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“Continue with your saucer build, and see how a battle section neck bracket can keep your cables tidy!“

Contents

Parts

Materials: Only the Right Neck Bracket is metal in this stage – the rest is plastic.

Build

Assembling Deck Panel U3-07

Step A

Carefully remove three (3) Escape Pod Covers, twenty (20) Clear Windows, and ten (10) Dark Windows from their sprues and fit them into the back of Deck Panel U3-07, as shown.

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:

Fit Reflector Panel U3-07-A over the two taller posts on the back of this Deck Panel, as shown:

Next, slide the LED bulb on the yellow/black wires of the Deck Panel Lights cable into this notch of the Reflector Panel, as shown:

Finally, secure the Reflector Panel to the Deck Panel with three (3) BP screws:

Installing Deck Panel U1-04

Step B

Retrieve your saucer Upper Skeleton assembly from the previous stage. Feed the Deck Panel Light plug of this panel through this opening 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 cable through the Upper Skeleton assembly on the right front of the saucer, as per the instructions:

Position this Deck Panel onto the skeleton, as shown:

While holding this panel in place, partially secure it down from the other side with one (1) DP screw, as shown:

Slide the free LED of the Deck Panel Lights cable into this notch of the Reflector Panel U3-07-A:

Secure the rest of the panel to the Upper Skeleton with one (1) more DP screw:

Finally, gently bend the leads of this LED down into the Upper Skeleton so it will clear the next installed panel:

We can test these window lights by connecting the Deck Panel Light cable to the PCB and Battery Box:

Fitting the Right Neck Bracket

Step C

Retrieve your Battle Section Neck assembly from the previous stage and turn it upside down. Fit the unused LED from the Battle Section Lights (part 22L) with the yellow/green wires into this slot of the Left Neck Bracket, as shown.

This LED lights up the forward photon torpedo launcher on the spine of the battle section. While it should not be lit all the time like it is, it definitely should not be white. I grabbed my Tamiya X-27 Clear Red acrylic paint and a brush and coated it to give it the correct color:

Once the paint dried, I installed this LED into the square recess at the front of the Left Neck Bracket as per the instructions:

Fit the Right 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:

All of the wires connected to the battle section PCB (except the switch wiring) should be routed through this front opening:

And, the ‘photon torpedo launcher’ LED we just installed should be captured in place now:

This is what that LED looks like from the front opening:

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

Like on the left side, there is a space for these two rear cables (arrow below) to come out between the skeleton parts:

Finish securing the Right 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):

Finally, secure the front edges of the Neck Brackets together with one (1) AM screw from the right side, as shown:

Thoughts

Everything is going together better than I expected. It is true that I have had to reroute wiring here and there, but nothing too extreme. I hope it continues to go well!

Next Up

Stage 26 – Deck Panel U3-06, Windows/Reflector/Light