Plasma Dart II Build Thread

Geez what a lovefest. Somebody get me a Kleenex. Or a barf bag.

Took a peek at the rocket this morning. Looks very good (again, by my standards), no crinkling. In a couple of days I will bring it inside and start masking (that should be fun) and then... well I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to apply the black coat. Might be a while, or then again I might get lucky and get an unexpected opportunity. We shall see.

neil_w said:

After getting a first pass of my decal sheets ready, I did a test print and a fairly complete test fit

Click to expand...

How do you test fit decals?

neil_w said:

Thanks for the kind words. I am sincerely grateful that anyone is interested in following along on my long rambling builds.

Click to expand...

I don't say this lightly: you'r build threads are just the right length. Some others are condensed, giving a quick view of the progress; that's fun to watch but I don't tend to learn much from it. Some go into really excruciating detail, which can be hard to stick with. Yours (usually) give a good view of the medium size details, not skipping too much nor going into excessive minutia. I learn more from you than from most other.

jqavins said:

How do you test fit decals?

Click to expand...

Print on paper, cut out, tape to model, see if everything is the right size. This is the first model I've done this with, since it's the first one which has such fiddly fit issues. In this case, I found a couple that needed adjustment.

I don't say this lightly: you'r build threads are just the right length.

Click to expand...

Cool.

Were you planning to try to paint the inside of the open back end of the fin tubes? I guess you only have about 1/2” or so up to the bulkhead.

You could try brushing some metallic or red in there, but If those are like vents or exhaust for the plasma, could you match the plasma decal pattern on the inside of the tail end of those tubes?

GlenP said:

Were you planning to try to paint the inside of the open back end of the fin tubes? I guess you only have about 1/2” or so up to the bulkhead.

You could try brushing some metallic or red in there, but If those are like vents or exhaust for the plasma, could you match the plasma decal pattern on the inside of the tail end of those tubes?

Click to expand...

Damn you guys don't miss a trick.

I was going to paint black in there. I've thought of doing plasma in there but usually give up after a few minutes because it makes my head hurt thinking of how to do it. There would have to be a decal wrap on the inside of a half a BT5, plus a small piece on the core tube, and/or a small crescent-shaped piece on the bulkhead. Sounds like a formula for misery (which, to be fair, also sounds exactly like the sort of thing I'd try to do). Getting the plasma pattern to be continuous inside there would essentially be impossible, but I could live without that.

I think it's the inside arc of the BT5 that gives me the shakes. What if I just painted everything black and then plasma'ed the bulkhead? Or the bulkhead plus the core tube? I have a hard time guessing what it'll all look like. When I bring the rocket in, I'll have a look into the back and see which surfaces are likely to be most visible.

If you can suggest a decent approach here I'm willing to consider it.

I'd go with mat black or white. Either would visually downplay the inside, which is quite sufficient (imo). White would be like new from the dealer, and black would be after it's got a couple million miles on it.

If you want a bit more, maybe try starting with white then dry brushing two or three shades of grey to make it look like it's only got 100K miles.

You artwork picture on post #2 looks great already, you have the tube portion white and the bulkhead black. In place of the black bulkhead, you could print up a crescent moon shaped decal to somewhat match the plasma colors, or make a fade to white shaded color gradient to simulate the appearance of the inside of a nozzle.

I like the idea but it doesn't seem like it's really adding that much, and even then only if you stare in from the back. Note that the image in post #2 has the bulkheads too close to the end of the tubes; actually they're a bit further in. I may add a few of the crescent plasma decals to my deal sheet and then decide later.

What it adds is the "Wow, you really thought of everything!" factor. (But I don't think it's necessary.)

Black magnum sharpie ,(kind of an oxymoron) would allow you to apply flat black to the inside of a tube up to about 1/2 inch.

neil_w said:

I like the idea but it doesn't seem like it's really adding that much, and even then only if you stare in from the back.

Click to expand...

+1

jqavins said:

What it adds is the "Wow, you really thought of everything!" factor.

Click to expand...

Internal led lighting to backlight the decal would come under that category. Decal might not be translucent enough though, prolly too much trouble for what it's worth.

kuririn said:

Internal led lighting to backlight the decal would come under that category. Decal might not be translucent enough though, prolly too much trouble for what it's worth.

Click to expand...

I thought about a light-up warp core... but not seriously. Could be done at larger scale though...

Did someone say warp core?


Signed,
Recovering Geekaholic

neil_w said:

I thought about a light-up warp core... but not seriously. Could be done at larger scale though...

Click to expand...

Ooooh. Night launch material. Clear payload tube with LEDs inside, a frosted application on the inside surface for diffusion, and a translucent decal on the outside.

Actually, the thickness of the plastic wouldn't be enough for good diffusion. Use to coaxial tubes with centering rings at the ends where they can be hidden. The LEDs are inside the inner tube, which has frosting on both it's inner and outer surfaces, and there's more frosting on the inner surface of the outer tube. It might even take three coaxial tubes to get the illumination really even.

kuririn said:

Did someone say warp core?

View attachment 388713
Signed,
Recovering Geekaholic

Click to expand...

But the Romulans of that era didn't have warp cores. "Their power [was] strictly impulse."

Signed,

jqavins said:

But the Romulans of that era didn't have warp cores. "Their power [was] strictly impulse."

Click to expand...

Negative. Remember in TOS when Kirk was pursuing the War Bird he had to go to max warp just to keep up, IIRC.
Maybe you're referring to the first Federation/Romulan Empire War?
Anyway, the nacelles would indicate warp drive.
Correction: Make that Bird of Prey, not War Bird.

Well, yes, but I'm giving a direct quote from Lt. Cmdr. Scott. The firewall here at work is blocking my attempts to find and cite the script, and I left my phone at home today. And when I get home to my phone I'll have no signal. Argh.

Joe, I have conflicting information. Engineer Scott made the remark that you quoted. But the technical data here shows "parallel warp nacelles": https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Romulan_Bird-of-Prey_(23rd_century)
I recall Kirk trying to catch the Romulans before they reached the Neutral Zone. If they only had impulse it would not have taken long.
I think you've found an inconsistency! Then again maybe the explanation would be Scotty had "incomplete data".
Signed,
OCD Trekkie

BTW Neil, how is the plasma contained in your ship? Magnetic bottle?
(Shrewdly(?) trying to get back on topic).

NERD FIGHT!!!!

kuririn said:

BTW Neil, how is the plasma contained in your ship? Magnetic bottle?
(Shrewdly(?) trying to get back on topic).

Click to expand...

I'm just the idea guy. Leave those trivial implementation details for others.

Surprisingly, the firewall failed to catch me on that link. For one thing, I see that I misquoted Scotty, who said "their power is simple impulse", not "strictly impulse". My bad.

And yes, those are clearly warp nacelles or something very similar, and they obviously do have some sort of FTL capability.

Engaging the universal Trekkie ability to rationalize seemingly contradictory bits of information, I can only conclude that the Romulans' FTL capability was of a different type than the Federation's. (This is supported, though certainly not proven, by the fact that in the Next Gen era the Romulans use an artificial singularity for power, not a matter/antimatter reactor.) Whatever far-out physics makes them go, the power for it is from a reactor, generator, or other source that would make Scotty call it "simple impulse", and therefore not anything similar to a Federation warp core.

This would, undoubtedly, be why they later adopted the Klingon design, one which presumably does have a proper warp core.

Signed,

Good explanation. Better than the one the writers came up with on why the Klingons sprouted brow ridges between TOS and TNG!

Well, that's a pretty low bar.

neil_w said:

I'm just the idea guy. Leave those trivial implementation details for others.

Click to expand...

I'd rather be an engineer than a physicist.
They have more fun.
Cheers.

Yeah, that was not really a necessary detail. No one really cares about how a rocket looks from the business end.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/gallery/jsc2012e101422.html

Business end of NASA's NEXT ion thruster.
Ooooooh.

“Ion Dart” doesn’t have much of a ring to it....

neil_w said:

“Ion Dart” doesn’t have much of a ring to it....

Click to expand...

Heh, Plasma Dart sounds like something they stick you with at the Blood Bank......


JUST KIDDING!

Plasma is just a gas of ions, so ion thruster and plasma thruster are really the same thing.