My Journey into Model Making: Lighting Up the Star Trek Enterprise

In 2014, I embarked on my first model-making adventure, diving into a hobby that had always intrigued me: adding LEDs and fiber optics to models. I chose starships as my starting point, inspired by my love for the Star Trek franchise, particularly The Next Generation. The starships from this series are iconic, brimming with lights and intricate details, making them perfect candidates for my exploration into illuminated models.

My first build (Enterprise E) was a bit rough around the edges, as I was diving into uncharted territory and learning a lot on the fly. The second project (Enterprise D) was not only bigger but also better, with 3x ligths.

⚠️ Warning: I took some of these pictures in 2014 with an old, non professional camera.

First, some pictures of the finished models:

Enterprise E

Building

I decided to begin with the Enterprise E. To focus on the lighting aspects, I purchased a pre-painted toy model from Diamond Select, the Star Trek TNG Enterprise E Electronic Ship. This model came with some basic lighting but lacked the fiber optics and LEDs that I envisioned, and it also didn't have lights for the windows.

The first step in my process was to disassemble the model and strip out the existing electronics. My goal was to ensure that my new LED setup wouldn't suffer from any light leakage, so I applied layers of black and white paint inside it.

Next, I drilled tiny holes where the windows were supposed to be using a 0.3 mm drill bit. This painstaking task resulted in about 380 “windows” for the ship (and many, many broken drills). I used six cables in total, each consisting of 64 strands. I also used 3mm and 5mm fibers, such as the row of four yellow lights at the front of the ship, which was not part of the original model but a creative addition.

The lighting setup involved a mix of green, red, yellow, and blue LEDs with various blinking and fade-in/fade-out effects. Given that this was my first foray into soldering and circuits, the electronics were quite rudimentary. I achieved some effects using simple resistors and 555 timers (today, I would just use Arduino). The entire system was powered by three AA batteries or a USB connector.