine will look in its final form. Comments are welcome!


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

Very neat. I like to see new designs. :thumbsup:


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## JGG1701 (Nov 9, 2004)

Very original concept.
I LIKE IT! :thumbsup:
Question though.................
Just how BIG is this kit bash going to be?
-Jim


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

JGG1701 said:


> Very original concept.
> I LIKE IT! :thumbsup:
> Question though.................
> Just how BIG is this kit bash going to be?
> -Jim


LOL Big. I am trying to decide between a design that requires two of these, are the more modest design that will only take one.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Yeah, that's gonna be HUGE!
Looking forward to it!


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## JGG1701 (Nov 9, 2004)

Fozzie said:


> LOL Big. I am trying to decide between a design that requires two of these, are the more modest design that will only take one.


Fozzie , if you have the time & material, go for TWO of 'em!
-Jim


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

JGG1701 said:


> Fozzie , if you have the time & material, go for TWO of 'em!
> -Jim


I'm more worried about display space! 

BTW, if I do go with 2, they'll likely be rotated 90 degrees so that the "top" as shown in my photos becomes the "outer face" of the engine and the mounting pylon points inward instead of down.


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

I misread this the first time I viewed the thread ... I at first thought what you'd posted was the full design and thought "slick minimalist take on the M9 kit with some cool additions". On re-reading your post I now realize what your plans are and am like "wow! Very slick!" Can't wait to see what comes next.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

I used some of the acrylic pieces shown in the photo below to load the dome on the front of the engine and create the fractured, pulsating energy effect.


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## JGG1701 (Nov 9, 2004)

Fozzie said:


> I used some of the acrylic pieces shown in the photo below to load the dome on the front of the engine and create the fractured, pulsating energy effect.


Can you show us a "mini-movie" of this?
-Jim


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

JGG1701 said:


> Can you show us a "mini-movie" of this?
> -Jim


Sure. It can be found 



.

It is a little grainy because I shot it with the lights off to make the light effect more visible. Probably shouldn't have as the light effect was a bit much for the camera! It isn't as "hot" or bright as it shows up in the video, but you do get an idea of what it looks like.


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## kenlee (Feb 11, 2010)

Looking good, waiting to see where this is going.


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## JGG1701 (Nov 9, 2004)

Nicely done!
Any sketches of what this kit-bash may look like?
-Jim


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## SJF (Dec 3, 1999)

Looking forward to seeing more of this.


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## Spockr (Sep 14, 2009)

Cool looking bash! Slap that dude on top of a Constitution class starship and press the giddyup button.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

This is a little bit better quality video than the first with less camera distortion of the lights.


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## Dr. Brad (Oct 5, 1999)

That second video is great! Really like how that is turning out!

Brad.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Nice job so far. Using the Walmart candle lights and diamond chunks from Michaels is inspired. It would nice to see a drawing of what the finished ship might look like but perhaps that's a little premature right now.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

Trekkriffic said:


> Nice job so far. Using the Walmart candle lights and diamond chunks from Michaels is inspired. It would nice to see a drawing of what the finished ship might look like but perhaps that's a little premature right now.


I'm playing around with several different designs. I haven't decided on which one I'm going to go with yet. The nice thing is that the engine is really a module that can be attached to a variety of designs.


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## eagledocf15 (Nov 4, 2008)

*Where did you get these?*



Fozzie said:


> I used some of the acrylic pieces shown in the photo below to load the dome on the front of the engine and create the fractured, pulsating energy effect.


Where did you get these? Do you have ordering information (brand, item numbers)? 
The project looks good thus far.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

eagledocf15 said:


> Where did you get these? Do you have ordering information (brand, item numbers)?
> The project looks good thus far.


I picked those up at a Michael's hobby store. Unfortunately I threw out the bag they came in. They were something like $4. There are enough to fill up a 12 oz drinking cup (that's where they are now). They are in various sizes. That's about all I can tell you about 'em. Sorry!


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## edward 2 (Oct 6, 2010)

what is this warp engine from, very interesting model.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

edward 2 said:


> what is this warp engine from, very interesting model.


Nothing. Just a kitbash. When I took the parts out of the box for the Mercury 9 instead of a spaceship I "saw" an engine.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

I've always thought that this engine looked like something that might have been around during the pre-TOS days of _Star Trek_ and perhaps belonging to another race. ANYWAY, I just received the Perry Rhodan Blues Ship I won off of eBay and I think it might make a nice primary hull to go with the engine. What do you guys think?


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## SJF (Dec 3, 1999)

Looks great. I'd go for it. 

Sean


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

Very cool. Refreshing, in fact.


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

That fits with your build VERY well. Cool idea.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

After working nearly a month of 12+ hour days, I finally have a long weekend and a chance to get back to this project.

I finally decided on a single engine design ($$$ & time considerations) using the saucer from a Perry Rhodan Blues model kit from Revell as the ship's primary hull. Today I fashioned a template of what the connecting "neck" will look like.










The full neck will attach to the grey rectangular "fin" that comes out the top of the engine and will need to accommodate a wire on each side that will provide power to the saucer.

Here's an overhead shot. Remember, this is only a template for the shape of the neck. The final part will be much thicker.










The mount will be on the bottom of the engine and that is where the power will come in. I wired a power plug into the bottom of the engine to make taking the model off of its base easy.


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## SJF (Dec 3, 1999)

Looking cool so far.

Sean


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

The Perry Rhodan saucer has 6 pairs of window-like structures spaced at regular intervals around the edge of the disc. I intend to use 4 of these (indicated by *black *arrows) as windows. The pair facing forward (*blue* arrow), however, I will use as the ship's deflector, and the pair in the back (*red *arrow) will serve as the ship's impulse engines.










These parts are not suitable for lighting as they are since they aren't open.










That is easily solved with a little work, however. In the picture below both "windows" have been opened up. The one on the left has a window "frame" inserted into it (a kit part). That's what I'll use on the 4 windows. The other two (deflector & impulse engines) will be left open and detailed in some other fashion.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

So is this going to be a sort of pre-_Kelvin_ style starship with the single engine and such?


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

Trekkriffic said:


> So is this going to be a sort of pre-_Kelvin_ style starship with the single engine and such?


Yes. Early TOS-era ship with "old" technology. A larger-than-what-we-would-consider-normal warp engine. My thought is that this ship was from a race that would later become one of the founding planets of the Federation. Technology exchanges would give them Earth's smaller form-factor warp engine, while Earth would adapt their saucer-shaped primary hull design.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

I finished scratch building the "neck" piece. It isn't glued to the engine below but is actually holding up the saucer simply by friction. There is plenty of surface area on the mounting stub so, once glued into place, it should be pretty solid. It is connected to the dish by means of a "fin" that goes up through a slot in the bottom of the saucer that is held in place by resin, as well as a little glue on the outside, and a layer of Aves that was used to fill any gaps between the top of the neck and the contoured surface of the dish.










You can see that power is coming in from the bottom of the engine and wires will travel through the neck into the saucer to power that. I have finished cutting out all the areas where I'll have windows or other lighted items (e.g. impulse engines).

I am powering it right now via a 6v adaptor. I love looking at the "pulsing" engine and turn this thing on all the time for inspiration while I finish the build.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

A little more progress. The top of the saucer with a bit of aztec-ing and a couple of blue rings. 

I've added 4 porthole windows in the front near where the bridge would be on a _Trek_-starship. 

The two large dark grey panels in the back are the back of the saucer.

Holes have been drilled in opposite edges of the saucer for navigation lights.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

The sequence below is part of a light test for the ship's "impulse engines". It uses a flickering "tea candle" light LED with a piece of Plastruct clear HO scale checker plate backed by a piece of semi-transparent velum paper. The clear plastic checker plate was painted with Tamiya transparent orange.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

I've been working on lighting the saucer. This shot shows 4 windows lit by fiber optics, and a frosted hemisphere lit by an LED. This is the top of the saucer.










This picture below shows the two flickering orange engine lights and two sets of large windows lit by standard white LEDs shining through velum paper. There are 4 sets of these "windows". 










Not shown are the pair of blue "deflector" lights in the front of the saucer.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

I have finished up the lighting, a combination of LEDs and fiber optics.


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