#kitsandbits xwing112

[kitsandbits]

Engine Test!

So following on from my first YouTube video showing the main instrument panel all lit up I thought that now the engine LEDs were all soldered up and the engines glued up I had better test the LED’s were still working! 

As you can see they’re all running fine, the one on the bottom right is sitting a little further back in the engine that the others but I don’t think that it is worth trying to pull apart the engines now the glue is set to adjust, other than that there is still some light bleed where either I didn’t get an even coat of the metallics inside the engines or I have thinned the wall too much. What ever the cause I am hoping a couple coats of my new AK Primer with Microfillers will solve the issue.

[kitsandbits]

Instrument Panel test

Ok so here we have two firsts for me, my first instrument panel lit up using fibre optics and a 3 LED circuit being shown here on my first ever video uploaded to YouTube

[kitsandbits]

A Tiny X-Wing

Ok so I am kind of determined to get a model kit lit up with some LED's but I don't really want to build any of my larger scale stuff at the moment so off the back of the relatively quick building TIE Fighter I thought I might try my hand at Revell's 1:112 (what kind of scale is that?) X-Wing Fighter and I am going to try chucking a few LED's and some Fibre Optics at this one to see what great disaster I can conjure up with a soldering iron and model kit!

Its's a cheap kit, very simple to build but if I can pull the idea in my head off it should look reasonably good I think. Anyway I forgot to take a sprue and box shot before I starting cutting parts off the sprues so heres a much prettier picture of the box than I would have ever managed.

[kitsandbits]

A bright idea …

So there's not much room in this in little kit for putting lights in so here are the main parts that are going to need butchered.. err I mean modified to make room, as you can see I have already made a start by removing the front locating pin in the engine nacelle, I think I am going to have to thin the walls a little too in order for a 3mm LED to fit

[kitsandbits]

Preventing light bleed

So I tested an LED in situ and there was significant amounts of light bleeding through the bare plastic so I have painted the insides of the engines with a couple of coats of metallic paint to try and reduce this effect, I still have some spots that I am concerned about due to the wall thickness but I am hoping using a primer on the outside that contains micro fillers should sort that out... fingers crossed!

[kitsandbits]

Routing Wires and Fibre Optics

With the cockpit all painted up It was time to route the cables and fibre optics. I know the pilots helmets not right and it will be fixed but anyway here’s a couple of pics of where I’m at. Now I’m off to get some LEDs wired up and get some tests run.

[kitsandbits]

Some light prep work

So I have dry fit the main components to see where I need to remove material to make way for the LEDs and running the wires. I also drilled the holes in the instrument panel for the fibre optics!