Part V Engine nacelle lighting and assembly

In this post, I will be working on the engine nacelles and the lighting for the engines.  Starting off, I'm going to work on the nose of the nacelles.  This consists of 2 parts.  The nose and the engine ring just behind the nose.

 So I've primed and and painted the noses black.

As with the nose of the ship, I'm using the liquid mask to cover portions of the black where after I paint the nose with the body color, I can peel away the latex revealing chipped paint.

Then I peel away the mask...

There is also a small yellow ring around the nose.  So I've taped of around the diameter of the nose the area to airbrush yellow.  I'm using the same yellow mix I made for the nose of the ship.

And here we have the noses ready.

Then it's the same with the engine piece just behind the nose.  Only this time, they've been primed and painted with the whitish body color.  Then liquid mask again, and then my mix of blue gray will be airbrushed over.   Again, peeling away the mask to reveal chipped blue gray paint.

Then the 2 pieces fit together like so.

So on to the engine nacelles.  Each nacelle consists of 4 pieces comprising the nacelle, 2 pieces for the engine area and an engine shroud.

This is the engine, it's attachment piece and the shroud.

This is the actual engine part at the rear of the nacelle.  Because I will be lighting the engine, I need to remove the area molded in the model for light to emit.

And the part the engine attaches too also needs a hole drilled so the wires of the LED can go through it.  So I start by drilling out the hole in that piece, and then drill out the center of the engine piece.

Now that my engine has been completely drilled out, it's time for my photo etch piece.  There is a thin piece for the engine to simulate the engine grill.  This is cut out and glued in place on the engine piece.

There are also 4 detail pieces that attach to the perimeter of the engine.

And we have the completed engine assembly.

So it's now time to prime and then spray the nacelles black for pre shading.

The nacelles attach to the body of the Y-wing with these two pieces.

Because of lighting the engine, I will need to run wire through the arms to power and control the LEDs.   Using very thin wire, I will also need to route out an area in the arms for the wire to run through in this area.

You can see in the next couple of photos where I routed out an area for the wires to sit in.

The area where the arm connects to the nacelle needs to have a hole drilled through it as well for the wires to run through.

And you can see when the arm is attached to the nacelle, there's a hole for the wires to travel through.

An area in the center of the nacelle will also have to be removed for the wires of the LEDs to run through.

In this instance, I'm just using cutters and snipping off the tips of the quadrants to create my hole.

Now that all of the pieces have been drilled and prepped for the LEDs, I prep the pieces to be painted with the body color of Tamiya AS-20 Insignia White.  There is a bit of masking tape on the end of the engine to keep that part black.

So it's now time to run the wires through and attach the LED to the engine.

After running the wires through the hole, I am gluing the LED in place with Elmer's glue, just to secure it and keep the wires from getting yanked and pulled.

Now that the glue has dried and the LED is secure, I carefully place the engine over the LED and attach to it's mounting piece.

The wires are then run through the hole of the nacelle....

and the remaining 3 nacelle pieces are assembled around the perimeter of the engine.

Then the engine cone is placed on

And then I have to carefully lay the LED wires inside the lower nacelle arm...

and connect the upper arm piece

Then it's time to attach the nose cone of the nacelle.

At this point it's time to attach the 4 engine support pylons, steering plates and disk vectrals at the end to the nacelle.

Cut from the spru, then primed and painted.

Assembly is a pretty straight forward procedure.  The 2 steering plates are attached together and then mounted into the disk vectrals.

The pylons are then attached to the nacelles and the disk vectrals.

So now I have both engines assembled with the LEDs wired through them for lighting.  So a quick little test to make sure the LEDs are still working ok and all wiring is good.

So everything is looking great.  So next will be assembling the main body, wiring and attaching the engines and nose cone.


Stay tuned.  Much more to come...