To boldly go where no Jon has gone before

I have fond memories of going to hobby stores as a kid and looking at the Star Trek and Star Wars models you could purchase and build.  The ones that really got my imagination going were the advanced models you could light up.  The one that always caught my eye was the AMT Enterprise-D from Star Trek The Next Generation television show.  I never did attempt that challenge as a kid, but now I'm older and do whatever the fuck I want (within reason and strict constraints - wife/kids/job).  So I'm going to make this pilgrimage into my past happen and blog about it. This is no easy task, but it will be done right.  I'm not starting with any of the tools I need so it is going to take me a while.  This adventure has been set in motion and will be finished.  Buckle your seat-belts and crank that baby blue Weezer CD...we are going for a ride.

Engage MFs.

The unscathed Enterprise defeats the Tripoli in 1801

Utopia Planitia Shipyards

I was going over the Star Trek The Next Generation Technical Manual published in 1991.  I wanted to get an idea of the pieces of the ship.  I think it will be fun to have a better understanding of the engineering jargon and locality of the ship's parts. This isn't just building a model, it is a intimate understanding of something vastly important to me.

The beginning of Gene Roddenberry's forward hit home for me:

"The Starship Enterprise is not a collection of motion picture sets or a model used in visual effects. It is a very real vehicle; one designed for storytelling.  You the audience, furnish its propulsion. With a wondrous leap of imagination, you make it into a real spaceship that can take us into the far reaches of the galaxy and sometimes even the depths of the human soul."

dixitque Deus fiat lux et facta est lux

I've been checking out how others have done the lighting for their ships. Most likely I will be incorporating the standards from what I have seen on the lighting for the nacelles.  The saucer and main body of the ship however will be a new approach.  I've been working with LEDs, breadboards, resistors, etc... to get in a direction I like.  adafruit.com has some options that I will be trying out.

Pics are from the Adafruit shop website - 

Show Me What You Workin Wit

Those of you that like unboxing…get your stack of ones ready and give a nice warm welcome to our star model…Enterprise-D!

This is the 1/1400 AMT Enterprise with the fiber optic lights kit from 1994.  This is the beauty I will be using for my finished product.  I was lucky to get a incredible deal online and it was all new including the plastic wrap over the box.  The detail is amazing and it was lots of fun to go through the different included parts.

I also purchased a super cheap 1/1400 AMT Enterprise kit from 1988 off of Craigslist.  The model itself is in perfect shape and never touched, however the box and decals have water damage.  You can also tell it came from a smoke friendly home.  All of the big pieces are the exact same as the 1994 optic version.  I will be using this for spare parts, window drilling practice and paint testing.