USS Odyssey, Arc-welding circuit

CaptOchs · Post by **CaptOchs** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 2:10 pm

The USS Odyssey was a galaxy-class ship from a Star Trek Deep Space 9 episode, The Jem'Hadar. While sent into the wormhole to recover Captain Sisko (who was taken prisoner,) the Odyssey encounters the mysterious Dominion. A battle began and to the captain's horror, the Jem'Hadar's weapons passed right through their shields.

My Odyssey model took about a year to make. My base coat is a 50/50 mix of Testor's Duck Egg Blue & Light Ghost Gray. The alternate Aztec color is a 50/50 mix of Duck Egg Blue & Dark Ghost Gray. This combination should avoid a sharp contrast (in Aztec) seen some models.

Lighting was done fairly effectively with a set of battery-powered Christmas LED strand for most of the interior. I used "Don's Light & Magic" TNG clear warp engines. The parts work great at evenly distributing LED light. I only used two LED's per nacelle. The port nacelle has an "Arc-welder LED Circuit" I found at a model train shop. This circuit has two bright LED's that flash intermittently to create the illusion of someone welding. It cost me $30 for this circuit! It was well worth it once you see the final result.

Damage was created in some spots. I cut irregular holes all throughout the ship. I then glued a small sheet of tin-foil inside the hull. I went back to the train shop and bought some miniature steel I-beams made out of plastic. I carefully cut and glued them inside the holes to resemble the steel beams of the super-structure. This gave the appearance of a torpedo hit that blew the skin of the ship right off exposing the skeleton. I then used some black weathering chalk to blacken the damaged areas. When I was done, I dull-coated the whole model to keep the chalk in place.

My USS Odyssey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiOGI2gNbeU

Clip from the DS9 Episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzARkU5l ... re=related

photoguy · Post by **photoguy** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:39 pm

Looks really good. Didn't someone post a DIY arc welding circuit a few months back. I was looking for it in my downloaded schematics, but apparently I didn't save it.

CaptOchs · Post by **CaptOchs** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:53 pm

photoguy wrote:Looks really good. Didn't someone post a DIY arc welding circuit a few months back. I was looking for it in my downloaded schematics, but apparently I didn't save it.

I don't know. I just joined. javascript:emoticon(':D')

I'm not very good with soldering anyhow. The $30 would have saved me all the grief and aggravation.

I'm working on a 1:1400 scale Defiant now. I'm trying to get the colors just right so it doesn't look like a clown. I don't think the colors in the instructions are right.

galaxy_jason · Post by **galaxy_jason** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 2:53 pm

photoguy wrote:Looks really good. Didn't someone post a DIY arc welding circuit a few months back. I was looking for it in my downloaded schematics, but apparently I didn't save it.

You can do this with $2.99 "tea lights". They drive a yellow LED that that is on most of the time and winks out randomly. take them apart and reomove the LED, then, use a white LED (some seem to work better than others...I used a 3mm white) and hook it from the drive to the positive (or was it the negative) power lead. OK, its been a while since I played around with one but once you start playing with it you can figure it out. Be sure the resister is in-line.

NNYGamer · Post by **NNYGamer** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 3:12 pm

galaxy_jason wrote:
photoguy wrote:Looks really good. Didn't someone post a DIY arc welding circuit a few months back. I was looking for it in my downloaded schematics, but apparently I didn't save it.
You can do this with $2.99 "tea lights". They drive a yellow LED that that is on most of the time and winks out randomly. take them apart and reomove the LED, then, use a white LED (some seem to work better than others...I used a 3mm white) and hook it from the drive to the positive (or was it the negative) power lead. OK, its been a while since I played around with one but once you start playing with it you can figure it out. Be sure the resister is in-line.

Some of the tea lights LEDs have a built in chip so you can't switch them out.

CaptOchs · Post by **CaptOchs** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:43 pm

I doubt it would have the same effect as seen in my video. Longevity was key too.

SpaceDuck · Post by **SpaceDuck** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 4:07 am

Hello,
The following is NOT criticsm. It's more akin to me wondering aloud and bouncing it off of ya!

What if you "muted" down the intensity of the 'damaged' engine since to me it wouldn't be flashing up to "full on" status, but limping along and trying to not give up the ghost once it had gotten that bad? Simple swap out of the resistor/s to the LEDs with something rated higher?

As I said- just a thought but I do applaud you for undertaking the effect!

CaptOchs · Post by **CaptOchs** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:30 am

SpaceDuck wrote:Hello,
The following is NOT criticsm. It's more akin to me wondering aloud and bouncing it off of ya!

What if you "muted" down the intensity of the 'damaged' engine since to me it wouldn't be flashing up to "full on" status, but limping along and trying to not give up the ghost once it had gotten that bad? Simple swap out of the resistor/s to the LEDs with something rated higher?

As I said- just a thought but I do applaud you for undertaking the effect!

No offense take; I thought of that too. I would have really like to slow down the flash effect. In the episode, the speed of the flash was a lot slower. The problem is the components were jam packed tightly on an IC board about the size of a quarter. It was too close quarters for someone of my soldering skill. I didn't want to take a chance in ruining the circuit because its a $30 part. This IC circuit wasn't really meant for this, but it works. The ideal circuit would give a slower looking arc-weld look and have a couple more LEDs.

Madman Lighting · Post by **Madman Lighting** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 7:18 pm

Really really good. Very nice indeed.

I like your hull damage, thats alot of scratchbuilding of ribs in there and its nice.

The damaged engine effect is nice too, and unique. I've never seen another like it.

I did an Ent-D some years ago and I know how hard and time consuming it is to get that subtle an azteck effect and to drill and round out all those windows. Come to Wonderfest and amaze us all, please.

CaptOchs · Post by **CaptOchs** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:52 am

Madman Lighting wrote:Really really good. Very nice indeed.

I like your hull damage, thats alot of scratchbuilding of ribs in there and its nice.

The damaged engine effect is nice too, and unique. I've never seen another like it.

I did an Ent-D some years ago and I know how hard and time consuming it is to get that subtle an azteck effect and to drill and round out all those windows. Come to Wonderfest and amaze us all, please.

Thanks MadMan. I know of no other model of the USS Odyssey out there. This is a unique treasure. This is my first ENT-D kit I exclusively used an air-brush for. I sprayed the whole kit with a darker mix. Then I used blue painter's tape to cover up the aztec details I want to keep dark. Then I sprayed the whole thing with the light-mixture. This kept even colors throughout the model. My older kits had a darker-dark mix in some areas because of the paint. It was a pain to do, but it is worth the effect. It took me about 9 months to mask it. I've used precut masks for other models, but nothing works as good as painters tape.
I must admit, I have given it serious thought about submitting this to wonderfest. We'll see, my company is closing around that time and I might not have the time/finances to take off to Louisville.