# Why almost every Moebius J2 modelers stopped posting?



## Fernando Mureb

When you acess this forum and type "Jupiter 2" or "Jupiter2" in the search field, the forth and fifth post of the list (besides the "New Member Introduction Thread") are dated from june 17 and june 13, respectively!!! What is going on?  Where is everybody?


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## Sonett

Busy working on our kits (he he)


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## louspal

Clearing the bench to spend some quality time with the little woman?
Wonder Woman from MOEBIUS!!!!!


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## Captain Han Solo

Im still working on mine Sir!

Just working out some small details.


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## johncal

Real busy on the model. Not much time for anything else. I have been doing some interesting stuff though. Will post pics later.

......... O.K., here's one on the workbench. Havr the outside done about halfway through the interior.


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## WmTodd

I myself have been caught up in some real life stuff that isn't bad, it's just stuff that needs immediate attention. I hope that when I get back to finishing up J2, the topic will still be alive and relevant here, because I truly enjoy and get a ton of inspiration and guidance from what all you guys are doing, I would NEVER have been able to get even this far. I've yet to even share pics of what I have going, it's just that much happening now, and part of it I must admit is a little intimidation on a few of the things to do next..... I really want to share my acrylic laser-cut rib walls and ceiling extensions, but I feel a need to redo them with one minor alteration, and that is to extend the length of the insertion tabs that go into the floor. In fact, I want to do it in such a way that those tabs will have a slot for a little cotter pin or shim that will hold the piece in place tightly enough without having to cement everything together, just in case it may need to be broken down in the future for wiring issues or whatever. That, and a couple other little mods I did that I think look pretty darn neat for someone who hasn't EVER modelled this seriously, not to mention on a subject I love like this. I get to check in much less than I used to as well, but I always hit the place up when I get a good chunk of time to online. 

I'm so happy with the project I'm going to post it on my art studio blog once it's done, so I can share it with the non-LIS and J2 diehards as well. Of course, we know that if anyone comments on it, we're 100% guaranteed someone will post "Danger Will Robinson!"  Oh, those Normies.

Cheers!


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## Ductapeforever

Heart attack Sidelined me!


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## johncal

Ductapeforever said:


> Heart attack Sidelined me!


I guess you're excused!


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## kenlee

Fernando Mureb said:


> When you acess this forum and type "Jupiter 2" or "Jupiter2" in the search field, the forth and fifth post of the list (besides the "New Member Introduction Thread") are dated from june 17 and june 13, respectively!!! What is going on?  Where is everybody?


Been busy making ceiling beams! :thumbsup:
I am also thinking about making launch towers.


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## WmTodd

Ductapeforever said:


> Heart attack Sidelined me!



 ! Doing okay now?


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## Model Man

>Why almost every Moebius J2 modelers stopped posting?

We're all in conspiracy together. Just kidding. 

My last J2 work was on June 1. I haven't touched a drop of glue since. At all!

The last couple days of May, I heard information from 'back home' that required my immediate attention and spent time there. Getting back to my home-home, all the time I would have likely spent modeling these past 2 weeks, I've been skyping with she-who-was-_*the*_-long-lost-love-of-my-life. This very evening she agreed there was little choice but to uproot herself from CT and be with me forevermore.

I hope I didn't just horribly jinx myself by saying that. I'm too happy to contain the news! (My face has never ached so much from smiling for so long.):hat:

But have no fear, my J2 will soon be posting here, again.:wave:


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## AJ-1701

Wish my news was as good as Model Mans. Good on ya btw mate :thumbsup:

But alas my diversion is the passing of my wifes mother


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## AJ-1701

Ductapeforever said:


> Heart attack Sidelined me!


Struth!!  I hope all is going well now??


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## liskorea317

johncal said:


> Real busy on the model. Not much time for anything else. I have been doing some interesting stuff though. Will post pics later.
> 
> ......... O.K., here's one on the workbench. Havr the outside done about halfway through the interior.


Thats awfully beautiful!


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## liskorea317

Model Man said:


> >Why almost every Moebius J2 modelers stopped posting?
> 
> We're all in conspiracy together. Just kidding.
> 
> My last J2 work was on June 1. I haven't touched a drop of glue since. At all!
> 
> The last couple days of May, I heard information from 'back home' that required my immediate attention and spent time there. Getting back to my home-home, all the time I would have likely spent modeling these past 2 weeks, I've been skyping with she-who-was-_*the*_-long-lost-love-of-my-life. This very evening she agreed there was little choice but to uproot herself from CT and be with me forevermore.
> 
> I hope I didn't just horribly jinx myself by saying that. I'm too happy to contain the news! (My face has never ached so much from smiling for so long.):hat:
> 
> But have no fear, my J2 will soon be posting here, again.:wave:


Thats great news for you Tom! And I'm not alone saying that we've missed those videos!


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## liskorea317

Fernando Mureb said:


> When you acess this forum and type "Jupiter 2" or "Jupiter2" in the search field, the forth and fifth post of the list (besides the "New Member Introduction Thread") are dated from june 17 and june 13, respectively!!! What is going on?  Where is everybody?


I know how you feel Fernando! How is your kit coming along? Have you received it? Like you I am not in the US and I'm still waiting for mine to be sent here, just making notes and gathering up all the aftermarket goodies I can get.


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## johncal

liskorea317 said:


> I know how you feel Fernando! How is your kit coming along? Have you received it? Like you I am not in the US and I'm still waiting for mine to be sent here, just making notes and gathering up all the aftermarket goodies I can get.


Just be prepared to spend some cash. I've spent over $400 and that's besides the price of the model itself, and I still have more to go! Bu so far, so good.


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## Tim Nolan

Well, I'm pretty much done. If you want to look at it some more, heres my build link with about 275 photos! 

http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/18 Jupiter 2 by Moebius/


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## liskorea317

johncal said:


> Just be prepared to spend some cash. I've spent over $400 and that's besides the price of the model itself, and I still have more to go! Bu so far, so good.


Oh yeah! You've got that right! I have two kits and I still need two interior light kits as well as the TSDS decals and miles of fiber optic filaments. I have all the photo etch, two beam kits, the launch tower, the hero landing gear, two fusion core sets, and I have one freezing tube figures set-just waiting for the casual poses set and I'm all set! But its all good!:thumbsup:


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## JohnGuard

i am busy on my kit to post !!
i'm trying to figure out some ceiling lighting.
i dont just want bulbs sticking thru the ceiling.
trying to figure out a cool light box....of some sort..............


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## Ductapeforever

Update: I've been home from the Hospital for a month and a half. Doing great. Hospital staff wanted me out ASAP, should have seen their faces when my buddy tried to bring my modeling gear into the ICU unit at my request. Went Home 2 days later...funny thing!
Already back slinging glue and cutting plastic like a madman.


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## Fernando Mureb

liskorea317 said:


> I know how you feel Fernando! How is your kit coming along? Have you received it? Like you I am not in the US and I'm still waiting for mine to be sent here, just making notes and gathering up all the aftermarket goodies I can get.


Firstly, I am happy to know that you guys are all well (mainly Ductape - what a fright! ) and working on your models. :thumbsup:

It was just an incredible coincidence that everyone has stopped posting at the same time, but for different reasons (with some rare exceptions such as Tim - hey, how can he work like that? ).

As for my kit, it is inside a suitcase in the house of a friend in Katy - TX (since november 2009), expecting him to come visit me in July. Now, this is a terrible torture. :drunk:

Thanks everyone for post again. :wave:


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## Fernando Mureb

johncal said:


> Just be prepared to spend some cash. I've spent over $400 and that's besides the price of the model itself, and I still have more to go! Bu so far, so good.


Yeah, I know. I'm saving some money by selling pieces of decoration of the house  without my wife know (I hope, or I'll be the next to go to the hospital). :freak:


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## Seaview

Ductapeforever said:


> Update: I've been home from the Hospital for a month and a half. Doing great. Hospital staff wanted me out ASAP, should have seen their faces when my buddy tried to bring my modeling gear into the ICU unit at my request. Went Home 2 days later...funny thing!
> Already back slinging glue and cutting plastic like a madman.


 
:freak: You even REMEMBER the ICU? All I remember is that I wanted to go home, and that the new 39" Moebius Seaview would be arriving in a couple of months, and there was no way I was gonna miss out on it!
Eat right, moderate exercise, take your meds and follow the doctors orders so you can stay around longer, my friend! :wave:


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## Ductapeforever

Thanks Everyone, this Old Sea Dog is a survivor. Now that they made repairs the Doc says I'm good for another 30+ years. I'm back happily building away. PRODUCE MORE KITS FRANK, I've almost caught up.


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## liskorea317

Ductapeforever said:


> Thanks Everyone, this Old Sea Dog is a survivor. Now that they made repairs the Doc says I'm good for another 30+ years. I'm back happily building away. PRODUCE MORE KITS FRANK, I've almost caught up.



I'm glad you're feeling better! I was almost in the same boat but my eagle-eyed doc spotted a problem before it could develop further!


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## bert model maker

Glad you are feeling much better Herb ! I have been kind of out of touch for awhile myself. Fernando, I know you are waiting for YOUR new Jupiter 2 and i bet you think of it as you try and fall asleep at night, well it will be in your hands very soon and i hope your friend does not keep you waiting too long ! Herb, Get stronger and I am glad you are feeling much better.
Bert


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## Darkstar

Intimidation...pure intimidation. I'm ascared of this kit.........really! :freak:

Well, that and budget. Saving up for some mods.


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## Model Man

Darkstar said:


> Intimidation...pure intimidation. I'm ascared of this kit.........really! :freak:
> 
> Well, that and budget. Saving up for some mods.


I was genuinely terrified for awhile as well. Once you start pulling the pieces of the trees, organizing things into groups, sorting your tasks, it becomes a terribly, terribly easy kit. Honest! 

One step at a time, and the journey will be over before you know it! 

Have fun with it!


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## Seaview

I know what you mean! When it comes to "intimidating" projects, I've found it helpful for the past couple of years to use a modelling method which calls for painting all like-colored pieces first, and after all the painting is finished, start assembly with Step 1 and slowly & patiently continue on until completion. 
It can take weeks or even months, but it is, afterall, a "pasttime", and a rewarding one at that!
Any time I get bored with a build, I'll work on one or two other kits until the interest is renewed in "the big one".
Have fun! :wave:


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## kenlee

Darkstar said:


> Intimidation...pure intimidation. I'm ascared of this kit.........really! :freak:
> 
> Well, that and budget. Saving up for some mods.


Just take it one step at a time. I started mine by assembling the landing gear. After doing so I decided that they could be made removable so that the model could be displayed "in flight" and "landed". The modified gear still easily support the model. Next I custom wired the power core to light up and worked out where to put the batteries. 
I started mine right after christmas and finished it the last week of May, during that time I also built a custom launch cradle and three launch towers from scratch, one of which has an elevator and gangway that matches up to the airlock door.


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## Darkstar

Well I guess after all that encouragement I'd better man up and get started! I only hope I do half as good as the great builds you guys keep posting!


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## spocks beard

I have pretty much finished mine,But here's a few new pics of the crude lighting i installed in the cabin area.:thumbsup:


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## spocks beard

Darkstar said:


> Well I guess after all that encouragement I'd better man up and get started! I only hope I do half as good as the great builds you guys keep posting!


Just take your time.
I worked on and off at this kit from roughly mid January till this past week.
And my kit is just basically a straight out of the box Build/Paint job
I look forward to seeing some of your photos once you get started:thumbsup:


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## Captain Han Solo

spocks beard said:


> I have pretty much finished mine,But here's a few new pics of the crude lighting i installed in the cabin area.:thumbsup:


 
Nice Job Mate:thumbsup:

Your lighting is *IN SCALE* with the kit! Awesome! You would'nt believe what a Unknown concept that is for a Lot of guys.:freak:


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## Asmenoth

Well, being unemployed for the better part of a year, not being able to afford to buy the lighting materials and moving back to Florida and waiting for it (and the rest of my models) to arrive here.


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## spocks beard

beatlepaul said:


> Nice Job Mate:thumbsup:
> 
> Your lighting is *IN SCALE* with the kit! Awesome! You would'nt believe what a Unknown concept that is for a Lot of guys.:freak:


Thanks beatlepaul!
Those couple o pics were just some test photos to check out how well the lights detail the cabin/interior.
Not to bad,I'll try and post a few pics with every thing lit this evening over in my original J2 finished with lights post.Heres hoping every one here has a great and safe 4th of July weekend!:thumbsup:


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## Darkstar

spocks beard said:


> I have pretty much finished mine,But here's a few new pics of the crude lighting i installed in the cabin area.:thumbsup:


And yet again, another beautiful build! :thumbsup:


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## woof359

*cause it nice out*

so many things to do while the sun is warm, besides im having trouble finding rivits for the gantry locally.


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## Paulbo

beatlepaul said:


> Nice Job Mate:thumbsup:
> 
> Your lighting is *IN SCALE* with the kit! Awesome! You would'nt believe what a Unknown concept that is for a Lot of guys.:freak:


Nicely done!

Mark - you've got it so right. There are SHADOWS! That's so important to make things look real and so many times you see lighting that tries to eliminate them, and that just makes things look like a 60s sit-com.


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## spocks beard

Paulbo said:


> Nicely done!
> 
> Mark - you've got it so right. There are SHADOWS! That's so important to make things look real and so many times you see lighting that tries to eliminate them, and that just makes things look like a 60s sit-com.


Thank you very much!!


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## Model Man

Paulbo said:


> Nicely done!
> 
> Mark - you've got it so right. There are SHADOWS! That's so important to make things look real and so many times you see lighting that tries to eliminate them, and that just makes things look like a 60s sit-com.


It's a big pet peeve for me too. So many people go for the 'ultra-bright' leds thinking "YEAHHHH!!!! This is gonna rock!" I've seen what are otherwise BEAUTIFUL builds of many different kinds of kits that are utterly ruined, imo, by lighting that obliterates the scale. Burning shadows into the paint job, then using subtle lighting to accentuate those really helps shrink things down.

---And I ain't saying I get mine perfectly right either! It is a lofty ideal I pursue with vigor on each and every model though.


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## spocks beard

Model Man said:


> It's a big pet peeve for me too. So many people go for the 'ultra-bright' leds thinking "YEAHHHH!!!! This is gonna rock!" I've seen what are otherwise BEAUTIFUL builds of many different kinds of kits that are utterly ruined, imo, by lighting that obliterates the scale. Burning shadows into the paint job, then using subtle lighting to accentuate those really helps shrink things down.
> 
> ---And I ain't saying I get mine perfectly right either! It is a lofty ideal I pursue with vigor on each and every model though.


Thanks!!
Actually i checked out your J2 build video's a lot & They are very informative.
For the modelers who want to do an elaborite lighted kit,You offer a wealth of info & knowledge!
And when you are finished,I'm sure it will be as close to a studio prop as possible:thumbsup:


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## John5000

Has anyone compiled a complete list of Moebius Jupiter 2 aftermarket items?


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## Richard Baker

I don't think so.
When the kit was first released years ago there were a lot of things made for it- those were available at different times and a lot are out of production now.


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## Paulbo

All of the ParaGrafix items are still in production:

Hero Landing Gear: http://www.paragrafix.biz/product_detail.asp?PPartNum=pgx120
Interior Photoetch / Decal Set: http://www.paragrafix.biz/product_detail.asp?PPartNum=PGX121
Interior Decals for Stock Interior: http://www.paragrafix.biz/product_detail.asp?PPartNum=PGX122
Painting Masks: http://www.paragrafix.biz/product_detail.asp?PPartNum=PGX123

:wave:


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## BWolfe

Richard Baker said:


> I don't think so.
> When the kit was first released years ago there were a lot of things made for it- those were available at different times and a lot are out of production now.


I am still doing the ceiling beam kits!


KRL


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## Tim Nolan

Well, I'm starting on another one, my 3rd. This one is for myself, not a client, so I want to do a very detailed job on it. My first priority was to cut a viewing port in the back of the upper hull, as I have done on my previous builds. So, that is done, next hull priority is to make sure the hull halves fit together very easily and snuggly. I just blew apart my Johnny Lightining diecast Robot so I can super-detail him as well. So, that being said, I will post now and then, I don't come here as often. To me, this is still one of the finest model kits I have EVER built, and I've built a lot of kits. It's just a pleasure to put together.


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## Captain Han Solo

Indeed a great kit and fun build for me each time. With several more on the horizon.


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## whereisanykey

I'll be starting again on mine. I've decided to do quite a bit of scratch building to make it more interesting.

I decided to make an LED board for the computer wall so each can have it's own light source. It will have a regulator to drop the voltage so there will be no need for resistors. I do think I have all the LED's to match up. The plastic part for that isn't going to work out so I have vacuformed a replacement. The original has a cutout in each of the three sections. 

I've also decided to completely scratch build the walls to I can add the pulsing lights in the ends. 

I'm also going to be using the Arduino and program some 2313/4313 chips for lighting effects such as the three computer panels. 

With all the electronics and fiberoptics I'll be extending the floor all the way around to make it easier for running fibers and electronics boards.


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## Radiodugger

Richard Baker said:


> I don't think so.
> When the kit was first released years ago there were a lot of things made for it- those were available at different times and a lot are out of production now.


Precisely the reason my build came to a screeching halt. Ridiculous. I got in over my head. Life got in the way...

Doug


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## Radiodugger

But...

I have not given up. Every time I look at Mark's J2...I get giddy...

Hey, mine will never be as good as you guys have done. Just getting a lit fusion core is going to be difficult. Masks? _$60??_ I paid _that much_ for my Flying Sub! Then the interior lighting kit...WAY outta my budget!

By the time I saved up for the Launchpad, Henry had died, and it's now out of production! Damn it. Typical situation. Very discouraging.  

Doug


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## Matthew Green

I kinda quit posting because it seems everything is about boring spaceships or cars. Where are the figure kits? The monster figure kits in particular. Moebius started off strong and made four...then quit.


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## Radiodugger

Matthew Green said:


> I kinda quit posting because it seems everything is about *boring spaceships*...Where are the figure kits?


That's what the thread _is about!_ LOL! The "boring" Jupiter 2! I find figure kits boring, but that's just me. 

One of the things I'd like to see, is how you guys make the hatches open and close.

Also, which lighting kit? Who has the most accurate fusion core light?

Doug


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## robiwon

I just picked up my first Moebius J2 at our local club meet, sealed, for $40. The J2 is one of those kits that just *needs* to be lighted. You can go soo far with lighting this beast, I've seen the pics with the upper hull removed on many builds and it is so intimidating to see the amount of wires, fibers, circuit boards, etc. crammed around the edge!!!!

I actually thought about doing a fusion core, upper dome and then the scrim interior with back lighting. But then the question is, what do I do with ALL the left over interior parts?!?!?!?


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## BWolfe

robiwon said:


> I just picked up my first Moebius J2 at our local club meet, sealed, for $40. The J2 is one of those kits that just *needs* to be lighted. You can go soo far with lighting this beast, I've seen the pics with the upper hull removed on many builds and it is so intimidating to see the amount of wires, fibers, circuit boards, etc. crammed around the edge!!!!
> 
> I actually thought about doing a fusion core, upper dome and then the scrim interior with back lighting. But then the question is, what do I do with ALL the left over interior parts?!?!?!?


Use them to create a diorama of the filming stage, that would be cool!


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## Radiodugger

BWolfe said:


> Use them to create a diorama of the filming stage, that would be cool!


_Brilliant_ idea! The lower deck built that way would be epic as well! 

Doug


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## Fernando Mureb

It's funny to see that such an old thread that I opened years ago was resurrected.


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## Radiodugger

Fernando Mureb said:


> It's funny to see that such an old thread that I opened years ago was resurrected.


Darn straight, Fernando! Can't let this subject fade into obscurity! :thumbsup:

Doug


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## frankrada

*Ceiling Beams!*



BWolfe said:


> I am still doing the ceiling beam kits!
> 
> 
> KRL


Are you doing ceiling beams for the old PL kit?

Thanks!

Frank


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## Radiodugger

I have AdBlock and LOVE it! No annoying ads. I LOVE this site! 

OK, been busy with my 1:32 scale Flying Sub. I came up against a brick wall when TSDS's Henry passed away. That launch pad for the Moebius J2 is no longer available. So, my whole project _there_ came to a screeching halt! Still waiting on the 1:35 scale Chariot/Space Pod set. The one thing I did do with the Jupiter 2, is, I opened the outer hatch. X-Acto, don't ya know...but-

I have to figure a way to put a frame behind the door, so the hatch can slide open, like Mark Myers' does. I also cut the inner hatch as well. Both will open.

Looking at the 1:32 scale Flying Sub, I am impressed! I have the interior with just the walls installed, and it is installed in the top/bottom hull halves and has the windshield in place. Not one drop of glue is used yet! The thing is displayed as-is, and people RAVE! I have the Jupiter 2's interior barely started, but it sits displayed on its landing gear, and also draws "wows" and "ah's". The space pod interior is completely painted, but I'm not done with it yet, This thing screams for Photo-Etch and lighting kit!

The 1:128 Spindrift and Flying Sub need to have the Jupiter 2, and Invader's Saucer in 1:128 to complete the display I want to make...but just the ParaGrafx Photo-Etch Interior for the Flying Sub is enough to elevate that little model into a masterpiece! The landing gear doors are molded in, and that gives me ideas...ya followin' me? And the Spindrift...why just make a crash site? Man, the possibilities there...OK, how about buying a half dozen Spindrift models, and make an airport scene? Maybe a launch pad, or however the thing got into the air...I have some ideas I have noodled...

So, I'm still here. Just readin' more than I'm talkin'! LOL!

Doug


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## Alien

Well, I had not even started mine. _No don't throw rotten fruit at me._
But, last week I finished my printed circuit board design for the fusion core and sent it off to the fabricator. _ I like making my own electronics._ I am using a micro controller chip to control the chasing of the LEDs so I can program in different speeds and fades.
_Programming: A work in progress._
In the mean time I have pulled out all the parts including the Paragrafix photo etch and decals.
I got a tad inspired. :surprise: (That seldom happens!)
I have cut open the main hatch and made it operational. _That was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I recommend giving it a go as it looks great._
Glued and filled all the support beams. _Tedious!_
Started on the Astrogator. I am going to replace the thick plastic rod supporting the little Jupiter 2 model with thin brass wire as it looks a bit clunky.
I might even deal to the chairs tonight too.

Alien


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## Alien

Doug,

If you still want to make your hatch open I can take a couple of photos of what I did on mine if that would be of any help. Not very high tech but it works a treat.

Alien


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## Radiodugger

Alien, that would be great! I'm sure many here would agree!

Mark Myers inspired me, but I don't want to _copy_ anyone. Just get inspiration. Mark's hatches slide open with just a touch! That gave me an idea using micro magnets. The idea needs refinement.

I had an idea to use brass sheet as an inner hatch frame. I don't have the tools I need. But it would be smooth as glass! I have ideas to open the other inner doors as well. Nothing rocket science. But...I don't want to ruin anything by experimenting. I like your idea for the astrogator, Alien!

I do mock-ups in cardboard. Those Triscuit and Wheat Thins boxes are great for that! Before I continue on the interior, I need to paint the center a light tan. I have a beautiful, shiny dark brown already laid down. Testor's rattle can. Could not have done better with an airbrush! I had a Paasche system before the foreclosure.

Speaking of which, I cannot find a better system than the new TGX-2F. The TS Set though, is all you really need. But really, the rattle can does what _I need._ I ain't mixing custom colors any more. 

Making that hatch open and close. Inner and outer. That's my _current_ challenge.

Doug


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## Alien

OK Doug and interested others.

*Exterior J2 Hatch Opening*

Using a sharp hobby knife, I just kept cutting and cutting until I could remove the hatch from the hull.
I cleaned up the removed hatch's edges and glued 1.5x2mm Evergreen styrene strip around all the edges and filled and sanded. The Hatch is about 1.5mm thick. 
Here is a photo of the hatch in place, with the saucer assembled, and you can see the styrene strip and red putty.









On the bottom of the saucer I glued 1.5mm square strip 1.5mm back from the raised lip. You have to remove one of the mounting points from both the top and bottom of the saucer otherwise the hatch will not slide.









Using the hatch part as a guide I framed the area where it travels with 1.5mm square strip.
Across the top (Bottom of this photo.) I added a 1x2mm strip to stop the hatch just falling inside the ship.









Now, I tape the hatch in place with some masking tape (Otherwise the hatch won't stay in place. Gravity is a heartless b*tch) and assemble the two halves of the ship together. Remove the tape and presto, the hatch slides.
I do need to do some other cosmetic things like blend in the bottom 1.5mm square strip into the floor section.

And I will also attack the inner hatch and make that slide too.

And here is a photo of the Astrogator with some brass wire holding up the little J2 model. I reckon it makes a big difference.









BTW, The bottom disk is grey because I primed it. There are four ejector pin marks that I had to clean off. They where annoying me.

I also unpacked the clear parts last night. The clear part that goes into the fusion core was broken in my box. Grrrr. :frown2: I will have to use some clear plastic sheet to replace it.

Also, my 'Static Discharge Tubes' (Part 104) have big air bubbles in them. I will need to replace them with some clear rod. I did find some Plastruct blue tinted clear rod in my plastic stash that might do the trick. Anyone got any other suggestions on what to use?

Alien


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## Radiodugger

Incredible, Alien! Thank you! Evergreen strip, eh? I need to rebuild my collection of Evergreen and Plastruct stock. Plus K&S Brass stuff. I just need to choke through about $200, and I should be caught up. I figure by Fall, I'll have a Dremel tool as well.

My 'Static Discharge Tubes' (Part 104) also have big air bubbles in them. You are exactly right about clear blue rod. Are you making your _inner hatches_ and doors work? I also need to build an airlock wall and extend the floor. You're right about that mounting pin. Gotta go!

OK! Gotta get a bit of Evergreen...Ever use Bondo? That putty cracks and falls off on me. Never had good luck with it. I used Bondo a lot! Even as a casting medium in my RTV molds. I made 1:25 scale motor blocks, heads, manifolds, and other parts. I installed a Thriftmaster 6 cyl I made from Bondo into a '65 Chevy pickup model. 

I like your work, Alien! Thanks again!

Doug


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## Alien

Doug,

Yes indeed, you cannot beat a stash of Evergreen styrene bits.
And I would certainly recommend a Dremel. Fantastic machines!

I will make the inner airlock hatch slide as well. I intend to glue the saucer halves together so, like Mark Myers, I want the ability to view the interior from the open airlock.
I will build the other airlock wall from a sheet of Evergreen styrene, using the opposite kit wall as a pattern. But, remembering to remove about 1.5mm from the outer edge, otherwise the hatch won't be able to slide open.

Ahhhhh, Bondo!! Often referred to as 'Bog' here in New Zealand.
I use it quite a lot and have also used it in silicon molds.
Yes I have had the cracking/crumbling problems too.
There seem to be many different formulas on the market and I find that standard hardware stores (A least in this country) just carry generic polyester filler more suited to fill holes in timber etc around the house. Automotive finishing suppliers often have more of a range more suited to modelling.
I use U-Pol's ISOPON P38. See what this guy does with P38..David Sisson Models

Alien


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## Radiodugger

U-Pol's ISOPON P38 is not available in the U.S. unfortunately. I get this at WalMart for about $12:










Doug


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## Fernando Mureb

The problem to make the inner hatch slide is avoiding the door to block the lighting of the computer circuit panel when opened.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

I see 3 options to solve the problem:

1) electroluminescent sheet (maybe not strong luminescence enough for the purpose) 

2) lateral lighting, with the use of tiny smd led 

3) mini LCD screen (an idea originally by Teslabe, if I am not wrong).


----------



## Radiodugger

I never thought of that! Hmmm...thanks! There may be a way...

Doug


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## Alien

Fernando Mureb said:


> The problem to make the inner hatch slide is avoiding the door to block the lighting of the computer circuit panel when opened.


Fernando, you have hit the nail on the head with this observation.
I am just in the process of removing the inner hatch from its frame in my first steps to make it slide. I will build a nice new frame from styrene strip and will also need to trim off the back of the support beam (Parts 59 & 60.) to create room.

As the computer circuit wall is slightly angled away from the hatch I reckon there will be enough room to make a sheet styrene wedge shaped box behind the clear computer wall (part 96) and use SMD LEDs as a light source. (Your Option 2 Fernando. The simplest option and I like simple.)

To get even more room, the hatch could be also moved a couple of millimetres closer to the outside of the ship without causing too much visual distortion.
I plan to first build the new door frame with the hatch in place and able to slide. I will then concentrate on how to fit it and the lighting for the computer wall

I will see how it all looks as I progress on my build and report back.

Alien


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## Alien

For those playing along at home, an update on making my interior hatch slide. I am sure that there are many other ways to do this, but this is my story.

After much head scratching, measuring, dry fitting, procrastinating, and holding my tongue at just the right angle, a plan was 'hatched'. Small Jupiter 2 making the hatch open joke. Waits for applause.... Nope. Silence.
It was time to attack part #51. Big ups to Moebius for molding the hatch detail on both sides of the part, even though only one side would seen on a standard build up.
All traces of the door frame were chiselled and sanded away from both sides. The hatch needed a strip of 1mm styrene to widen out the right side (looking from the outside of the ship.) to match the left that was already wider because of the sanded away frame now becoming part of the hatch. I trimmed the hatch height to 59mm and glued a 2.5mm square styrene strip across the top. (The reason for this will become apparent.)

I used part #52 as a pattern to cut a new airlock wall. I then removed enough material from its outside edge to allow the outer hatch to be able to slide past.
The support beam, parts #59 and #60, was cut at an angle down its rear to make way for the sliding interior hatch. The computer wall, part #49, also had to have its left hand side wall trimmed to match the trimmed support beam and not block the sliding hatch.

I made a new internal and external door frame out of strip styrene, putting my plan in place for the sliding action.
Here is a cross section of what I built.
Sorry, I didn't have time to draw it to scale or paint it.









So the hatch slides resting on to top of my new frame section.

I glued the side of the new frame to wall part #52. As the frame is quite delicate I decided to glue #52 in place, making sure to get it perfectly perpendicular with the floor. I then glued my newly cut off support beam #59 & 60 to the floor, again ensuring that it was perpendicular. I could then glue my frame to that support beam. I then added my new airlock wall and glued that to the inside of the door frame.
It is now all as solid as a rock.

A couple of pieces of 2mm square styrene (The two boxes at the bottom of my drawing) were added as guides for the sliding hatch hidden inside the saucer.
I will add a door stop (Hatch stop?) to these pieces to stop the hatch being pushed into the bowels of the ship. But that will have to be added once it is all painted.
The hatch slides very easily although I would not use this method if you were putting a sliding door in your house.:wink2:
Here are some photos of what it looks like.


















And there should be plenty of room to light up that computer wall.
Probably next on my to do list.

Alien


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## Radiodugger

Beautiful! Alien, you NAILED it! All the other doors in the interior should go the same way! Thank you! This will be saved in my build folder!

Doug


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## Alien

I was examining the circuit block wall (Clear part #96) and one thing really bothered me.
The parts rear is has a large rectangular indented section. This depression overlaps some of the circuit blocks and would become very obvious if the part was to be rear illuminated.
Also, it would be better if the decals could be affixed to the rear of the part instead of over the front of the blocks. The indented rectangle would make that very problematic.

A search around the net offered me no solutions so I put my thinking cap on and this is what I came up with.

I sanded the rear of part #96. Just keep sanding, sanding sanding! Wet sanding on a dead flat surface. I use an old tempered glass bathroom shelf as my flat surface.
Finally the outer frame was gone, leaving me with three sets of the circuit cube units looking surprisingly like clear chocolate blocks. _Mmmmm Chocolate!_:smile2:
I cut some clear styrene sheet to the correct size and affixed the decals to it. Yes, I did make a little template to get them all aligned in the correct places.









Now all I have to do is to apply some transparent orange, red and yellow paint to the cube pieces and then glue them on top of the decaled clear styrene. It will look like there are circuit boards inside the cubes instead of decals stuck to the outside. 

I anyone plans to do this then be aware that the three cube units that you end up with are not all quite the same size. Test fit them into the wall (Part #49) and label them before you start gluing them to the new clear styrene sheet.

Alien


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## Alien

Me Again.
Like the Terminator... "I'll be back"

I am building my own electronics to light the Fusion Core.
I know there are many commercial products available but I like to roll my own.
My unit will be microcontroller based so I can program it to do pretty much what I want. There will be eight sets of 4 LEDs.

I plan to have a switch to select the mode of operation and the following modes:

Slow chase
Medium speed chase
Fast Chase
All LEDs fading up and down at low intensity. (The J2 in neutral)
Animated routine. From slow fading, then ramping up to fast chase and then slowing down and dropping to fading, and repeating.

Have I missed anything?? 
Any other ideas for core light effects??

My printed circuit board should arrive in a few days so I will be in to programming and less into sanding and gluing.

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Hi Alien!!

Fantastic job on the hatches and computer wall! Brilliant and ingenious ideas!! I downloaded the pictures for future reference. Thank you for sharing your work in such level of details, helping us to get through all this when we face the challenge, one day. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Concerning to the computer wall lighting, that would be my option too, since I am getting used to deal with soldering those tiny 0804 SMD LEDs (I learned a lot along my projects of the Chariot and Space Pod builds).

The first, which has a WIP thread here at HT, has been paralyzed for a long time, but it will be resumed soon, I hope. The last kit is almost completed and I will show complete details in pictures in a, kind of, step-by-step thread.

Again, thank you and keep posting. For now on consider this thread as yours. :wave:


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## Radiodugger

I'm glad we got this thread going again! That computer wall. I was thinking of going this route:










Details here:

Jupiter*2? Curicit Wall Enhancement Kit by fedoratron.com

Whatcha think?

Doug


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## Alien

Fernando Mureb said:


> For now on consider this thread as yours.


Fernando, Thanks for your kind words and the gift of this thread. I am honored. I hope that I can live up to it. 0

Oh yes, 0804 SMD LEDs. Designed to encourage lots of colorful language from modelers as they fly out of the grip of tweezers and disappear in the midst of the workbench and floor.

And I really look forward to your photos and step by step. You work is always exceptional.

Doug,
Yes, I have seen that kit from Fedoratron for the circuit wall. It looks pretty darn good and I did consider it but in the end I thought that I could do just as well with the kit parts and a bit of work. (And I didn't need the lighting bits as I am doing that myself.)

I do really like Fedoratrons Freezer Wall photo etch. That could be a winner, winner, chicken dinner.
I may get me one of those.

And I also need to go and buy some .25mm Fiber Optic to use on the Paragrafix control panels. I only have .5mm and that is a bit too thick.

I got my PCB back from the fabricator and it fits. Phew!








No, I did not waste the hole in the middle. I made a little PCB to hold LEDs for the top radar dome. _Waste not. Want not._
I am waiting for my last component to arrive and I will then solder it all together. I have done my programming for the light effects and it looks OK but I am only running four LEDs on my prototyping board, so I may have to do a couple of tweaks when I the real thing assembled driving all 32 LEDs. _It is all in the look!_

I have had a go at the Inertial Navigator. I sanded all the little raised bumps of the top of the ball (Part #43) and drilled 0.5mm holes to install fiber optic.
I cut the base off the bottom of the ball (Part #44) and drilled a 3mm hole for a 3mm LED to be inserted. The base of the LED will replace the removed base of part 43. Then I drilled two small holes down through parts 42 and 41 for the LEDs wires.
I will post photos when I get the fiber installed.

Now here is a question for all you Jupiter 2 modelers.
The bottom part of the Stasis Tubes (Part #20) has a cross of styrene across the bottom opening. Clear part #106 sits on top of this.. But...... Would it look better if the cross of styrene was removed and replaced with thinner material. To me it looks a bit too thick. What do you reckon??

Alien


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## Radiodugger

Alien said:


> I do really like Fedoratrons Freezer Wall photo etch. That could be a winner, winner, chicken dinner. I may get me one of those.
> 
> Now here is a question for all you Jupiter 2 modelers.
> The bottom part of the Stasis Tubes (Part #20) has a cross of styrene across the bottom opening. Clear part #106 sits on top of this.. But...... Would it look better if the cross of styrene was removed and replaced with thinner material. To me it looks a bit too thick. What do you reckon??


Alien, you mean like this?



















Here is Clear part #106:










The cross of styrene being removed and replaced with thinner material like thin Evergreen strip, or even scraps of brass photo etch might work!

Doug


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## Alien

That is exactly it Doug.
Those brass etches will save a lot of tedious painting of the clear parts.

BTW
The styrene cross under the elevator seems to be more the correct thickness (Width). I reckon the freezing tubes should be about the same.
At least in the photos that I have seen. I may be just being picky and completely wrong. It has happened before:grin2:

Alien


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## Alien

Not much progress, but I started the arduous work on the Freezer Wall Units and I came up with an idea. 
OK, so many of you will say that this is an old idea and we have done it already, but just in case......

I wanted to prime the Wall Units and I didn't have enough spring grip thingys (Tweezers, clamps etc) to hold all six for priming.

So I used a scrap piece of thick cardboard and punched six holes with a leather punch to allow the units to squeeze tightly into those holes.
Voila! (That's your actual French)
Perfect painting holder.









So now it will be out with the Alclad black paint and then Alclad Chrome. *Shiny!!* (Whoops I think thats from a different franchaise.)
Alien


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## WEAPON X

Alien, Love your technique on the outer hatch door. Do you have any more photos to share such as long stills and or perhaps a short videos? 



Alien said:


> OK Doug and interested others.
> 
> *Exterior J2 Hatch Opening*
> 
> Using a sharp hobby knife, I just kept cutting and cutting until I could remove the hatch from the hull.
> I cleaned up the removed hatch's edges and glued 1.5x2mm Evergreen styrene strip around all the edges and filled and sanded. The Hatch is about 1.5mm thick.
> Here is a photo of the hatch in place, with the saucer assembled, and you can see the styrene strip and red putty.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On the bottom of the saucer I glued 1.5mm square strip 1.5mm back from the raised lip. You have to remove one of the mounting points from both the top and bottom of the saucer otherwise the hatch will not slide.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Using the hatch part as a guide I framed the area where it travels with 1.5mm square strip.
> Across the top (Bottom of this photo.) I added a 1x2mm strip to stop the hatch just falling inside the ship.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Now, I tape the hatch in place with some masking tape (Otherwise the hatch won't stay in place. Gravity is a heartless b*tch) and assemble the two halves of the ship together. Remove the tape and presto, the hatch slides.
> I do need to do some other cosmetic things like blend in the bottom 1.5mm square strip into the floor section.
> 
> And I will also attack the inner hatch and make that slide too.
> 
> And here is a photo of the Astrogator with some brass wire holding up the little J2 model. I reckon it makes a big difference.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> BTW, The bottom disk is grey because I primed it. There are four ejector pin marks that I had to clean off. They where annoying me.
> 
> I also unpacked the clear parts last night. The clear part that goes into the fusion core was broken in my box. Grrrr. :frown2: I will have to use some clear plastic sheet to replace it.
> 
> Also, my 'Static Discharge Tubes' (Part 104) have big air bubbles in them. I will need to replace them with some clear rod. I did find some Plastruct blue tinted clear rod in my plastic stash that might do the trick. Anyone got any other suggestions on what to use?
> 
> Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Alien

Do you have images of the freezing tubes floor from the full scale mockup showing that cross support? Or is this a feature that appears only in blueprints?


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## Alien

Thanks Weapon.
I don't have any more photos but I can certainly take some if you can describe what you want. I don't know what you mean by 'long stills'.

A video would just be my chubby finger sliding the door open and closed. Maybe not that interesting?


Fernando
That cross support (That's a far better description.) is actually there on the studio set. Have a look at this image. It is not great but it does show it.
Lost in Space color freezing tubes photo for sale
I also have Robert Rowe's book _Lost in Space DESIGN:"No Place To Hide"_. This is mainly full of CAD drawings but has a clearer version of that photo. All the CAD drawings also show the support but I cannot comment on their accuracy.

Not a very interesting photo but here are my Freezer Wall Units sprayed with Alclad black gloss (Left) and then with Alclad chrome (Right).








Alclad Chrome... A thing of beauty!


Just an aside... Wall part #48, that contains a door and the location for the ladder parts (#26), has a few tooling marks on the wall around where the ladder parts go. Wasn't obvious (To me at least.) before I applied paint. Now it is *really* obvious and will need some sanding and maybe a little putty.

Alien


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## Alien

I threw caution to the wind and modified one of the Freezing Tube bases. I think it looks a lot better.










0.5mm square Evergreen styrene strip to the rescue.
Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

It seems more in scale compared to the image you have issued.


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## Alien

Hi guys, Still no one else posting on their own Jupiter 2 build?
I can't be the only one building this kit...Can I?

Well there has been some minor progress. I received the last electronic component I needed to build my fusion core, so I built it, and tweeked the programming. The result was very pleasing.








I won't bother posting a video as you know what it looks like working.

I did go to the art supply store and brought a frosty sheet of polypropylene to replace my broken clear part #94. It is still just held in with masking tape in the above photo. The frosty plastic works well.
BTW. If you want to do something similar then cut a circle of 113mm outer diameter and 102mm inner diameter. This will result in something that will wrap around the angled inside of the outer ports of the fusion core part #30 or #31.

I replaced all the cross support with thinner plastic on the freezing tube bases (Part #20) and built up the tops.








All looking good after a coat of primer.

Next I tackled one of the freezer walls (Part #15)
I decided that sanding off the raised controls, to be replaced with Paragrafix photo etch, was going to be a real pain. And the molding on the raised panel was a bit soft. So I cut out the three top panels and replaced them with sheet styrene. (White in the below photo.) and cemented a strip at the top to become the raised panel.
Superglued the Paragrafix panels on. And I used some fine wire to simulate the pipework around the freezing gizmos.








Should look a lot better with a coat of primer. 
And I have to make these modifications to the other two walls. Sigh!

*Two tips from the Alien.*
1) Supergluing the photoetch panels at the right location and not crooked. _Superglue always sets up JUST before you have the part in exactly the correct location_. :surprise:
Position the photoetch and tape it in place with some masking tape.
But only tape it in place down one side!!! The tape becomes a hinge that you can use to fold down the photoetch, apply superglue, and fold it back up to the correct position.

2) Now the photoetch panels are in place, I need to drill out some teeny tiny holes, with my Dremel, for fiber optic strands.
One of the best accessories for a Dremel (And Dremel doesn't sell it.) is a foot switch to switch the power on and off. (If you have a cordless Dremel tool then you are sc**wed!)
You can place your drill bit securely into one of the photoetch holes and press the foot switch to start the Dremel. You will never get the drill bit wobbling around causing damage when you have accidentally missed the hole while it is rotating.
The foot switch is also very useful for other Dremel operations too.


*And just an observation:*:nerd:
Although the Freezing Wall Floor Units (Parts #102 and 103) are stated as being painted in Chrome Silver (As you know I Alclad Chromed mine.) I have noticed that only the bulbous bits are chrome. The base, top bent pipe, and the joiners between the bulbous bits seem to be more of an Aluminium (Aluminum for you yanks.).
Any comments on this before I mask off and paint my units?

Alien


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## Alien

Another quick post.
I finished gluing (with PVA) all the fiber optics into the Inertial Navigator ball.
The small short pieces of fiber where mushroomed out on one end by the heat from a soldering iron. This made sure that they didn't vanish into the ball.
Here is a quick (Not great) photo of it lit up.
It looks better in real life.
They all say that!









You can also see that I have got the photo etch installed.

You may notice that the instrument panel handles have been replaced with brass wire. It is not that the etched Paragrafix handles were bad.
And it is certainly not because one of the etched handles flew out of my tweezers and disappeared into the worm hole on my workbench to become 'lost in space'... No No No No No... YES!

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Great job my friend!! I am tacking detailed notes of your experience and download the images for future reference. 

I have the intention to begin my project between the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017.

All my projects so far, have had as one of their objectives, besides have fun with them, prepare myself and my skills, to face the J2 chalenge. Because I have great plans for my favorite spaceship. For example, to make both hatches motorized and remote controled.

So, I have a lot to learn building the Chariot, the Space Pod, the Robot B9 and the C-57D spaceship, lesrn about working into very small spaces (miniaturization), soldering tiny smd leds, programing arduino boards, etc, to get close to Teslabe's skills before start building.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

edit: not to mention Tim Nolan, Steve 123, Starseeker, Captain Hans Solo, Ductapeforever (RIP), The misterious japanese guy (Model Studios), Colhero, you and many others.


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## Alien

Thanks Fernando,

I can see that you have started your thread on the Space Pod.
I will be following your build with interest.

I commend you on wanting to motorize the J2 hatches. At least there is plenty of room to install servos or stepper motors to achieve this.
How about doing the landing legs as well??

And yes Arduino's are a godsend for the modeler to be able to blink LEDs, control motors etc etc with lots of useful add on devices to do all sorts of weird and wonderful things. 
I tend to use a standard microcontroller chip and build all the interfaces I need. I use Microchip PIC controllers. In fact Microchip has just purchased Atmel (The microcontrollers used in Arduinos) so it will be interesting how the different chips will evolve.

Alien


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## Alien

You guys may like to file this away for future reference.
Or even go and buy some now! 
*They are as cheap as chips.*
Don't know if you use that expression in your countries. But these are cheap!
I stumbled across them some months ago and now I have a use.








LED illuminated plastic panels designed for backlights for LCD screens.
More information here:https://www.adafruit.com/products/1621
This is the biggest of three available sizes. But notice the dimensions of this module. It is almost the same size as the J2 freezer walls. Unbelievable!:grin2:

These should work fantastically well. No light hot spots from multiple individual LEDs. They could also be used instead of EL sheet in other models with no need for a pesky bulky inverter/driver. (But they are not flexible like EL sheet/Lightsheet)

I ordered three of these and a couple of the smaller ones last night.
Already had a shipping confirmation email. Fast service!

I am excited. I will let you know how they go when the package finds its way Downunder to me.

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

:surprise: WOW!!!

That is what I was looking for for years!!! Thank you!

I hope it fits exactly the stasis walls, as well as the computer wall.

Fingers crossed. :wave:


----------



## Alien

Well I have been a bit lazy so I don't have too much to share.
There has been a bit of painting, removing of plastic for the photo etch parts, some head scratching, clips to hold my polypropylene sheet inside the fusion core, and of course sanding sanding sanding.

The Paragrafix parts do make a huge difference.










I have to say that adding the photo etch to the control console displays made my skin crawl. These consoles were originally from Burroughs computers and back in the day I used to work for IBM and Burroughs was our sworn enemy.

Anyway, I am just starting to close in the area behind the screen to stop light leaks, from an LED yet to be installed, in the above photo.

So all pretty boring really.. But I got a delivery in the mail.
My order from Adafruit, containing the LED backlight panels arrived.
Nice speedy shipping and very well packed.

The big panels will fit beautifully behind the freezing walls. I will just have to make some supports out of styrene to hold them.
*But what do they look like, I hear you cry.*

With the aid of some MDF and masking tape to hold one of the panels in place, I took this photo.








The photo makes the backlight look more bluish than it is in real life but a spray of some transparent blue paint over the clear freezer wall parts (#16) should make it look perfect.


I have also been head scratching over how best to light the freezing tubes.
I have designed some round printed circuit boards that will contain an SMD LED and a dropping resistor. These will (I hope) fit flush into the holes in the floor part #3. The LED is mounted dead center on the board so any light hot spot will be under the freezing tubes base cross support (Part #20). 
If this works out well I will make the boards available for anyone to order a set from the printed circuit board company.

Over and out for now.
Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Alien

The LED backlight panel looks fantastic!! Is it flexible enough to be accommodated to the wall's curvature?


----------



## Alien

Fernando Mureb said:


> The LED backlight panel looks fantastic!! Is it flexible enough to be accommodated to the wall's curvature?


No, it is a solid piece of acrylic so not bendable at all. Unless you want to try bending it in an oven... Scary! And probably the outer coatings would melt.
However, it won't matter in this case. If you fit it parallel to the middle section of the freezer wall, then the outer walls angles are not large enough to cause a viewing problem. Especially if the clear freezer wall is frosted a bit.

I will post some pictures when I get around to building some brackets to hold the three of them in place. My MDF block and masking tape that I used to mount one of them for the photo did not do them much justice.:grin2:

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Check this out: Easily Bend Sheet Acrylic / Plexiglass With Home Tools


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## Alien

Nice web site Fernando.

I still don't think that you would be able to bend these LED backlight modules. Although they are mainly 3mm acrylic sheet, they have a thin layer of white plastic attached to both sides as well as some sort of aluminium foil glued around the edges. I think any kind of heat would destroy the thin plastic and any glue as well.
With this aluminium foil around the edges you would also not be able to cut the panel into smaller sizes, as the light dissipation would be compromised.
Even if you could bend it, the bent sheet may no longer work to distribute the light evenly. (Sorry, my light photon theory is a bit rusty.) 
If you really need flexible sheet lighting then Electro Luminescent sheet (AKA Lightsheet) would be a better option. Even though EL sheet does not have anywhere near the lifespan of LEDs, you can bend it and cut it to different shapes.

_Useless piece of information: Electro Luminescent sheet is actually a LEC (Light Emiting Capacitor)_

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Alien said:


> I still don't think that you would be able to bend these LED backlight modules. Although they are mainly 3mm acrylic sheet, they have a thin layer of white plastic attached to both sides as well as some sort of aluminium foil glued around the edges. I think any kind of heat would destroy the thin plastic and any glue as well.






Alien said:


> With this aluminium foil around the edges you would also not be able to cut the panel into smaller sizes, as the light dissipation would be compromised.


----------



## Alien

Fernando,
Don't cry. It will all be OK..

Just think of these Backlight panels as another tool in the model lighting tool box.
And even though they are not bendable or cutable, they are going to be very useful.
And the large panels are going to work perfectly behind the J2 freezer walls. (Even though they are not bendable!) Lots better and simpler than EL sheet or lots of individual LEDs.
For this application they are a winner.

Alien


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## Richard Baker

Alien said:


> Fernando,
> Don't cry. It will all be OK..
> 
> Just think of these Backlight panels as another tool in the model lighting tool box.
> And even though they are not bendable or cutable, they are going to be very useful.
> And the large panels are going to work perfectly behind the J2 freezer walls. (Even though they are not bendable!) Lots better and simpler than EL sheet or lots of individual LEDs.
> For this application they are a winner.
> 
> Alien


I really love those LED panels!- which resister did you use?


----------



## Alien

Richard Baker said:


> I really love those LED panels!- which resister did you use?


Richard,
The LEDs in these panels are rated as 3 volts at 20mA (0.02 Amp)

As they are 3 volts you can connect them to a 3 volt battery without the need for a dropping resistor. Easy way to test them!.

But using our old friend, Ohms law, to calculate a dropping resistor:
(Your supply voltage - 3)/.02 = Dropping resistor in ohms.

So for a 12 volt power supply: (12-3)/.02= 450 ohms
I would always add a few ohms as a safety measure, so I would suggest 470 ohms for a 12 volt supply voltage.
The resistor should be 1/4 watt or larger.

Hope this helps.
Alien


----------



## Alien

And just to prove that I have actually been doing some work on the kit.
I have finished the Pilot chairs and painted those mushroom things brass. (Brass mushrooms?? I have heard of Brass Monkeys!)










I assembled the chairs and painted them satin black. I used Humbrol (British paint from Hornby/Airfix) satin black as it has the look of black leather.
After the black was fully dried I masked off the seat cushions with masking tape and used Humbrol Maskol (liquid mask) in the side holes and other tricky bits. Then a coat of metallic Humbrol Aluminium.

They do look suitably leathery and metallicy.


*Questions for you guys:*

Do you think I should fill the circular groove on the floor (Part #3) that delineates the two flooring colors??
I am guessing Moebius just put it there as a painting guide, rather than a detail feature.

After much thought, I am going to build the J2 with landing gear retracted and create some sort of stand for it to sit on.
My current thought is to build something out of clear acrylic sheet.
(I did a laser cutting course a couple of years ago and I am itching to book some time on the laser and go and burn things.> )
I may build a flat wooden base and have three pieces of the acrylic coming up from it to hold the model, in a similar fashion to the Launch Gantry, but nowhere near as big..
And I have to think about getting power to it as well. Hmmm.
Anybody go any other ideas? I couldn't find much inspiration on the internet.

Alien


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Alien said:


> Do you think I should fill the circular groove on the floor (Part #3) that delineates the two flooring colors??


YES



Alien said:


> After much thought, I am going to build the J2 with landing gear retracted and create some sort of stand for it to sit on.


Please don't do that!!!


----------



## robiwon2

I have all three sizes of those LED panels. They are basically an LED in one end of an acrylic block. There is a reflective backing around the edges and a white plastic backer as mentioned. The smaller ones light up nicely, but the big one does not light evenly as the light has to travel so far. Its noticeably brighter on one end. Not flexible at all. Still, nice to have in the lighting arsenal. I just haven't found a use for them yet.


----------



## Alien

Hi Guys,

Just a quick post as I have made almost zero progress on the build apart from doing a small amount of painting. :crying:

*Robiwon:* My large LED panels seem to be very evenly lit across their entire surface. However there is a noticeable brighter area around where the LED is located. But I still think they will be fantastic behind the freezer walls.

*Fernando:* Why are you so keen to have landing gear, rather than an in flight display?? The J2 looks much sleeker without the landing gear deployed.


And here is something I noticed on the Moebius Paint Chart. 
A quick search of HobbyTalk did not find any mention of this. Maybe I am the first to notice it.

*Color F, Burnt Umber* is listed as ModelMaster Enamel #2006 and Acryl #4605
However.... #2006 is actually Raw Umber!!!!
Burnt Umber enamel is #2005 
I think this is a bit of a typo on the instruction sheet. So take note if you are ordering paint.

Alien


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Alien said:


> *Fernando:* Why are you so keen to have landing gear, rather than an in flight display?? The J2 looks much sleeker without the landing gear deployed.
> Alien


The more reference pictures I have from smart modelers like you, the easier will be my build.  >


----------



## Radiodugger

Alien said:


> *Fernando:* Why are you so keen to have landing gear, rather than an in flight display?? The J2 looks much sleeker without the landing gear deployed.


Interesting. I made mine so you can remove the gear and place the covers in place (micro magnets). I like options. A bit of modification is necessary. Attachments are no longer possible, so I can't show ya pix...

Doug


----------



## Alien

Radiodugger said:


> Interesting. I made mine so you can remove the gear and place the covers in place (micro magnets). I like options. A bit of modification is necessary. Attachments are no longer possible, so I can't show ya pix...
> 
> Doug


Doug,

I would love to see the photos and I am sure others would too.
Sign up to one of the free photo sharing sites like PhotoBucket, upload your photos, and then you can link them into a Hobbytalk post.
Easy peasy.

Alien


----------



## Radiodugger

Alien said:


> Sign up to one of the free photo sharing sites like PhotoBucket, upload your photos, and then you can link them into a Hobbytalk post.


I guess I have to do that. It _was_ so easy _here! _Just attach the file! Things are changing and NOT for the better.

Doug


----------



## Y3a

The elegant landing gear IS what makes the Jupiter 2 special for me. Look what a great solution the footpad doors are! 

I am building one with the HERO LEGS and footpads so I can record it landing and taking off.  
In space I will be using the 2nd one I bought without gear but with interiors (year 1 and 3) which will have the horrid LED style fusion core BUT with my own take on the spinner in the bubble. The "Hero Version" will have the pod doors puttied over. I painted that one with "Steel" which is a flat silver grey. The In Space version will be in good old silver.


----------



## Radiodugger

Y3a said:


> The elegant landing gear IS what makes the Jupiter 2 special for me. Look what a great solution the footpad doors are!
> 
> I am building one with the HERO LEGS and footpads so I can record it landing and taking off.


Are they going to operate? I'm still noodling your ideas...

Doug


----------



## Alien

Y3a said:


> The elegant landing gear IS what makes the Jupiter 2 special for me. Look what a great solution the footpad doors are!
> 
> I am building one with the HERO LEGS and footpads so I can record it landing and taking off.
> In space I will be using the 2nd one I bought without gear but with interiors (year 1 and 3) which will have the horrid LED style fusion core BUT with my own take on the spinner in the bubble. The "Hero Version" will have the pod doors puttied over. I painted that one with "Steel" which is a flat silver grey. The In Space version will be in good old silver.


I would love to see some photos of your hero landing gear.

What are your plans for the spinner in the bubble??

I do take your point about the LED fusion core lighting.
The chasing is typically very 'sharp'.
i.e. 

1st LED turns on.
Wait a short period.
1st LED turns off and 2nd LED turns on.
Wait a short period.
And so on..

My current fusion core LED does exactly this.
But as it is fully programmable, I am going to try something else.
I have done this before to animate a rotating light on a model Police car, with four red LEDs, and it looked pretty good.

So it goes like this:

1st LED fades up from off.
Wait a short period.
2nd LED fades up from off as the 1st LED fades down to off.
Wait a short period.
3rd LED fades up from off as 2nd LED fades down to off.
Wait a short period.
And so on... You get the idea

This makes the chase look more like a mechanical rotating light effect. It is not perfect but does make it look a lot better than the hard chase.


And a question from me.
What color is the vertical stripe down the bottom half of the electronic telescope under the screen (part #45).
The stripe color is not listed in the instructions and the photo does not make a color pop into my mind.


Alien


----------



## Y3a

Radiodugger said:


> Are they going to operate? I'm still noodling your ideas...
> 
> Doug


Yes. Legs and footpad doors held shut by slight tension. Pulled down by a jackshaft type arrangement. I'l be using very thin steel cables in flexible tubing similar to the brake cables on 10 speed bikes. They are attached to the brass rods that are the "hydraulic rams" attached to the footpads. This allows the model to be powered down and the legs will still hold position. Fusion core and bubble will be connected by a brass tube and spun via HO scale train motor and NorthWest Shortline gear boxes, with six LED's spinning in the fusion core, and another 6 LED's below the spinning "V" in the bubble like the hero had. Those LED's also backlight the famous 'scrim interior'. Model is held up by 3 thin steel wires which will power the interior mechanics. In my photo collection are some diagrams of what I'm blathering about.


----------



## Radiodugger

Y3a said:


> Yes. Legs and footpad doors held shut by slight tension. Pulled down by a jackshaft type arrangement. I'l be using very thin steel cables in flexible tubing similar to the brake cables on 10 speed bikes.
> 
> They are attached to the brass rods that are the "hydraulic rams" attached to the footpads. This allows the model to be powered down and the legs will still hold position.
> 
> Fusion core and bubble will be connected by a brass tube and spun via HO scale train motor and NorthWest Shortline gear boxes, with six LED's spinning in the fusion core, and another 6 LED's below the spinning "V" in the bubble like the hero had.
> 
> Those LED's also backlight the famous 'scrim interior'. Model is held up by 3 thin steel wires which will power the interior mechanics.


Frickin' GENIOUS! You are another Hobby Talk member I find outstandingly talented, and detail-oriented! And this:



Y3a said:


> In my photo collection are some diagrams...


Yes! These:














































This is a pic Flint Mitchell had Greg Jein take of the Hero landing leg:










I was one of the first to have those photos. More than 200 of them. That was back in the 70's...

That diagram is EXACTLY how the Hero gear worked! The layout was a bit different, but you NAILED it! This should be VERY useful to those modelers wishing to have working gear, Thank you Y3a! :thumbsup:

Doug


----------



## Y3a

So Doug, what did you do in radio? 
Engineer? Have any other audio related hobbies? 

I do vintage audio/audiophile stuff.
(DB Systems preamp, Crown PSA2, KEF 104aB's, FONS CQ30/SME 3009type 2 and Grace F9e super. Backup speakers are JBL 4312's)


----------



## Radiodugger

Y3a said:


> So Doug, what did you do in radio?


Oh, man! I could write a book! 40 years! Disc Jockey mostly. Engineer, Producer, Executive Producer, Program Director, Music Director, Talk Show Host, Whipping Boy...I mean every job but sportscaster (I despise sports!). I also did anchor work in TV, but that didn't work out too good. I'm an _UGLY_ mf'er! Ha!



Y3a said:


> Have any other audio related hobbies?


Yes. I have an AM Radio Station. Part 15 certified. It broadcasts all over Downtown Augusta. I just got a new transmitter. I also have a 30-watt FM Stereo transmitter. But, I don't _dare_ turn _that_ on. I am not licensed for that. A $10,000 fine from the FCC ain't worth it...



Y3a said:


> I do vintage audio/audiophile stuff..,Backup speakers are JBL 4312's


WOW! I had the 4310s! What a speaker! We used the '12s at the radio station in the control room. Here is the 4310:










Back on topic, _bicycle cable_ is EXACTLY what I need! _YESS!_ Brake cables! You just gave me an idea...boy am I gonna be busy...

Doug


----------



## Y3a

Go to a hobby shop and get the RC airplane sized versions as they will be far more flexible and suited to what you need!

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXD862&P=0

I remember studying to get a 3rd class radiotelephone license back in the early 1970's but then DISCO came around and I became an audio engineer (AES). 
Thats how I came to own several Crown poweramps preamps and JBL loudspeakers. I hate the paper cone tweeters in the 4300's.


----------



## Radiodugger

Wow! Dubro's Flex Cable is perfect for planes, boats, and cars. It is a braided
metal cable inside a flexible nylon tube, mainly used for connecting the
throttle or steerable nose gear to the servo. 

Exactly what I need! Fully adjustable, it won't stretch or shrink with changing weather conditions. Threaded coupler, and solder link included. 1/16" Diameter. 1 per pack.

So I need 3 of these. Motor/jackshaft? That might be a challenge. But where there is a _will_...

Doug


----------



## Alien

Y3a,

KEF 104aB speakers. Brilliant! With the passive radiator (The speaker you have without actually having a speaker with a magnet and voice coil.) I had a KEF kit of the 104aB's. You got a baffle boards with the woofer and tweeters mounted on them and you had to build your own cabinets. I loved those speakers.

Alien


----------



## Y3a

You'll need 6 of them. 3 for the legs and 3 for the footpad doors.


----------



## Y3a

Alien said:


> Y3a,
> 
> KEF 104aB speakers. Brilliant! With the passive radiator (The speaker you have without actually having a speaker with a magnet and voice coil.) I had a KEF kit of the 104aB's. You got a baffle boards with the woofer and tweeters mounted on them and you had to build your own cabinets. I loved those speakers.
> 
> Alien


Remember, I was an audio engineer and sales guy who SOLD KEF's back in the late 1970's and early 1980's. I am familiar wih ALL the KEFs. Favorites = KEF Cantadas.
They are my almost favorite loud speakers. I re-capped them a month ago and I almost wet my pants every time I crank the with a my Crown PSA2, recently re-caped as well by Corey, from Sound Technologies in Springfield VA. I actually own 2 pairs, and with them running as a pair per side at 16 ohms from the PSA2, upside down on the biggest cinderblocks the image and power has been unmatcha:surprise:ble.


----------



## Alien

Y3a,

Oh yeah!
I did the cinder block sort of thing too. When I made my cabinets, I made them taller than specification so I could have a closed in area at the bottom to house a cinder block to weight them down.
Ahhhh memories! 

Now days everyone wants tiny speakers with a sub woofer behind the couch. These don't sound anywhere near as good as larger floor standers.

Alien.


----------



## Alien

I do love it when the Postie (AKA Mailman) drops off some mail.
My printed circuit boards arrived.

I got three sets of these:









A bit of cutting and sanding resulted in:









I will tell you what the long thin ones are for in a later post.:wink2:

Soldered on some LEDs and resistors and wired them together and this is where they go: (Perfect fit.)









Sorry I have not finished the painting of the floor yet.

Let there be light:









I plan to mask off the LEDs and paint the PCBs white.

Progress.... YES!

Alien


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Fantastic!!!


----------



## Alien

Well, I haven't quite been asleep at the wheel so I thought I would share a quick photo.
It was time to paint the Burnt Umber on the floor. Not a particularly difficult job but I wanted the transition between the Dark Tan and the Burnt Umber to be as crisp as possible right around the full circle. Any faults would be extremely obvious so I was a bit worried as I only wanted to paint it all once. :|
I grabbed my trusty circle cutter and cut two circles out of thick cardboard and glued them together. (The photo shows them upside down.) The smaller circle fits into the centre Astrogator hole in the floor and the larger circle stops it falling through and is where the point of my circle cutter pokes into.
I then put a new blade in the cutter. 0
I masked off the Dark Tan section using PVC masking tape. This stuff is easy to cut and results in a very sharp edge. Then around I went with the circle cutter... Removed the excess masking and sprayed the Burnt Umber
Here is the result. (With the circle cutter and cardboard plug taking a bow.)








Note that there are strips of standard masking tape keeping the paint away from where the Support Beam Sections attach so I can glue them down directly to the floor section without paint interfering with the glue.

I think it has turned out very well with a nice crisp paint transition.
Once it has dried for a couple of days I will spray it with a clear coat to protect it from my chubby fingers and other things I might drop, rub, or splash on it throughout the build. Matt paint is easily scuffed!

And I have also completed the modifications on the other two freezing wall sections to match my first one that I have already posted a photo of. I still have to drill all the holes for the fibre optics (Note to self. I must order the fibre optics!) Then I will start the painting.

Alien


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Great job Alien!

Did you use something to seal the masking tapes so that the paint didn't penetrate under them?


----------



## Alien

Fernando,
No, I just made very sure that the tape was well stuck down and sprayed perpendicular to the surface to reduce any bleeding.

This is the tape I used..SuperMask 10 Day PVC Masking Tape
You probably cannot get this brand locally but I am sure that there will be something similar.
Sellotape brand is very common here. In fact most people refer to sticky tape as 'sellotape' rather than names like scotch tape. (Even though Scotch tape is readily available.) I think Sellotape was the only sticky tape available in New Zealand many many years ago.

Alien


----------



## Alien

Not much progress. But I promised to show what those long thin printed circuit boards are for.










I made a little wedge shaped box to house the PCB with a LED soldered on. This will focus the light over the ceiling recessed light panel that I cut out of part #85 Ceiling Soffit. I will cover the hole with some frosty plastic.
I will make some more wedges for the elevator and stair openings.

I now am about to build a little circuit with a microcontroller to flash a number of LEDs to go behind the various panels.

Alien


----------



## Alien

Well I made something that I didn't think I was going to make.
I previously mentioned that my kit had the fusion core clear insert (Part #94) bent and broken. Too much model and not enough box. :crying:

Also, the top of Part #72, the elevator cage, was also quite badly bent out of shape.
That will be easily fixed with some hot water and careful bending I thought to myself. 

Well...... maybe my water was too hot, or I left the part in it too long, but it just bent itself even worse than it was. :frown2:

I had some 1.2mm brass rod in my stash. (Exactly the right amount too. That never happens!)
I cut new vertical uprights to replace both part #72 and #73 and using the floor as a template I drilled 5 holes in some 18mm MDF and poked the uprights through them.
I wrapped some of the rod tightly around a Humbrol paint tin to get the correct curvature for the horizontal rungs.
Yes, a Humbrol tin is a smaller diameter than required, but the rod will sproing out to a larger diameter when you release your grip.
(BTW. 'Sproing' is a very technical term used when bending wire and rod.:wink2: )
I then cut the correct number of curved rungs and started to build the cage.
I soldered the first rungs in between vertical uprights. The rung rested on the MDF so soldering was easy. I then pulled the uprights through the MDF to the correct level and laid another rung down and soldered it in. 
I kept repeating the process and the cage looked like it was rising was rising out of a sea of MDF.

Here is the result with my brass rod coated in some metal primer.









Kit part #74 fits nicely on the top after its holes were drilled out.
And the whole cage is tough and rigid.

I just have to paint it Aluminum.

Alien


----------



## fire91bird

That's some amazing work right there. Just excellent.


----------



## Y3a

Where's the push buttons? I made something similar for the PL kit more than a decade ago.


----------



## Alien

Thanks for your kind comments Fire91bird.

Y3a. The push buttons (I guess you mean the elevator controls) are in my box of bits with a coat of primer.
I want to thread fiber optics to light some of the buttons. I will probably drill a hole is the rear wall to achieve this but I am still thinking about that. So that is why the part is not glued in.
The elevator cage is also not glued in yet. I will paint it aluminium or aluminum (depends if I use British Humbrol or American Model Master) first.

I know what you mean about the Polar Lights Jupiter2. I have that kit in my stash but have never built it up. Wasn't the elevator cage clear styrene tube halves with cage ribs cast on it??
Interesting idea to solve the problem of injection molding such a small open cage, but it did look a bit hideous. Photo etch would have been a better idea but that would add too much cost to the kit.
I can certainly see why you modified it.

Alien


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Alien said:


> Here is the result with my brass rod coated in some metal primer.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Alien


GASP!!

:surprise::surprise::surprise::surprise::surprise:


----------



## Alien

Deep breaths Fernando.. Thanks for your gasp.
I have to say it is all in the 'jig'. (Simple MDF block with holes drilled through it in this case.)
A old work colleague always said "Always make a jig"

Well it was a cold rainy winters day here in Wellington yesterday. A good day to do some work on the freezing wall Magne-panels.
All I needed was masking tape, a ruler, a knife and my trusty leather punch.

If you haven't got a leather punch I recommend a visit to your local hardware store and pick one up. I have had mine for many years and while it has never seen any leather, it is ideal for punching styrene, masking tape, cardboard etc.
The largest hole was big enough to punch the tape so it would go around the discs where the Magne-panel Brass Mushrooms (Parts #17) go.

So here is a photo of the assembly line.









I put masking tape on the rear of the parts to avoid any splatter from when I spray them black, followed by aluminum.
The black paint makes a good undercoat for the metallic aluminum and also serves as a light blocker from the lights behind. Aluminum paint can be a bit translucent.

I will also paint the elevator cage at the same time.

Alien


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Alien

Why are you not going to use the Fedoratron photoetch set of the stasis walls?


----------



## Alien

Fernando,

Yes, I did consider the Fedoratron photo-etch.
But if you look at the photos and videos of the set, the 'grill' material is actually very fine wire mesh and from a distance sometimes even looks like it is invisible, especially with the lights behind it.
I think that the Fedoratron parts are a bit too bulky in the grill area. To much brass and not enough space. (To my eyes at least.)

I think the clear kit parts may be a better option. But I will make that final determination after painting and doing a light test.

My other idea was to cut out the grill areas and replace them with net curtain fabric. Model railroaders often use this method to model chain link fences. With a decent coat of paint you would never know it was fabric. But it would be a lot of work to remove the clear grill areas so I would rather not. Lazy!

Alien


----------



## Alien

Oh boy, Oh boy, Oh boy,
I just had to share this picture as it has worked out better than I expected.
This is my first light test of a static discharge tube.

The kit tubes (Part#104) all had air bubbles (A problem in their injection molding) so I was not going to use them.
In my plastic stash I had some 5/32" (Grrrr, I hate imperial measures. About 3.9mm) Plastruct Fluorescent rod. I have had one length of it for years as I thought that it looked really cool when I saw it in the hobby shop. 
If you keep something long enough, you will find a use for it. (That's what my wife says about me. :wink2: )

I drilled a 3mm hole in one end, long enough to put a standard 3mm blue LED in.
I drilled right through the static discharge top (Part #21) with a 3.9mm drill so my Plastruct rod would push right through. The end of the rod will go through the ceiling soffit and I will drill the existing mounting hole out to 3.9mm to accept it.

Let there be light....









I have not painted the top and bottom so they are glowing a bit. (Black paint and a coat of aluminum is the next step)
And please excuse the blob of Blu-tack holding the bottom of the tube down.

It actually looks better in real life as the camera does fiddle around with the colour and brightness.
I am really pleased. Winner, winner, Chicken dinner!:grin2:

Alien


----------



## Radiodugger

Alien said:


> I had some 5/32" (Grrrr, I hate imperial measures. About *3.9mm*) Plastruct Fluorescent rod...I drilled a *3mm* hole in one end, long enough to put a standard *3mm* blue LED in.
> 
> I drilled right through the static discharge top (Part #21) with a *3.9mm* drill...and I will drill the existing mounting hole out to 3.9mm to accept it.


AARGH! _I HATE metrics!_ All my tools are SAE! WTF is 3mm? OK, if you guys are like me, Old School SAE, here is a useful tool:

Millimeter to Inch Chart

Damn metrics. Can't make heads or tails of that _millimeter_ chit! :wink2:

Doug


----------



## Alien

Doug,
I do feel your metric pain, really I do.
My dad had two sets of spanners, wrenches and sockets.
I grew up with the imperial system. New Zealand converted to metric in the mid seventies, but we still see the old measures sneak into our language. (ie. How tall you are. How much that new born baby weighs.)
But if you visit New Zealand and see a road sign that reads '100', don't think that you can drive 100mph. It's 100 Kilometres/hour. (About 62mph)

We still say things like 'inch forward'. _'Millimetre forward'_ doesn't quite have that ring to it.
I always found all the old fractions used for measurements annoying and confusing (eg. 3/64th 5/16th etc). I would rather just use a decimal figure so that is why I love the metric system. But that is the way my brain works.

And I always remember the look on a woman's face, in a US store, when she asked my wife what the summertime temperature was like New Zealand.
"Typically mid to late 20's" said my wife. Big gasp, and a look of horror, until the other woman behind the counter looked at her and shook her head and said "Celcius" (It is around 80F if you wanted to know.)

Alien


----------



## Alien

Here is another quick pic.
This is just a test to see how it looks. 

Others may have a better idea so post away.

The Support Beams inner edges on the studio set were illuminated and also appear to have some chrome strip on either side of the lighted area.
I have been scratching my head and this is what I came up with.










I cut a 4.5mm (Sorry Doug, metric again) strip of aluminum foil sticky tape. I then cut a 4mm strip of white reflective tape and stuck it to the foil tape.
Then I applied the foil, with the reflective tape, to the edge of the support beam.
I hope that the reflective tape will glow somewhat, giving the impression of being lit.

The reflective tape looks quite a lot rougher than it does in real life. Camera trick!

Alien


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Alien said:


> If you keep something long enough, you will find a use for it. (That's what my wife says about me. :wink2: )
> Alien


Ahahahahahahahahahah LOL


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Hi Alien! Thanks for the joke. I was stressed, but not anymore. 

As for the discharge tube, I had the same idea and bought bluish fluorescent rods. They are in the Jupiter 2 box with several other aftermarket stuff to improve the kit. 

As for the wall beams supports, I have a great ambition of making them glow, fading in and out, maybe using translucent plastic tubes, curved to match the supports and with various cuts on the inside curvature to allow for lateral light "leakage".

This is a tip given by Starseeker and I have the link to the YouTube video where he found out the idea, if you want it. 

The other way would be the far more complex process adopted by that mysterious and ingenious Japanese guy that made complete led circuits for all the supports.

Do you know who am I talking about?


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Anyway, your idea was duly recorded for future reference, just in case. Thanks and congratulations for your great work so far!


----------



## Alien

Fernando Mureb said:


> This is a tip given by Starseeker and I have the link to the YouTube video where he found out the idea, if you want it.


Fernando,
Yes please, link me up.

I would love to have the Support Beams lit and fading up and down.
I can do the fading very easily using a micro controller, but hollowing out the Support Beams to get LEDs inside them would be the real challenge.

Alien


----------



## whereisanykey

What I've decided to do on the Moebius is to scratch build those parts. Then, using translucent material will be easier to light up. On the edges I'll use silver trim tape. I noticed that different thickness of styrene will match the original parts and all one has to do is glue the different pieces together.


----------



## Alien

Yes, that is a good idea whereisanykey.

I wish I considered something like that before I started my build.
Another I idea I had of late would be to make silicon molds of an assembled Support Beam and cast them in clear resin. LED's could be mounted at their rear edge to make the front edge glow. 

I think that I will have to stick (Sorry about the pun) to reflective tape or maybe I will just use strips of pure white decal sheet. Still deciding.


BTW. I am a computer nerd and I can tell you exactly where the 'Any Key' is..
Back in the day, when the phrase was first used, I convinced a number of our sales reps that it was a finger widths in from the extreme left of the space bar and that you had to hit it pretty exactly at the right spot.
It brought endless smiles to the faces of us techo's to occasionally watch the reps carefully working out where to press the space bar. :laugh:

Alien


----------



## David3

EL wire is another way to go to light the wall beams
High-Bright EL Wire kits $0.63/ft. in 10 colors, EL Wire inverters 
it'd only require a small mod to the walls to fit them in

here its being used to light the maintenance bay under the Millennium Falcon floor
go to 6:30 in the video


----------



## whereisanykey

Allen: 
Since I'm still working on the 66" Enterprise it has left little room for other work. Once that is done I'll get back to the Jupiter I started. Because of that long ordeal I've had time to think of other options. I did consider the clear resin but I will be extending the beams to the roof. 

When I first watched the ModelManTom's videos it made me consider methods in implementing proper techniques that are scaled for the best representation. For the computer wall I made a circuit board to mount the individual LED's that will have a 3V or so regulator so no resistors will be needed. Fedoratron made a board for MMT that would simulate those individual circuit boards that were mounted there. 

Originally I was going to use an Arduino board for all the lighting but that seemed impractical since each section has some king of effects and the mass of wiring would be horrendous. Since then I've found the ATTINY 8pin, 20pin chips that will accomplish the same thing on a smaller scale. The 8pin ATTiny85 would have six outputs incluing PWM. 

I had already done the B205 computers with fiber optic cable. I shaved off the studs so the entire inside was the same thickness and with the photoetch as a guide drilled all the holes. With the back cover on I was able to shave off all the fibers with a square exacto blade. The back cover holds all the fibers without the need for any glue. 

I do want to motorize a number of things, the tape drives I'm thinking about some type of tape so it seems to be winding. To do this I'll take two photoetch sets and make a tape reel with two brass pieces. It'll be much easier to motorize the radar displays. 

I'm still thinking on any way to electronically open/close the main door hatch. Maybe adding styrene strips to three sides and some type of guides. I've been thinking it would require an electromagnet move it slightly in and out. 

I took some screen captures of the early shows to see about building that antenna type mast atop the ship he was working on. I noticed that same prop was used in a later episode. 

BTW: In the early internet I found I needed a handle/username for an account. I simply could not think of Anything. I remember seeing the clip of that and so decided to use that as a name. But THAT is a pretty unique answer for where it is. I guess I could have used "PressAnyKey".


----------



## Alien

David3
I like that use of the EL wire. Good option for the Jupiter 2 and there is plenty of room to house the EL inverter/driver.
I am always jealous seeing the DeAgostini Falcon. Not available in my country and I would have to take out a loan just to pay for postage.

whereisanykey,
Nice ideas there, thanks for sharing.
I still have to buy some fibre optics to do the computer panels, control consoles, as well as the panels above the freezer walls.

I too would love to animate the radar screens and center console. But maybe not on this build.
I also think that the Paragrafix transparent sheet (Part C) for the center console display is not well defined enough. (I did a quick test with it and the brass spoked disk behind it.) 
I would have used tiny stepper motors to spin the disk, as well as disks with a slit cut in them for the radar screens.

If you want to motorize the doors, maybe try a small radio control servo. An Arduino will be able to drive it and a servo has all the necessary drive gears to make it 'relatively' easy to make work.

I have made this little circuit on some Veroboardto flash my LEDs.








It uses a Microchip PIC 16F505. This is a low speed, low function micro controller but I am just using it to flash LEDs so it is more than adequate.
It has 11 outputs, and I am feeding 7 of them into a ULN2003 which is a set of 7 driver transistors as the chip is not able to drive the number of LEDs that I want to use directly. It is hooked up to my little PCB with 2 white LEDs that will go into the top radar dish assembly as strobes.

I plan to house the board behind the communications center as the majority of blinking LEDs will be in there or next door in the main console.
I just have to finish the programming as all it currently does is flash the strobe LEDs.

Alien


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## Radiodugger

whereisanykey said:


> ...I'm still thinking on any way to electronically open/close the main door hatch. Maybe adding styrene strips to three sides and some type of guides. *I've been thinking it would require an electromagnet move it slightly in and out*.


BINGO! That is _exactly_ what I have been noodling for *months!* Just some kind of neo, micro thingy. I thought about electronically opening/closing the main door hatch, but I'd be happy with it manual.

Doug


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## whereisanykey

It would be incredibly cool to have a micro switch that would operate the door as was done in the show.


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## Alien

If you are into programming micro controllers like an Arduino, you could capacitive switch technology.
Just a metal plate or some wire behind the plastic kit part, or connected to a photo etch part, then just by getting your finger close, the circuit would be triggered.
Real high tech stuff. And very impressive!

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Hi guys! 

Here are the links I have mentioned. 

This is for the lighting technique to bend and lit an translucent rod. 






This is the site of that fantastic Japanese modeler. 

Moebius Jupiter2 - ???? - MODEL STUDIO IS - Yahoo!???

By the way, great ideas here! Thanks for sharing.


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## Fernando Mureb

If the link above doesn't work, try this one. 

?????????? - MODEL STUDIO IS - Yahoo!???


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## Radiodugger

Alien said:


> If you are into programming micro controllers like an Arduino, you could capacitive switch technology.
> Just a metal plate or some wire behind the plastic kit part, or connected to a photo etch part, then just by getting your finger close, the circuit would be triggered.
> Real high tech stuff. And very impressive!
> 
> Alien



There we go with the _Arduino_ again! Gaaahh! I gotta get one of these things. The possibilities are staggering! Motor control, light control, timers...the damn thing is programmable, on and on!

Opening doors is a really good application here. And a light just went on...ohh man. See, you mentioned Arduino...and folks, if you do NOT know about the Arduino, please educate yourself:

https://www.arduino.cc/

Y3a mentioned servo motors. For the landing gear and stuff. I have seen some tiny precision robotic motors. I mean there is nothing you can't do if you are determined. Look at Mark Myers' work! Alien and Fernando _are far_ ahead of me, in skill and creativity. 

One needs tools. I need a Dremel, a soldering kit, a silicone work mat, a Helping Hand Rig...I have a long way to go. I still have to get the Smooth-On Starter Set. I tend to scratch build, and I'm out of RTV. See, you can go as far as you want:

Alumilite Corporation

With me, less is more. I'm blind in one eye, so assembling electronics and fine-scale models is much more difficult now. Motivation comes from talent like Alien and these guys. If I have not said it before...thank you!

Doug


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## Alien

Great links Fernando.

That Japanese guy has got the support beams nailed. Even including the roof beams too. Fantastic!
And look at all those LEDs.. 

I love how he has cut out some of the top of the saucer to enable easy interior viewing. But where is the upper deck??:surprise:
And I notice he hasn't done what we are going to do and replace the Static Discharge Tubes. They are like ours with bubbles in them. But I will forgive him.

I would love to be able to build a 'Jacobs Ladder' (rising spark thingy) that was used in the Static Discharge Tubes on set.
I built one years ago, and used a car ignition coil to generate the lethal high voltage. Sadly I don't think it would scale down to 1/35th scale. And it got hot!
But I do love the smell of ozone in the morning! :grin2:


Thanks again for the kind comments Doug.
I am quite humbled that what I do inspires others. And that is what HobbyLink is all about. My Jupiter 2 would still be in its box if I wasn't kicked into action after seeing what others were doing on the Forums.

Yes yes, yes, try an Arduino or other micro-controller for your modelling.
You have to get your head around programming in C, but after that, the doors are thrown open to wonderful possibilities.

The first thing you traditionally do when you learn to do computer programming is to display "Hello World" on the screen. But with a micro-controller you get to blink LEDs. Much more satisfying!!:smile2:

Many years ago I built KITT from Knight Rider. It had a working scanner with indicators and brake lights that turned on and off. I built the circuitry using eight 4000 series CMOS chips (If anyone knows what they are? Gates, Flip Flops, and Counters) with lots of connecting wire between them. Now I could do the same, and lots better and quicker, with a single micro-controller chip and it would be cheaper too.

Off to so some more airbrushing. I am fed up painting bland Flat Sand.

Alien


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## whereisanykey

Did you hard wire all the chips. It's not difficult to make your own PC boards. With current software now it's pretty easy to fabricate a layout for photoetch, especially when there is autoplace and autoroute. I tried the PC Fab in a box but couldn't get decent results. I may have found what possibly went wrong. It would help for the times when a photoresist board becomes unusable and are left with a blank copper board.

Greg


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## Alien

whereisanykey said:


> Did you hard wire all the chips.


Greg,
For KITT, I used Veroboard to mount all the chips and soldered many many jumper wires to connect them all together.
I quite like Veroboard. It is great for simple one off projects. I find hand drawing the layout on graph paper first, refines the design and makes the actual build go much more smoothly.

Yes, I do get my own boards made. Look back on this thread and you will see some simple ones as well as the my much more complicated Fusion Core PCB.
I use Eagle, from CADSoft, free version. Same as the commercial version but you are limited to 2 copper layers and restricted on physical size.
But there are lots of other free ones out there, like KiCAD and even a web based one, EasyEDA.

If I want a couple of boards I usually go to OSHPark.com in Oregon. US$5 a square inch for a double sided board including worldwide shipping. And for that price you actually get three copies of your board. You can't beat the free worldwide shipping, especially for me all the way down here in New Zealand.

And I feel your pain making your own boards with photo resist etc. I hate doing that, as my results were also pretty variable.
If you want to make your own boards, you could try 'Press N Peel' film. You print your PCB design on the film using a Laser Printer and then iron it on to your copper PCB. The Laser toner forms the resist. I haven't used this myself but many love it.

Alien


----------



## whereisanykey

I use the PCB123 software, which is also free, without any limitations. I generally make 4X6 boards that contain multiple instances of the circuit. Their software is intended to have them make the boards but I use it to print out the circuit on clear sheets and expose the photoresist and etch the board. After that I use the liquid tin solution. 

The PC FAB is something like you describe. I prints on special paper with a laser printer and is laminated to the board. From some things I've read I might not have used it properly. The biggest problem was the toner not sticking to the copper well enough. Since I have some plain copper boards I may try using that method again. One problem I may have done is the way I cooled the board down. After those problems I went back to the photoresist boards. That was the method I used years ago. Back then they were negative resist. I had to lay out a board and take it to a lithographer to have a negative made and then proceed with the board. Nowadays with available software packages there isn't the issue with mistakes in board design. 

One thing I found with the etchant is it's not necessary to use it 1:1. I found I could dilute it 2:1 and use a heat gun to bring up its temperature and the etchant process is quicker and less issues with trace degradation.

Greg


----------



## Radiodugger

For my 1st AM broadcast transmitter years ago, I had my PCB made by a professional. It was copied from an existing commercial AM transmitter. It only cost me $50, but was as good as a Gates Solid State! 

We didn't have the DIY stuff we have today. The SSTRAN 3000 I just bought has a PCB like this:










But look how everything is crowded onto that little square:










I would knock that down into two or three separate units, and spread everything out a bit. But my question is, _can a person etch a board like this?_ The stuff I have seen is delicate, and not really durable. 

The Jupiter 2 has a ton of space under the floor for stuff like this. If you guys are good at etching boards...well then. There _is_ no limit!

Doug


----------



## whereisanykey

The problem I've found is there doesn't seem to be an effective way to make plated through holes. I haven't went into the extent of silkscreening as those boards are. Also there is no way for a hobbyist to make multilayer boards. 

I had problems with double-sided contacts under IC sockets. It was nearly impossible to make the proper solder connections. So I redid the boards and put almost all the traces on the bottom and the ones on top didn't connect to IC's. You can set the software to follow this method, and then manually adjust it for better results. 

I had tried to think of some type of jig for the circuit boards that would have two acrylic sheets that the board would be in between. Then they would be pulled together to hold everything in place. They could be done on both sides at the same time. In this method one could lay in the clear film for the photo resist and then also the silkscreen in the next step. I just don't have any idea how to construct such a jig. There would have to be guides and a threaded adjustment to close the two together. 

For the Jupiter II my plan is to use the ATTINY 85 8pin chip with up to 6 LED's mounted in about a 1" square board. If I start with a 4X6 board I can make quite a few individual boards. Some will use the Tiny 2313/4313 20 pin IC's. Those LED's will drive fiber optics. Where I need to drive LED's by themselves I'll use the LED holes and wire to the discreet LED's. 

In order to make things neater I've started on expanding the floor to almost the edge of the saucer. I can then mount everything on the top. This way all the electronics will be right behind the lighting effect. This will make it possible to show the back rooms. Instead of cutting it out of 8X11 sheets I think I'll check into larger size sheets so it can be made in one piece. That will make it easier to put together.

Greg


----------



## Alien

Greg,

You are so right about not being able to make plated through holes.
If you are making your own double sided boards you have to be especially careful in the design so you can solder components on the top of the board as well as the bottom to get the connections between the copper layers that you need. Sometimes you even have to add extra holes so that you can solder a blind wire between the top and bottom to get a connection, as you can't solder the top of items like IC sockets etc. (As you have pointed out.)

Another thing that you can't do (Or is really hard to do.) is lay down a solder mask.
These days the 'silkscreen' layers (Marking components, connections, test points, logos etc.) and solder masks are not silk screened, but squirted out of special inkjet printers. 

But the cost of getting professional PCB's made from your designs these days is 'cheap as chips'. Hardly worth the bother of trying to DIY. IMHO

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

I plan to build 2 boards of 9 random blinking LEDs, with different velocities between both boards, just to make the lighting of the three Burroughs consoles on the main control. Some connections of the slower board are going to drive the LEDs that will light the communications section.

I will have one more board like the other two, but with a faster blinking velocity to drive the FOs which will light up the three consoles on the top of the stasis walls.

Finally, one more board with steady LEDs to drive the FOs that will light up the several buttons that control doors and hatches.

First thoughts.


----------



## Newbie123

Alien - really beautiful work. I'm so looking forward to seeing how this all turns out. Thanks for taking the time to post all of this!


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## Alien

Thanks Newbie123.
Appreciate your comments.

Fernando,
I like your lighting style.

And on the lighting topic.. It was time to drill holes for some fiber optic strands around the door on Part #48, that also contains the stairs , fire extinguishers and control panel.
There are pairs of little raised bumps indicating the lights. These would have to be sanded off and a pair of very small holes drilled through. (0.6mm)
It is really important to get the holes evenly spaced and level, otherwise it will look terrible.
It is very difficult to line up a drill bit (In a pin vise or in a drill press.) as it often does not drill exactly where you want it as it is so darn small. 

This is a solution that was suggested to me a long time ago by the same person that nick named me Alien!
(I am sure that many of you will be saying that this a old idea and we already do it... But for those that don't, read on.)










Drill two holes in some scrap styrene sheet. The only thing that you need to worry about is to get them the correct distance apart.
Cut two short strips and glue a shorter rectangle of styrene to them, making sure that they are separated by the width of the molded in light bezels on part #48. The completed assembly should snuggly fit over that bezel.

Now trim up your sheet, with the holes in it, and glue it across the two strips, making sure that the holes are exactly located between the two strips, and the holes are the correct distance from the end.

Now you can use your new jig to drill your holes. 
Sand off the molded bumps on a bezel and fit your jig over it.
It will now locate your drill bit precisely to drill the two holes.

This photo shows the top bezel drilled out and the jig fitted to the bottom bezel ready for drilling.









My holes are prefect. And no bad language or putty was required 0 
At least most of the other parts are replaced by photo etch so drilling is a breeze.
Hope that this may help others..

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Alien said:


> Fernando,
> I like your lighting style.


Thanks, my friend.



Alien said:


> There are pairs of little raised bumps indicating the lights. These would have to be sanded off and a pair of very small holes drilled through. (0.6mm)
> It is really important to get the holes evenly spaced and level, otherwise it will look terrible.
> It is very difficult to line up a drill bit (In a pin vise or in a drill press.) as it often does not drill exactly where you want it as it is so darn small.
> 
> This is a solution that was suggested to me a long time ago by the same person that nick named me Alien!
> (I am sure that many of you will be saying that this a old idea and we already do it... But for those that don't, read on.)
> Alien


Here! Me! I did not know about this simple, clever idea. :thumbsup:
So, thank you for being a detail-oriented guy and, please, continue underestimating me.


----------



## Alien

Small update...
I have been doing a bit of research.
I previously asked on this thread what is the colour of the stripe down the bottom of the Communication Station (Part #45) as it is not listed in the instructions. 
No one replied.. *Hello* is there any one out there....???

Well, I have sorted it. It is indeed Flat RAF Interior Green. Great, easy paint job! 
But wait, there's more!

It does not appear to go right down to the floor, as is shown in the instructions. The piece, outlined in red on the photo, should be Flat Armour Sand.

I also noted that the two decals (COMMUNICATIONS STATION, LEFT and RIGHT), that look like three 3D circles, are meant to represent raised discs on the sides of the panel.
Because of problems, and cost, of molds to have them represented correctly Moebius did the next best thing and supplied decals.

Easy fix. Using my trusty Leather Punch (Already featured in this thread.) I punched discs out of styrene sheet.

They are just posed for the photo. I will have to sand off some paint and glue them on permanently.

And for those that noticed, I have not yet painted the Flat Armour Sand around most of part #45. I will get to it...










Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Alien

The color on the communications section around the screen, around the two consoles just below it and on the recessed area behind and below the telescope is, at least to my eyes, the same green of the main control console.

To me, the green stops at the seam where the wall of the base makes an angle to the rear and goes till the floor.

I attached two pictures from the second season.

However, the exact color of everything in the Jupiter 2 was always a theme for interminable debates, due the changes caused by the lights used in scenes inside the filming set. So, do what you like the most. :wave:


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Sorry, I couldn't upload the images as attachments because they are in an incorrect format for this forum. So I uploaded them to my photobucket page and posted them below.

The quality is a little bad because of the compressed format of the archives and due the fact that they are print screens from the DVD before being remastered.


----------



## Alien

Two great photos. Thanks Fernando.

And how am I going to create those switch toggles at the bottom of the two lower panels? Hmmm.

Alien


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## Alien

Not much progress, sorry folks.
I have done a bit of painting, but that makes a boring photo.

But I have attacked the Elevator/Lift pedestal (#75).
The Paragrafixphoto etch was glued over the control panel and the holes were drilled through part #75. The holes all exit into the cavity at the rear of the part, and that cavity is large enough to house a SMD LED.

I used the Fernando method of lighting and I soldered wires to a white SMD LED. 
The cavity did need a small amount of grinding with a Dremel to make it slightly deeper for the LED to lie nicely inside.
I cut small lengths of 0.5mm fiber optic strand and very slightly flared out one end with the heat from a soldering iron.
The strands were inserted down the holes. The LED was held in position and clear epoxy glue used to hold it all together.









And when turned over and powered up, it looks like this.









The LED is too bright so I will adjust that with a resistor. And I have to use some Tamiya Clear paints to tint the ends of the fibers.
I will drill a hole in wall behind the pedestal for the wires to feed through.

Alien


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## whereisanykey

On those toggles I would try and use some small square styrene and butt all the pieces together and file them down. They could be stuck together with a tiny drop of CA and would easily separate. That would give the uniformity of each switch. 

If you want precise evenly spaced hole you can use the guides 

https://www.amazon.com/INCRA-TINYT0...9_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=4V5VPS3H9ZF80BBKV51E

There's quite a variety of these rulers and are of very good quality.

Greg


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## Fernando Mureb

Alien said:


> The LED is too bright so I will adjust that with a resistor. And I have to use some Tamiya Clear paints to tint the ends of the fibers.
> I will drill a hole in wall behind the pedestal for the wires to feed through.
> 
> Alien


Wow! Very Nice. 

One more tip. If possible, paint the tip of each FO after the melting process and before push them through the holes to make it easier painting those tiny things without blurring the other fibers.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

whereisanykey said:


> On those toggles I would try and use some small square styrene and butt all the pieces together and file them down. They could be stuck together with a tiny drop of CA and would easily separate. That would give the uniformity of each switch.
> 
> If you want precise evenly spaced hole you can use the guides
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/INCRA-TINYT0...9_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=4V5VPS3H9ZF80BBKV51E
> 
> There's quite a variety of these rulers and are of very good quality.


Great tip, whereisanykey! Thank you! I'm gonna buy it.


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## Alien

Fernando Mureb said:


> Wow! Very Nice.
> 
> One more tip. If possible, paint the tip of each FO after the melting process and before push them through the holes to make it easier painting those tiny things without blurring the other fibers.


Fernando, 
Thanks for pointing out my little mistake. :crying: I was thinking the exact same thing as I was waiting for the epoxy glue to dry. It was a bit too late to do anything about it. Now where is my smallest paint brush? 


And really nice rulers whereisanykey! 
It is a pity that they are in inches. I want metric! But I found the INCRA company's web site and they do make metric ones and there is even a local dealer here in New Zealand (Even though their Australian details are the only ones listed on their web site. Grrr)

Alien


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## Alien

Just a quick pic for those who are thinking of making the internal hatch slide.

There is indeed enough room to build a styrene light box, to aid in illuminating the circuit wall, without fouling the sliding hatch.










You can see the triangular light box with the hatch sliding nicely behind it. There is a strip of three LEDs stuck to the right hand end that illuminate the circuit wall as well as the rectangular holes (I guess they were illuminated amp or volt panel meters on the set.) in the top panel.
The light box will also get a top to stop any light spill.

Alien


----------



## Alien

And here is another progress shot.
I usually forget to take photos as I do a build so you all will have to put up with some boring ones as I progress.

I found a piece of plumbing pipe in my plastic stash and it was the right side to go around the lit base of the elevator.
I cut a length of 15mm and cut a round disc from sheet styrene to glue over one end. 
I then used one of my left over printed circuit boards, that I had made for the bottom of the freezing tubes, soldered an SMD LED and resistor to it and stuck it in.
With a small piece of my favorite frosty plastic (Draughting vellum.) over the end it illuminates really nicely









I just need to glue it to the floor under the elevator..

Some of you may wonder why I used an SMD LED instead of a standard 3mm or 5mm LED.
It is because SMDs distribute the light at a much wider angle and reduce light hot spots.

And some may be asking why I am using blue and brown cable to connect up all my LEDs.
Very technical answer. _*I have a lot of it.*_ Time I used it.:wink2:

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Great news on the sliding inner hatch!! Thanks for sharing your smart solution.


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## Alien

Thanks Fernando..
And that hatch could easily be motorized if you wanted to.


Here is another photo. This looks really tricky to do but believe me that getting a decent photo was harder.. :| 

I started to look at the Airlock Controls. I had sanded off the molded in controls on the various walls ready to install Paragrafix photo etch replacements. There is one problem with the etch replacements in that there is no raised panel area around the right hand vertical set of four indicators. It would have been nice if Paul from Paragraphix had made an additional etch part to affix over the main control panels (Paragrafix #19). Everyone is a critic. :wink2:

I also needed to make an additional Airlock Panel to go into the actual airlock area that now would be seen with the outer hatch able to be opened. I just used some 0.5mm styrene sheet and drilled holes in it using one of the etched parts as a template. And I also need to make another speaker for the airlock area. I have a plan and a photo will come. (If it works!)

To make the small raised panels, I used a wooden ice block/popsicle/coffee stirrer stick and superglued two pieces of 0.5mm sheet with a 1mm gap between them. The 1mm gap is to allow a strip of 1mm styrene to lie between the two pieces of sheet.
I then aligned and masking taped down a photo etched panel on top. I could then slide in my 1mm strip and drill four holes with the brass being my drilling guide. Then I slide the 1mm strip through and drill four more holes, and repeat.
A little drill press is ideal for the drilling but you could probably do this with a drill bit in a pin vise.
(BTW. My photo etch panel has had a coat of grey primer so that is why it is not brassy.)

So here is my latest jig.. Ta Dah!









I now just have to cut them all to size, round off the ends, and stick them on.

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Man, you are becoming my main reference on smart ideas for miniaturization! Keep posting, please.


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## Alien

The Air Lock control panels worked out pretty well.








My styrene copy is the one on the right.

And I went fiber-tastic on the wall (Part #48) with the internal door and ladder.








I still have to add the fire extinguishers and cabin pressure decal and also paint the tube containing the LED black, but the lights look pretty cool.
Fibers are colored with Tamiya clear paint.

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Beautiful!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


----------



## Alien

Another quick pic.
I decided to use Lighthouse/Tower LEDs for the five large blue lights on the panels below the TV screen on the Communication Centre Wall (Part #45) These LEDs are only 2mm wide so they fit nicely.
I had completely cut out the two panels, and replaced them with the Paragrafix photo etch parts (#9 and 10), so I had to build styrene mounts to glue the LEDs to. 









One I epoxy the LEDs to their mounts, I will paint them all black as a light block and then glue the assemblies in place with styrene cement. I will then pour some clear epoxy in to hold it all in place.
I will mount another LED to constantly illuminate the seven diamond indicators red. I hope to use the same LED that will illuminate the TV monitor to do that.

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

My friend, you are an inexhaustible source of good ideas.


----------



## Alien

Thanks again Fernando,

I didn't get much modelling done over the weekend. I am not a sports fan but every year I am glued to the TV to watch “The Great Race”. (My wife left for the day.) The Bathurst 1000 sees V8 Super Cars in an endurance race of 1000km (621 miles) around Mt Panorama in Bathurst west of Sydney Australia. And like the tracks name suggests, it is not a flat circuit and has lots of bends and ups and downs over 6km (3.8 miles). And after all that distance to race the winner (An Aussie..:crying: ), beat a Kiwi by just half a car length. Very exciting!

So, the airbrush did only come out for a short time.
I got all the raised areas on the Support Beams painted Flat Armour Sand.

I also lightly sprayed the clear walls (Part #16) with a coat of Tamiya clear blue.) 
The Magne-panels (Part #109), that I had already painted with aluminum around the frames, were given wash of black to accentuate the molded in mesh pattern.

I also finished painting the tape deck/computer translator (Part #89). I had previously wet sanded the rear of the part to open up the slot directly above the computer translator as it should be illuminated from behind. (I think that it was used as some sort of scanner in the series.)










Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

In fact, when one has several leisure interests, sometimes it seems contradictorily stressing making a choice about what activity to do, in order to relax the mind.:lol:


----------



## Alien

Hi Guys,

I am back... Waits for cheering... Nothing!:| 

My Dad died a couple of weeks ago so things have been a bit hectic. But he was 93 years old, and had had a good life, so it wasn't unexpected.

Any how, a little bit of progress.

I wanted to light the air lock controls on the support beam wall just inside the airlock.
As the other side of the support beam is in view, I couldn't just thread fiber optic strands right through. 
I decided to grind out an area behind the control panel. I glued a SMD LED to a thin piece of sheet styrene and glued it in to cover the hole.









This would have been a lot easier to do if I hadn't already glued the support beam in to sort out the opening of the hatch. 
Live and learn!


I also needed to create a new speaker to go inside the airlock itself.
I have used this simple method many times, and it may be of interest.

I grabbed some modelling clay (Plastercine in my case) and pressed it over the photo-etch speaker that I had already glued to the wall (Parts #55 & 56). This made a mold that I put a small dob of polyester filler (AKA Bondo) into and then pressed down sheet styrene over it to force it into the mold and get rid of any air bubbles.

Once it had cured, the clay was removed and the casting carefully removed from the styrene sheet.
It is not obvious in the photo, but it had a large amount of 'flash' around it. Some careful wet sanding removed the flash and some brass paint was added. 
This simple clay method offers really good fidelity on the copy, although the mold is destroyed on each casting. But it is quick and cheap.

_See if you can guess which is the Paragrafix part and which is my copy._









The copy is the one on the left. The real one still has some of my white clay on it and that makes it look more like a casting. Who did I fool??? 

I also finally got around to ordering some .25mm Fiber optic strand, and it arrived last week, so I will start to use it on the circuit panels on the freezing walls.


And while this was all going on, Murphy got me.
*Murpy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong*

In my case: If epoxy can find a gap to leak through, it will. :crying:
I put tape over the front of the two photo-etch panels below the video screen to seal it. I poured some clear epoxy in from behind to fix in my blue LEDs and create clear lens's for the diamond shaped lights. 
Well, the epoxy leaked and covered the photo-etch panels and a few other things.. Much bad language was to be heard.
There has been lots of sanding and painting happening. Too embarrassed to post a photo just at the moment. I think that I can save it. Fingers crossed!

Alien


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Hi Alien. 

I'm so sorry to hear about your dad. My dad is 92 yo now and has had a good and calm life so far. 

I think we are both lucky guys for having them with us for so long. 

And I hope we can reach their ages as well.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

By the way, excellent ideas for my collection! Thank you. 

And, say hello to Mr. Murphy for me, please. He is often an unwelcome guest here in my house.


----------



## kdaracal

Beautiful work, Alien!


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## Alien

Well, I am plodding along slowly.
Out with the Dremel and my 0.3mm drill bit to drill out the holes in the panels at the top of the Freezer walls (parts #15)
The replacement Paragrafix panels makes it easy to accurately locate the drill bit. 
I measured and cut lengths of my 0.25mm fiber optic strands and glued them in with clear epoxy glue.

Here is a photo of my first completed Freezer wall and some other bits and pieces.









I cut some of my frosted plastic sheet (That I had purchased to replace my broken clear fusion core window #94.) to go around behind the freezer wall assemblies to diffuse the lighting.
The cutouts along the top are to enable the fiber optic strands to exit out. You can also see slits below the cutouts. The reason for these will become clear in the next photo.
I have also drilled holes in the top rear of the two support beams that separate the freezer walls. This is to thread fiber optic that needs to snake across to reach an LED on the other side.
You can also see two sets of styrene tubes (A set of two and a set of three.) that will house my LEDs to light the fibers. There will be four blinking white LEDs and a constantly on red LED (This will light the two indicators at the extreme left of each panel.).









This is the next step. The frosted sheet is held in place by the LED tubes that are glued to a strip of styrene.
So now I have to install the LEDs, complete installing the fibers in the remaining two freezer walls, and then start threading the fibers though to be epoxied into the light tubes. And I will paint the light tubes black to block the light.

Onwards and upwards.
Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

Great job!! Where do you intend to put those LED illuminated plastic panels?


----------



## Alien

Fernando Mureb said:


> Great job!! Where do you intend to put those LED illuminated plastic panels?


Fernando, I will make plastic brackets for the LED panels to mount them about 10mm back from my frosted plastic sheet.

Here is a photo (Not a very good one.. Sorry) of one of the semi completed Freezer bays.
The freezing tube parts have just been placed on to pose for the photo and it is all lit by the light of my workshop.
And I still need to complete the front edges of the support beams.










I think my decision to paint 'joiners' and tops and bottoms of the bulbous freezing wall units aluminium, instead of chrome silver was a good one as it looks more like the studio set. 

All in all I am pretty pleased. Now I just have to complete the fiber installation of the other two walls before I can install the LEDs and epoxy the fibers into their tubes.

Alien


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## Fernando Mureb

This kit is a dream and you are making it better. 

There are 3 reasons why I didn't yet begin my project to it.

First, I need to improve my skills in electronics and robotics to be able to do what I want to this beauty. 

Second, so far I don't have an adequate room where to build and expose this beast. I am working on this. 

Third, the fear of have it all done and thus lost the interest on the hobby.  

Take care and keep the excellent work!


----------



## Alien

Hi guys,

It has been a pretty rough week here in New Zealand as you may have heard on your international news.
Last Monday morning (12:03am) there was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake about 160km from where I live in Wellington (New Zealand's capital.) and we were certainly shaken awake violently. There have been around 3000 after shocks since, some between 5 and 6 magnitude. And while I am typing this, there was a 4.6 one. The Wellington CBD was a ghost town on Monday as people were told to stay away while engineers checked buildings. I was certainly not going back to my 15th floor office knowing that there was likely to be some large after shocks. Three buildings are going to have to be pulled down due to imminent risk of collapse. And there was also some torrential rain on Monday to make matters worse causing some local flooding.
But spare a thought for the folks of the small eastern coastal town of Kaikoura, near the epicentre of the quake. Kaikoura is a tourist town, world famous for whale watching. Enormous land slides have cut off the main coastal highway and rail tracks to the north and the south, as well as the inland road. No power, water or sewage for the town. 1200+ tourists have been evacuated by Airforce helicopters and a Navy ship. But they were treated very well by the locals. Even a crayfish (AKA Lobster) breakfast before they left. Food, water and chemical toilets have been sent in. It will take many months to repair the main road and rail and they are tying to clear the inland road at the moment to initially allow supply trucks to get through. They have even set up an air traffic control hub to manage all the helicopters in the area. 

But if you want a bit of humor have a look at these photos if you have not seen them before.. Earthquake: More cows stranded on an outcrop of land after three saved | Stuff.co.nz
This would make a great scene for a model railroad but people would say that this could never happen. :wink2:
BTW, the cows were saved by the farmer.

So only a couple of photos to share today.
I have finished one piece. The top radar/scanner assembly.









You can see my round printed circuit board that has two LEDs replacing the two bulbs cast in part #35.
No, I did not bother to fill in the gaps where the center probe of the radar pokes through the dish. I thought that the gaps make it look a bit more real.

And after drilling, drilling, drilling and gluing, gluing gluing, all the fibers are all installed into the panels above the freezing walls.
The walls and their support beams are all glued in place, leaving me to start threading all the fiber strands to their respective LED tubes. 









I am off to hang on for dear life as the aftershocks still rock my world..

Alien (AKA White Knuckle)


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## Fernando Mureb

Hi Alien. 

I am sorry to hear about the earthquake in your country. I don't remember having heard about such phenomenon in New Zealand before. Generally we see things happening in Italy, Japan, and countries located on The Andes and Himalaya. I hope that the loss of lives have been very small or none. 

This wip thread have been one of the rare delightful oasis here in HT. Thanks for keep sharing your work.


----------



## Alien

Hi guys,

It has been a couple of weeks since my last update as I have been away on a little Holiday.
I have been visiting a friend who is the functions manager at a large vineyard and winery in Queenstown. Free accommodation, yeah!
You may not of heard of Queenstown but it is known as New Zealand's adventure capital, as well as being where a lot of The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit was filmed, because of the amazing scenery. 
So if you like skiing, jet boating, para-sailing, white and black water rafting, mountain biking, hiking, luging, zip lining and of course, bungy jumping (Queenstown is where commercial bungy jumping originated.) then Queenstown is the place to go.
And yes, I have previously thrown myself off a 140 feet bridge with an rubber band tied to my ankles. Loads of fun!


I have put the first coat of silver on the saucer halves. I was planning to use a rattle can but have settled on airbrushing Humbrol metallic silver enamel, paint number 11.
I have not posted photos. One silver saucer looks much like any other.


I still have to thread and connect all the fibers to the LEDs from the freezer control panels but I thought I would start to deal to the three computer panels (#28) on the main console.
Out with my 0.3mm drill bit to drill all the holes for the fibers. Exciting.... Not!

Something I forgot to mention previously, for those who have not already found out. The smallest collet (1/32”) on my Dremel will not grip tightly on to a 0.3mm drill bit. Annoying! But if you purchase Dremels screw-on 3 jaw chuck, then this grips the 0.3mm drill bit just fine.

All holes now drilled and I did not break my drill bit.. Yahoo!

I cut the middle section out of the computer panels mounting tabs and filed out a notch and this should allow me to feed the fibers down through the mounting hole in the main console part (#37). You can sort of see it in the console that is not taped to a stick.









I have sprayed the console fronts silver, although it just looks like greay primer in the photo. 
Next will be to mask the areas that will remain silver. 
Epoxy in the fibers and route them through the notch. 
Then glue on the console backs and spray it all black and then remove the masking tape.

Well that is the plan...

Alien


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## whereisanykey

I don't know what that size of bit is but I used a #70 or 72 bit. I only removed the thick parts on the ends of the back and left the plastic. This seemed to hold the .25mm fibers better. I also cut out the tab where the ends were about 1/16 in or less. When all those fibers are routed it pretty well fills up all that notched area. 
Also, the bits I used came from Drill Bits Unlimited. These were used in manufacturing for the drilling of PC boards. They have a collar on the bit so you can use the larger collets. Interestingly, if you happen to flick the bit with a finger it will break the bit. I used them in a low speed Dremel and just let the weight of the Dremel penetrate through the photoetch into the plastic. 
These are some of the types I bought. You can buy them by the box and they weren't too bad a price. 
Drill Sizes: .0035" to .037" - Drill Bits Unlimited.com

I wonder if those slots will be large enough. With only 1/16 on the ends all the fibers barely fit. Also I pre-painted the the faces. DuckEgg Blue seemed about right for the light panels when you look at the Burroughs machine. Once the fibers are all done it is easy to cut the fibers with the Exacto square ended blade. It was the same blade I used to cut off the round parts on the inside. 

I guess the bits I bought were 80,83,87 at around $30 for 50.

Greg


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## whereisanykey

This is an easier source for the sets.

Great deals from Drill Bits Unlimited | eBay Stores

Greg


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## Alien

Greg,

Great idea using the large shanked drill bits. :thumbsup:
I had not thought of that as I just happen to have standard drill bits down to 0.2mm.

BTW. A 0.3mm drill bit is 0.012" Smaller than a #80
The fibers that I am using are 0.25mm (0.01") so the slightly bigger hole makes the fibers easier to fit and the clear epoxy glue fills any gap.
I put masking tape over the front of the panel and poke the fibers in from the rear. The tape also helps to hold the fibers in place before gluing.

And I did something similar to what you did and left a good thickness of plastic on the front of the panel (Now covered by the photo etch) to help hold the fibers in place. 

I also use an Exacto square ended blade to cut the fibers but I have also used flat toe nail clippers that also work very well.
Yes I did purchase a new set for modelling.. No old toe nail clippings on my work bench. Yuk!

Thanks for the heads up regarding fitting all the fibers through the slot. I am planning to pre-cut all the fibers for one panel and lay them into the notch, to make sure that they will fit, before I start to do any gluing. I will do some trimming and cutting of the panels if need be.

Then I am going to have to start threading all my fibers.. Not looking forward to that.

Alien


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## whereisanykey

I didn't actually have to glue any of the fibers. All the fibers when meshed down through the slot and the back cover in place will hold themselves into place. I had thought I needed to glue them in but I found it was unnecessary. Just the pressure of ALL those fibers seem to hold the mass into place. If you were to grab a single fiber you could probably pull it out, but only on purpose. I suppose, once the back is in place, you could lay some tape on one side and spread some white glue in between the tabs, but I haven't really seen the need.

Greg


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## Alien

Greg,

I think I understand what you did. Am I right in thinking that once you assembled the consoles, the fibers were all sticking out and needed to be clipped off flush?

Next up for me was to paint the fronts. I wanted to have the very fine areas between the light bulb panels filled in with black paint and that was going to make the masking very precise and difficult.

I had a better idea. I slopped some Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color around the photo etch. This is just really tinned black paint but it comes in a bottle with a fine brush attached to the bottle top (Like their solvent glue.) making it easy to apply.
The paint flows into all the cracks and piles up nicely in the edges. (It looks blacker than the photo) This means my masking does not have to be quite as exact and if it overhangs the silver areas then it doesn't matter.










Now I just have to hand paint all the switches and knobs and paint the outer case as it is not all black as specified in the instructions.


Alien


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## whereisanykey

Yes. That's where I used the square Exacto to shave off the fibers. There are two sizes to those blades and most have the wider one. What is need is the smaller one and seem to be harder to find. Off hand I don't know the numbers of the blades. 
You can find a great many images of the B205 which may be easier than screen caps. Since they are So small I didn't bother with the area between each set. I just painted the entire area with Duck Egg Blue. The other area seems maybe a darker Navy blue.

That's why I'll have to start all over. At the time I was unaware of detail of those panels and drilled larger holes for larger lights. Come to find out they aren't lights at all but switches. There are about 8 different colored lights below the panels. Since I started I have purchased the DVD's and took many snapshots to get more details. 

One thing about those computers is what lights can be on. The vertical lights in a register cannot All be on at one time. I'll probably be using the ATTINY4313 for Each of the consoles. With the many outputs I can get a good variety. Since there seemed to be different flash rates I'll incorporate that. At one time maybe a flash rate of 1 sec. for a number of cycles and then a few cycles at a quicker rate. This may give it more of a random feel. I'd have to test how a random seed would look in real life and whether or not to use that. 

Greg


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## Fernando Mureb

Hi Alien and Whereisanykey!!

It seems that you guys are having lots of fun. It makes me feel tempted to change my plans and make the J2 the subject of my next project, instead of the PL Deluxe Batmobile.

Great ideas! Annotations duly made. :thumbsup:


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## whereisanykey

I wouldn't have bothered if it were the 12" version since nothing could help in it Not looking like a toy. But with this kit the possibilities are endless. I don't think kit makers truly consider the lighting aspect in their designs. Otherwise those walls would have been designed to accommodate the 'throbbing' lighting effect. They are made such that different stock styrene sheets can be put together to leave an opening for lighting and also include an extension for ceiling beams. I only wish TSDS were still around. I didn't buy the launch pad when I had a chance and now it's too late.

Greg


----------



## Alien

Greg,
I absolutely agree with everything that you have said.
However, I think that we are among the few (I will call us all the 'elite' few.) that undertakes adding lighting to the kit.
I reckon that most purchasers would just assemble and paint the kit and not bother doing much else.

I would really love to know how many Paragrafix photo etchs that Paul has sold, compared to the number of J2 kits manufactured. I am sure that it would be a tiny percentage.

So I can understand why kit manufacturers like Moebius have to concentrate on their mass market and juggle the pricing, design and manufacturing costs to meet that market. 

But saying that, it would have been fabulous if the ceiling beams and capacity to light the support beam edges was thought of.
But everyone's a critic. :grin2:

Alien


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## whereisanykey

You can buy a ceiling beam kit if interested.

Jupiter ceiling beam kit


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## Alien

Thanks Greg,
I have seen that kit before.
I have actually made something very similar, just using Evergreen strips and a slice off some plumbing pipe. It is pretty easy to do but the problem is blending it in seamlessly to the support beam parts. So I don't know if I will use it.
If you examine the support beams you would actually have to cut them off well before they sharply angle upward, if you want to continue a smooth curve extending to the ceiling beams.
That kit also looks like it has thin styrene strips that are glued to the outsides of the main beam styrene and also to the outside of the kit support beams. The look of this added thickness of styrene on the top of the support beams would annoy me.
And you can also see by the photos that there still is a definte kink where the ceiling beam joins on. The only way to make it a smooth transition is to lop off the tops of the kit support beams

Alien


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## Alien

A quote from me that will become as legendary as the quotes of Confucius....

"50 feet of 0.25mm fiber optic strand is not enough to light all the panels in the Moebius Jupiter 2. One must order more" :crying:

Alien


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## whereisanykey

Yes it will definitely take a lot of fiber optics. That's why I decided to order full rolls of several sizes. I have many models to do so it is worth it. As the retirement years progress I may not be able to do it in the future. Therefore I have bought a lifetime supply of many items that I would always use. This is especially with electronics.

Greg


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## Fernando Mureb

Alien said:


> Thanks Greg,
> I have seen that kit before.
> I have actually made something very similar, just using Evergreen strips and a slice off some plumbing pipe. It is pretty easy to do but the problem is blending it in seamlessly to the support beam parts. So I don't know if I will use it.
> If you examine the support beams you would actually have to cut them off well before they sharply angle upward, if you want to continue a smooth curve extending to the ceiling beams.
> That kit also looks like it has thin styrene strips that are glued to the outsides of the main beam styrene and also to the outside of the kit support beams. The look of this added thickness of styrene on the top of the support beams would annoy me.
> And you can also see by the photos that there still is a definte kink where the ceiling beam joins on. The only way to make it a smooth transition is to lop off the tops of the kit support beams
> 
> Alien


I bought and will use that kit. I don't know the best way to do it yet, but it seems that the ceiling beams should be glued to the support beams before the painting and lighting processes and, therefore, allowing a more confortable way to eliminate the seams. Just thoughts.

The main problem in my opinion is the fact that the ceiling beams may obstruct the view from the top, if one is intending to make na aperture on the top hull in order to have a better view of the interior.


----------



## krlee

Fernando Mureb said:


> I bought and will use that kit. I don't know the best way to do it yet, but it seems that the ceiling beams should be glued to the support beams before the painting and lighting processes and, therefore, allowing a more confortable way to eliminate the seams. Just thoughts.


That is the best way to do it, glue the ceiling beam pieces to the support beams and do all seam filling and sanding. That is the way I did mine on the prototypes before making the kits.


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## Alien

Hi Guys,

Merry Christmas (Or am I meant to wish you Happy Holidays to be politically correct... Sigh!) and Happy New Year. I hope that everyone has had a good time and received lots of presents.
Absolutely no progress on my Jupiter 2. Sorry! I have been tied up doing other things over the Christmas break as it is summer time at the bottom of the world. The weather is very nice outside. Christmas is all jandals and bar-b's here in New Zealand. That's 'flip-flops and outdoor barbeques (Grills!).

But I did receive an unwanted present on Christmas eve. My hot water cylinder decided to do an impersonation of the Las Vegas Bellagio fountains. Water squirting everywhere. So I was without hot water for a few days. I was not going to pay a plumber to come and fix it on Christmas day.. *Cold showers:* fresh and invigorating!
At least I was not at home most of the time. And friends and family that I visited, looked at me and said, "Why have you brought a towel with you?"
"Can I use your bathroom?" I replied.
But now, I have a brand new continuous flow gas hot water system, no hot water storage tank, and I can shower forever, without emptying the tank of all its hot water. The water pressure is so good that I was pinned to the wall of the shower for 30 minutes so I couldn't get to the faucet to shut it off :smile2: Luxury!

Like the Terminator, I'll be back! (On the Jupiter 2 soon.)

Alien


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## whereisanykey

I guess I won't be doing the ceiling beams as planned. I happened to catch one of the later episodes and noticed the design Moebius has with this part is accurate. It was in earlier episodes that the beams curved all the way up to a center circle. This particular episode, I think it was the Flaming Planet, that shows exactly the same attachment that the cover insert uses. You cannot see anymore above than what Moebius supplies.

Greg


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## NTRPRZ

I would plan to use the ceiling beams. Moebius didn't design the model with the thought of matching the latter part of the third season, where the Jupiter 2 set was moved and the beams removed. They probably did it because 1) the beams would have been extra work, and 2) because having them there would have interfered with looking into the interior. 

Notice how they DID include ceiling beams with the Flying Sub. IMHO, it might have been better without them, or at least making them removeable.


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## teslabe

It's been some time since I did anything with my J-2, lighting the wall and beams had always been a road bump but now I have the answer, 67mm Filament LEDs.......:grin2: These were very hard to come by, couldn't find anyone who sold them in small numbers, so I dealt with the U.S. distributor. He was very helpful and setup a minimum buy of 1000 pcs, I ordered 2000 6400k, I like cool white better then warm 
white (2700k). Here are some early photos of the two walls I got done, I will do a video this weekend with more info, stay turned.....:wave:


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## Alien

Nice work Testlabe. Great idea.
I guess that you will have to use a DC-DC converter to supply power to them??? Don't they need about 75 volts?? (Lots of tiny LEDs in series.)

The only down side is that you still have to hollow the support beams. That will keep you busy. :smile2:
I have said it before, and I will say it again, it would be great if they where molded in clear styrene so then you could put LEDs (Or a filament LED) down their back edge. 
*Full of good ideas I am. My friends often say that I am full of it.*

And thanks for the ceiling beam information Greg. I don't feel so bad about not putting them in my model.
Maybe the studio didn't bother putting them back as it made lighting and removing walls for filming more problematic.

Alien


----------



## teslabe

Alien said:


> Nice work Teslabe. Great idea.
> I guess that you will have to use a DC-DC converter to supply power to them??? Don't they need about 75 volts?? (Lots of tiny LEDs in series.)
> The only down side is that you still have to hollow the support beams.


I use a small inverter that steps the voltage up to about 125 volts AC, the kind you would use to drive EL panels, strips or EL wire, they are very cheap and can be run from 3 volts to 12 volts depending on what type you buy. The 43mm Filament LEDs take about 50-60 volts at 10ma. and the 67mm take 125-130 volts at 10ma. They are very easy to work with as long as you don't flex them, they have ether a glass or sapphire substrates, flexible versions are coming soon. I love the fact that they run cool, unlike CCFT that get very hot......:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


----------



## Radiodugger

Oh! Wow! I mean...-yikes-! Uhhh. Un-f...

I'm speechless.

Doug


----------



## Alien

Just a small update as I have been doing other things and the J2 has been languishing.

I wanted to try and complete at least one of the panels so I concentrated on the Communication wall part.
I threaded some fiber optic into the photo etch panels beside the Telescope. 
The photo makes them look mostly white but they are colored.
I wanted to make the two rows of four toggle switches for the bottom of the two photo etch panels

I used some stretched sprue and scraped away to turn it into half round. (Unfortunately the smallest Evergreen half round is 1mm wide and that is too big.) 
I then cut some small 1mm lengths of 0.25 x 0.75mm styrene strip and glued them to the half round, some angled up and some angled down, to form the switch toggles. The small blurry bottom right image shows a group of four switches ready for trimming and super gluing.










A little styrene rod for the yellow knobs and it was done.

I used some sticky aluminium tape for the support beam wall edge and then used a length of white water slide decal over the tape, leaving the edges aluminium.
As previously posted I was thinking about using white reflective tape, but I think the white decal looks better. (Just not as good as Testlabes filament LEDs..)

Alien


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## whereisanykey

Some excellent ideas there. I had never considered using the white decal paper for such applications. I have quite a few sheets of the white because I ordered the that instead of clear. So, Now I have a use for it. Since I'll be scratch building those walls there will be a gap there for lighting. I had pondered how to use clear styrene and scuffing it somehow for a translucent effect. With lighting it would probably show up. But using a clear with the white decal just may be perfect. 

I had considered using silver trim-tape since I have different widths and the one would probably work well. The aluminum tape may actually look better. I would have to slice it the proper width. Since it is SO sticky I am a bit reluctant in using it. The trim tape is easy to pull up and lay back down. 

I also planned on doing the same with the toggle switches. 

Greg


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## Fernando Mureb

Alien said:


> Alien


So small and delicate and yet detailed and precise in all respects. Very well done!


----------



## Alien

Greg,

Using Aluminum (or Aluminium, depending on where you live.) foil tape is actually quite easy.
I used tape that I purchased from the local hardware store. It is "Aluminium Foil tape with liner"

So unlike regular sticky tape or duct tape it is not stuck to itself on the roll. It has a peel off liner covering the glue side of the tape.
So just cut off a length of it and then use a knife and a ruler to cut it into strips about 4.5mm wide for the J2 Support Beam edges.
Sharp knife and a few light strokes seems to work well.

Now peel back just a few millimetres of liner on one end to expose the sticky glue. Then stick down the end at the bottom of the support beam making sure that the strip lines up across the entire length of the support beam.
Gently pull back the liner a little at a time and stick down as you go. A cotton bud/Q-tip makes a great tool to press down the tape to ensure it is all well stuck down. It removes any creases as well.
Trim any over hang from the top of the support beam and you are done ready to apply the white decal.

You could probably use 'Bare Metal Foil' instead hardware store tape. But the hardware store tape is thicker and more robust than the 'Bare Metal Foil' and is easier to apply in this situation. And the thickness doesn't matter at all in this case.

I have a tip for cutting the strips of tape, as well as the white decal strips.
Get yourself a drawing compass. But one of those ones that has two spikes (Instead of one spike and a pencil.) AKA A divider. (You could use a circle cutter if you have one.)
Set the spikes to the width that you want. Use the divider with one spike hard up against the edge on one end of your tape/decal and prick a little hole with the other spike. Do the same at the other end of the tape/decal and you now have two places to use to align your ruler on. Your cut strips will always perfectly sized and the long edges parallel.

Don't say I don't tip you. :laugh:

Alien


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## whereisanykey

I was probably thinking of just laying the tape down while forgetting the backing on the tape. 
It just occurred to me I could tape down the aluminum tape and use those Incra rulers sliding along an edge to create a line; and do this multiple times with the holes in those rulers.

Greg


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## Alien

whereisanykey said:


> It just occurred to me I could tape down the aluminum tape and use those Incra rulers sliding along an edge to create a line; and do this multiple times with the holes in those rulers.


I like your thinking. That should work great. I still must order one of those rulers. (A metric one.. Sorry.)
Alien


----------



## whereisanykey

Those rulers are what I used for the black acrylic electronics box I'm making. They certainly are a Big help. I have one of those big paper cutters that may work well for cutting those strips. The blade on that is super sharp. I just don't know how well it would work for that application.
In making that box I had to find a way to screw a top sheet with the switches etc to the base. I glued two sheets of small blocks and butted them to the top and bottom edges. I used that Tenax7 glue and just spread it along the seam. I came back a little later and the bond was incredible. I was able to drill through those two layers without any problems to the bond. That's some amazing stuff. As I did on Steve's Big E I glue a nut and washer on the back end so as to screw the pieces together. I Was going to use a threaded insert but couldn't find one small enough that would fit the available black screws. 

Greg


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## Alien

My Jupiter 2 is languishing but I will get back to it.

But.... Hold on to your hats... I did finally purchase one of those Incra rulers.. Shock Horror!

It is really good and will get a lot of use. It appears to be laser cut stainless steel so is very accurate.
(And yes I did buy a metric one. None of that inch rubbish.)

Alien


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