The Invaders UFO.

[ausf]

My initial reaction to this kit was disappointment. I bought it thinking I could throw an Arduino in it and finish it in a weekend. Unfortunately the parts that are to be lit are molded in silver styrene, which includes 8 slotted windows, one big window and the engine, which is molded in a pretty cool pattern. Pretty much a deal breaker in terms of a quick build, so the kit was destined to sit in the stash for a while.

Then I found a photo of the filming miniature and the engine isn't textured, good news! And after a bit of thought, I don't need to carefully cut out 8 slots and fill with clear, a better idea jumped into me head.

So a few minutes with the trusty Proxxon table saw and a yellow styrene strip and it's sitting pretty. I just need to fill in the gap with more styrene strip once the glue dries, fill and sand flush and I'm done. I purposely went a bit wide with the strip height, I intend to just mask off the windows, so I wanted some area fill that won't show through the transparent area.

Here's the kit as designed, the raised parts are supposed to be windows:

And the engine, ain't no LEDs going to shine through that:

The post cut fit:

The yellow transparent styrene internal strip, as a structural support and back stop for the next layers to get the surfaces flush. I only have PVC sheet in clear on hand, my plan is to fill the gap with it and cap the final with yellow styrene for gluing purposes.

And a light underneath to show the yellow:

I'm going to 3D print the engine insert. It's a simple circle, I have transparent filament and can use a honeycomb fill pattern that should give a good effect with the lighting.

 

[SA Dave]

Will be folowing along mate

 

[moon puppy]

Neato, still don't know the show. Haven't had time to google it.

 

[moon puppy]

For the uninitiated

In Color.. :dude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz6oNGIpwNc

 

[ausf]

In Color.. :dude

A Quinn Martin Production. B)

 

[moon puppy]

Back when they had very special guest stars...

Great time for TV, 3 channels yet there was something to watch. OK maybe not.

 

[ausf]

Back when they had very special guest stars...

Great time for TV, 3 channels yet there was something to watch. OK maybe not.

I think it was because you were focused. You had to watch there and then. Got up and you missed something. No rewind, no streaming. Then things went off and you did other stuff. I remember as a kid if you were home sick, you built models, read or were mind numbingly bored. Now, if you don't feel well and hit the couch, you spend hours just looking at all the possibilities and I never end up watching anything, just browsing.

I think that's why I stick with football. You have to watch then and there. Even if you record it and no one spoils it for you, it's still not the same, you can fast forward.

 

[Sharkmouth]

Until I remembered your health concerns, I was about to ask why not cast the bottom in clear resin? It didn't have to be perfectly clear so frosted was fine.

Regards,
Saul

 

[Brokeneagle]

:laugh:
A classic series - model should be very nice too.

Ian

 

[ausf]

Thanks guys.

Saul, I cast plenty of resin here, but you're right the clear stuff is a particular shade of nasty, so I don't bother with it.

I go some work done on this, adding a yellow tinted styrene strip to the entire outside round area, that not only evens up the level of the window height, but gives a nice smooth surface instead of dealing with multiple putty/sand sessions, I only need to concentrate on where it rounds off on top.

I only wish I thought of that earlier, since the layering of strips to raise the height I already did brought in the risk of glue blobs, etc in between layers. I only have one spot that'll be seen so far, but with the moving chasers and thin slit after masking, it shouldn't be visible.

In interim, my complaint of Atlantis garner attention from Atlantis and they schooled me on styrene molding. It's not a matter of just injecting with clear, they also have to polish out the tooling as well as other things they weren't going to do. Once the extra mold for the clear top was lost, so was that option.

 

[moon puppy]

You know...