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“In this stage, the distinctive curves of the battle section profile starts to take shape, and the saucer hull plating continues to expand.“

Contents

Parts

Materials: The Deck Panel and Left Neck Bracket are metal, while the rest of the non-electrical parts are plastic.

Build

Fitting the Left Neck Bracket

Step A

Retrieve your Battle Section Neck assembly from Stage 22 and turn it upside down. Fit the Left Neck Bracket onto the Battle Section Skeleton 2, aligning the three bottom screw holes as shown.

Be sure not to trap or pinch any wires between these parts:

Start to secure the Left Neck Bracket into place, first with three (3) BM screws, as shown.

There is a space for these two wires (arrow below) to come out between the skeleton parts. This is also your friendly reminder to try using 3-in-One Oil on all screws going into metal:

Finish securing the Left Neck Bracket in place at the rear with one (1) FM screw.

You may need to bend the rear neck frame inward a bit to get these screw holes to align. This is especially true if you tried bending this frame outwards to try and fix the gap on top of the ‘cobra head’ (not recommended):

Assembling Deck Panel U1-04

Step B

Carefully remove eight (8) Escape Pod Covers from their sprues and fit them into the back of Deck Panel U1-04, as shown:

Then, carefully remove four (4) Dark Windows and eight (8) Clear Windows from their sprues and fit them into the back of this panel.

Reminder: I sanded all of these windows down already. See The Windows page for more details:

As before, I used pieces of black electrical tape behind the Escape Pod Covers and Dark Windows to reduce light leak:

Adding Lights to Deck Panel U1-04

Step C

Fit Reflector Panel U1-04-A1 over the four posts on the left side of this Deck Panel, as shown:

Take the Deck Panel Lights (Two Bulbs) cable and slide the LED with the yellow/black wires under the notch of this reflector, as shown.

Make sure this LED is captured by the small pin inside the notch and inserted so the reflector remains flush to the Deck Panel:

Secure this Reflector Panel into place using four (4) EM screws:

Next, slide Reflector Panel U1-04-A under the LED we just installed and onto the four posts on the right side of Deck Panel U1-04:.

I needed to gently bend the pins of the installed LED up a bit to get this reflector panel to fit into place:

Slide the other LED of the Deck Panel Light (Two Bulbs) into this notch of the reflector we just added, as shown.

The pins on this LED needed to be gently bent up a little as well:

Then, insert the LED of the Deck Panel Light (One Bulb) into this notch on the other side of Reflector Panel U1-04-A, as shown:

Finally secure this Reflector Panel down with four (4) EM screws, as shown:

This is what the top of this Deck Panel should now look like:

Fitting Deck Panel U1-04

Step D

Before we install this panel, we can test the lights. Connect the two cables to the PCB and Battery Box and check the lights are working:

Next, gently bend the pins of the LED with the yellow/black wires down between the Reflector Panels, as shown:

Retrieve your saucer Upper Skeleton assembly from the previous stage. Feed the Deck Panel Light plugs of this panel through these openings of the skeleton.

Before fitting this, I gently bent the pins of this edge LED up away from the panel, as shown:

Then, we can run the lighting cables through the Upper Skeleton assembly as per the instructions:

As you place this Deck Panel U1-04, make sure these three tabs slide under the lower deck panels, as shown:

Give the panels a firm squeeze to close up the gap between them:

Turn the saucer structure over and secure this panel into place with two (2) BM screws, as shown:

Thoughts

Another stage, another deck panel! I wonder which stage completes the saucer section completely. We still have to do the ventral hull too!

Next Up

Stage 25 – Deck Panel U3-07, Windows/Reflector/Light, Escape Pod Covers, Right Neck Bracket