Avenger's Enterprise D LED lit model build

[MERCSCULPTOR]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

man , I'm trully sorry to hear that , as a sculptor , I had similar accidents , I remember once , I had a sculpture with a very similar time invested on it , I was very young at the time , and remember my mother used to take care of this kid , and , he went to my room and trashed my sculpture , taking easily a 100 hours or more from it'
so I know how it feels to loose that many hours

 

[Jediguy]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

feel your pain man. Still looks pretty awesome. If i really wanted it , i'd start again on a version too. Be a hell lot better and faster the second round im sure!

 

[Commtech]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

The accident is too recent. Put it away for a few weeks. Keep it out of your mind. Then go back and look at it and you'll see that you will want to fix it. It will actually feel like fun again. Right now it's not fun at all because of the frustration you feel.
Good Luck!

 

[noisetrigger]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Ya man, I think you should fix it. It looks too awesome to not do it get it working again. And since you have invested so much time in it. It will be a waste to not get it right.

Like others have said, it will be a lot faster this time.

 

[vik2001]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

worse comes to worst, weather the ship make it look like its crashed and only half the lights are on

 

[Wanderer]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Looks superb as is although I know when you invest time in a project and you ____ it up at the final hurdle, it haunts you forever and all the love for the piece evaporates just like that.
I think I should quote from the afro haired artist that was Bob Ross: "These aren't mistakes, just happy little accidents." I always try to take positives from any projects I do that don't come up to scratch

 

[intothevoid]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

The accident is too recent. Put it away for a few weeks. Keep it out of your mind. Then go back and look at it and you'll see that you will want to fix it. It will actually feel like fun again. Right now it's not fun at all because of the frustration you feel.
Good Luck!

This is great advice

Very sorry to hear about the accident but leave it be for a while and come back to it. If you're dedicated enough to spend 500 hrs on something then you sure as hell have it in you to get it done right this time

 

[Avenger]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

I'm not familiar with these models. What got ruined? The twinkling fiber optics? Are these unable to be replaced once installed? I'm guessing you glues something in place?

Also, how'd it get fried? What shorted out?

Sorry for your frustration.

I built a chip that makes some of the LEDs flash. Without going into too much detail, the chip had wires coming out of it that I would attach the wires running throughout the ship to the lights I wanted flashing. I had all the wires hooked up and protected, except the one wire that goes to the single flashing light on top of the model. That one wire was still exposed.

In order to do the final fiber optic effects on the ship, I had to have the lights on to find the sweet spot for the fiber optic strands to be glued to. One of the lights slipped out of my finger while gluing it down, and flung up, and landed square on the exposed lead of my flasher chip, which then sent unrestricted current through to all my flasher LEDs and fried them instantly. All the regular ship lights still function, the engines light up etc. Just the 7 flashing lights won't flash anymore.

Now, I either leave the lights dead and finish the thing, throw it away entirely, or spend 3 days cracking it back open, building a new chip, diffusing the LEDs, installing the LEDs, and hoping I can somehow get it sealed again so that light doesn't leak through the seams. It's a huge, huge mistake.

 

[batfan08]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Get on those flashing lights when you're ready and finish it. I've never done a model, so I couldn't tell you how I know where you've been on that front, but I do know that 500 hours is a helluva long time, and that it must suck to trip so close to the finish line, and that you would be doing a disservice to yourself by not finishing it. Just from that one shot you posted, I was blown away by how cool it looked (and I'm not even that big of a Trek fan), so I can only imagine what it will look like completed.

 

[Avenger]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Do it Bro! Make it your Everest.

Nice way of putting it.

My gut tells me I'm going to risk cracking it open to fix the flashers. I won't be happy with them burned out, and my guess is that it will take about 20 hours of work to fix it, and it could further damage something else in the process. But, seems like I won't be happy with it no matter what if I don't try to fix them.

 

[elar]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Too sorry to read it, but you can do it again! And then you will love this model more than before, because it will have bigger price for you!!!

 

[Ironman1188]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Get a small blow torch, put it on the finest, narrowest torch you can and run it thru the area that the lights don't work. On the other side ofthe room build a Borg cube and let that be where they attacked.







Just trying to lighten it up a bit [oops, sorry!]

It looks great and far better than I could ever hope to have the patience to pull off. As was said, put it aside, step back from it for a while, then reapproach it fresh as an obstacle to overcome.

 

[thenammagazine]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

I built a chip that makes some of the LEDs flash. Without going into too much detail, the chip had wires coming out of it that I would attach the wires running throughout the ship to the lights I wanted flashing. I had all the wires hooked up and protected, except the one wire that goes to the single flashing light on top of the model. That one wire was still exposed.

In order to do the final fiber optic effects on the ship, I had to have the lights on to find the sweet spot for the fiber optic strands to be glued to. One of the lights slipped out of my finger while gluing it down, and flung up, and landed square on the exposed lead of my flasher chip, which then sent unrestricted current through to all my flasher LEDs and fried them instantly. All the regular ship lights still function, the engines light up etc. Just the 7 flashing lights won't flash anymore.

Now, I either leave the lights dead and finish the thing, throw it away entirely, or spend 3 days cracking it back open, building a new chip, diffusing the LEDs, installing the LEDs, and hoping I can somehow get it sealed again so that light doesn't leak through the seams. It's a huge, huge mistake.

Which will make the story behind it 10x better once you've got it completed and people ask you about it.

 

[elar]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Which will make the story behind it 10x better once you've got it completed and people ask you about it.

 

[xjamiex]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Sorry to hear that, I'm sure you are ready to smash it up!

 

[intothevoid]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

No! You can't give in!

 

[sarakawa]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Dude, that "crappy" photo looked friggin epic to me. If you're talented enough to do that, you can totally fix this puppy. Just give it some time so that you can build some creative energy to tackle it again. I know how you feel...I have this happen to me in my 3D work all the time...prob no where near as bad but spend a few days working, lose everything. Though in 3D you can back up files and create iterations whereas real models, you have to start over. Keep the faith and finish this bad boy proper!

 

[galactiboy]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Nice way of putting it.

My gut tells me I'm going to risk cracking it open to fix the flashers. I won't be happy with them burned out, and my guess is that it will take about 20 hours of work to fix it, and it could further damage something else in the process. But, seems like I won't be happy with it no matter what if I don't try to fix them.

Probably your best bet, still probably not a bad idea to walk away from it for a bit to give yourself time to reapproach it.

Terrible to hear that such a minor mishap could have such dire consequences. Good luck; and again for what its worth what you showed so far looks incredible

 

[Platty]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

The accident is too recent. Put it away for a few weeks. Keep it out of your mind. Then go back and look at it and you'll see that you will want to fix it. It will actually feel like fun again. Right now it's not fun at all because of the frustration you feel.
Good Luck!

Good advice. Take a step back and go back to it with a refreshed mind a few weeks later.

I've had this feeling beforfe with custom headsculpts, it's horrible.

 

[gunm]

Re: Ruined a model with nearly 500 hours, need to vent.

Had you not mentioned it, I would've never noticed there was a problem with it. Looks really cool from the one photo!