Its been more than 6 months since I last touched this Project. For those who are not familiar, this is the lighting system designed to fit into either the AMT or Revell’s Razor Crest, the Mandalorian’s Spaceship in 1/48th scale.
So near, yet so far
I plan to have it released by April this year but that goal seemed to be too optimistic. Because I realised that I have actually not connected all the required LEDs to the revised board. The board was revised to replace the orange/green screw-less terminal connectors. This because of the orange plastic, depending on the purchasing source, can fail when you needed it most. In the end, I opted for the screw terminal which is more reliable but can loosen itself if the part was shaken too much.
How…?
Anyway, to continue with the Project, I needed to change the PCB in the demo unit. It was set up hurriedly so that I can demonstrate it in MMHS2024. However, the Rules have changed and therefore, I could not get a Table since it was for Facebook Groups, Societies or Vendor booths. But at least, the setup is here to remind me of the progress. Unfortunately,…
This is the control box for the Demo unit. It uses a single LiPo battery (In this case, any lithium power will do, as long as it gives a 3.7v output). There are two switches; POWER for well, power and MODE to switch between flight mode and standby mode. Anyway, after charging a 18650 battery, the green power light was not lit. The base, is actually a cheap black tint over a recycled sheet of acrylic, which I am halfway destroying since the double-sided tapes were working too well. The screws securing the black box was fastened ‘upside-down’ and the only way is to force it away from the acrylic.
OK, the screws are still good. and if you need to know, these double-sided tapes are the soft transparent ‘acrylic’ types which worked ideally on smooth surfaces. Too bad about the torn tinting though.
After some trouble shooting with the multi-meter, the fault was due to the POWER switch’s negative pole. I got the circuit working by temporarily shorting that pole with the test-pen’s metal tip. Strange but I don’ think I’ve flipped it more than 70 times since 2024. That reminds me, I would need to revise the board again, if I want to connect it directly for the LiPo connectors.
The circuit’s two Modes controls and gives you the different lighting effect. For FLIGHT Mode, only the Engines, Cockpit and the front part are lit. For the STANDBY Mode (when the Razor Crest has landed), the Interior and the Cockpit would be lit, along with the spots on the wings. And yeah, just for fun, the engines would flicker briefly as if its testing itself just in case Jin Djarin needs a quick take-off.
The Revell copy of the Razor Crest gives you the interior parts. When fully built, the interior parts resembles a rectangular bucket which when built, is inserted into the Razor Crest’s inner fuselage and it fits like a glove. There are no workable gaps for any wires to go in between the two walls. But trust me on this; the lights on the walls are easy to light (and it costs me quite a bit). There is no need for tunneling or scraping the inside plastics for the wires. Here, I drilled out the ‘cover’ of the lights and glued a small thin pla-plate as diffuser. I intentionally made them bright because once the wall are painted, especially with matt paints, the lights would be absorbed. I gave this a light grey and some slight weathering but the LEDs are still too bright. The exposure for this image has been toned down on my Xiaomi T14 Pro as it very bright and the flickering makes photography difficult.
This is the Engine circuit board. It is so bright, I had to tone the Xiaomi T14 Pro’s exposure so you can see the details. Because of the flickering, I had to take a lot of shots for the one where all the LEDs are lit.
