Getting Ready:

Welcome to the Saturn V engine lighting and effects blog, where I’ll be discussing the electronics & general fit instructions in this build.

Start by opening the model and get your self familiar with the engine parts & the general structure of the kit. It is generally a good idea to have a plan of action drawn up to keep you on track, and note any lighting that will be added later in build. The main engine bulkhead support will need to be drilled out to accept wire & LED’s fed through the engine bells. There are 4 orange and 1 warm white LED’s dedicated for the engines. I used the 4 orange around the perimeter & the 1 warm white in the center to give more punch.

Regardless of what kit you’re using, the animated version is wired the same way as the static version. Both setups use a common technique which utilizes a film resistor to protect the LED from voltage damage. How this is done is by connecting an inline resistor on the positive side of each LED used… you will need to have one resistor for each LED used. All positive wires will come together and be connected to the male power, goes for the ground or negative wires. The animated version works the same but instead the negative leds wires will go to the effects channel coming for the circuit board. The board itself will need direct power.

WIRING DIAGRAM

There is also base lights that will need to be drilled out. There are 4 yellow LED’s in the kit, which will be used for the base. I found it best place them midway around the engine exhaust holes, although they can be placed anywhere according to the builder’s preference. After pre building the LED’s with resistors and mounting them in place, I ran a small wire down to the base to power the LEDs. There will be a few sets of wires running from the rocket and the base, which will be hidden with the batting material when finished. I also used a 1 1/4″ clear plastic tube to elevate the rocket for more effect. All the battery & switching is mounted in the base.

Finally, before closing up and mounting the rocket, it is best to test run the lighting effects for a burn period of 6-8 hours (this will insure that the system is operating properly. The batting material can be placed in anyway that looks best for you build up. If you have any questions, please contact us direct with an email or call by phone.

Getting Ready:

This next phase of the build was removing the side panel areas and pre pairing the parts for fit up. I started by first removing the entire engine area, the next was the rear engine port & starboard side panels. I then moved up to the main cockpit area & engine side detail, the last sections where the front mandible headlight sections. Its best to have the aftermarket parts in hand before you start the cut out, this gives you a much better understanding of how they will be placed into the openings.

The next stage in the build was to make a mid plate to support all the aftermarket replacement side panels. This mid support plate will give a gluing edge to mount the side parts and better support the front mandibles. I used a piece of Sentra to cut the pattern out, it’s light weight, ridged and perfect for this application. Once you have test fitted the inner plate, make sure that is not hanging up the model half’s from closing. I used 30 minute epoxy here & there to tack it down. It does not like to stick to the model plastic very well, but when all the parts are glued on it seems to hold. I am also incorporating a hard mount through the base. I will go over in the next post.

Getting Ready:

Building & lighting the new 1:8 scale EVA Pod from Pegasus Hobbies & Moebius Models. I received a test shot of this model and was blown away at the scale & design elements of this kit. As usual Moebius Models & Pegasus Hobbies have created a amazingly accurate model kit with enough room to fit electronics in it. I started by braking down the bulk body parts & getting myself familiar how the model fits together. In most test shots there are no instructions or decals with prototypes and sometimes it might be missing a few parts here & there. In that case, the model was pretty straight forward and all the main parts were in the kit. However, I did make some mistakes here & there. Lets get started with the lighting, once I had all the interior panels figured out where they fit I had to address the problem of the button lights. The first idea was to tryout bulk strip lighting , which did not work. The second try was using a wide angle led, this had some good qualities but again, had a washed out effect. So I then tried out a 3mm led for the buttons & it gave the desired overall effect. Note: VoodooFX has no control over third party aftermarket parts & accessories availability.

Using Aftermarket Parts:

Mounting Led Supports: After pre light blocking & installing the vinyl overlays I was ready to starting build the interior. Once the interior was assembled I made any touch ups at this point & was ready to move on to the acrylic support for the led install. The lighting support are ideal for lighting this model, I pre built the supports by using a small amount of acrylic glue. Using the stand offs “T & L” provided in the kit. Scuff the areas on the back side of the panels to mount the supports, you can us a small amount of CA glue for mounting.

Circuit board & Leds: Most of all the electronics can be prebuilt outside the model & fit up to the interior before installing into the main body. I always start by building up the board first, this is done by soldering all the resistors on board & making any power leads or switching set ups. Now by taking some crude measurements at where I want to mount the circuit boards & where your leds are going to be mounted I start prefabbing the pre cut wire lengths to the leds. Once I have a few on the board I test the circuit to make sure its working properly. NOTE: I found it’s better to mount the circuit boards on the bottom of the back half of the main shell (this is a better location then the interior bench).

Main Interior Mounting: After all the led lighting is mounted in desired locations I suggest to run a short burn in test. A burn in test is where you run the lighting for a few intervals, I start by running it for 10 minutes & rest for 10 minutes, then run it for a 30 minutes & rest for a 60 minutes. After you have done these tested the chances of a burned out led or a loose connection will show itself in the burn in period. Another good suggestion, is when performing these tested is to lightly tug the wiring here & there to insure the connections are tight. (a loose connection can come back to haunt you when the model is all closed up.) I will go into detail regarding the front head lights & Hal 9000 lighting in part 2. As always any detailed questions can be best answered by contacting me directly by phone.

BUILD GALLERY