Return to the BUILD

“Complete and fit the mammoth deck panel you began in the previous stage, then combine your upper and lower warp engine nacelle builds.“

Contents

Parts

Materials: All of the non-electronic parts in this stage are plastic.

Build

Assembling Deck Panel U3-01

Step A

Carefully remove twelve (12) Escape Pod Covers, three (3) Clear Windows, and seven (7) Dark Windows from their sprues and fit them into the back of Deck Panel U1-09, as shown.

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

As we noticed in the previous stage, the tiny tabs of these Escape Pod Covers can interfere with each other and make them fit weird. I sanded the offending tabs down so everything would be flush:

Place a Sticker over the top row of Escape Pod Covers.

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

Fit the Reflector Panel U3-01-A onto the back of Deck Panel U3-01 as shown, aligning the screw holes.

To make room for this Reflector Panel, the leads of the LED on the nearby panel need to be gently bent towards the narrow end of the Deck Panel:

Slide the LED of a Deck Panel Light cable into this notch of the Reflector Panel:

Begin securing the Reflector Panel to the Deck Panel with three (3) DM screws, as shown.

This is your friendly reminder to try using 3-in-One Oil on all screws going into metal:

Finish securing the Reflector Panel to the Deck Panel with one (1) AM screw, as shown:

Step B

In the same way, carefully remove twelve (12) more Escape Pod Covers, three (3) more Clear Windows, and seven (7) more Dark Windows from their sprues and fit them into the back of Deck Panel U1-09, as shown:

Place a Sticker over the top row of Escape Pod Covers.

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

Fit the Reflector Panel U3-01-A3 onto the back of Deck Panel U3-01 as shown, aligning the screw holes:

Slide the LED of the other Deck Panel Light cable into this notch of the Reflector Panel:

Begin securing the Reflector Panel to the Deck Panel with three (3) DM screws, as shown:

Finish securing the Reflector Panel to the Deck Panel with one (1) AM screw, as shown:

Testing the Lights

Step C

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

Fitting Deck Panel U3-01

Step D

Retrieve your main saucer assembly and thread the Deck Panel Light cables from each side of Deck Panel U3-01 up through these openings.

You may noticed the LED for my Arboretum mod from the last stage has been removed temporarily. It will be installed again later on:

Fit the Deck Panel U3-01 to the Upper Skeleton frame.

Before fitting this panel, make sure the wires of this LED are routed to the left, as shown:

Then, carefully slide this Deck Panel U3-01 up into the Upper Skeleton. Make sure the narrow end of this panel is tucked under the two tabs of the upper panels (circled below). You may need to loosen the screws of those upper panels to make this easier:

Pay attention to the LED wires of this panel to make sure they are routing through the gaps between the Deck Panel and Upper Skeleton on either side:

When this is seated correctly, the screw posts of Deck Panel U3-01 will ‘pop’ into the matching holes of the Upper Skeleton:

On my model, I noticed a slight bulge on both sides where this Deck Panel U3-01 would not sit flush to the other panels. I discovered that the AM Screw posts on either side of this panel slightly contact the nearby panels. To fix this, I used a half-round needle file to carefully sand down the edges of these posts on both sides until they were even with the panel ridge, as seen here:

This small adjustment allowed my Deck Panel U3-01 to sit perfectly flush:

Secure Deck Panel U3-01 into place from below with ten (10) FM screws:

Linking the Upper and Lower Nacelle Builds

Step E

Retrieve your port Nacelle Upper assembly. Lift the Bussard Collector up and fit the Bussard Collector Reflector Cover into place.

The center notch of the Bussard Collector Reflector Cover should be facing up as shown, allowing the LED wiring through. The notches in this cover slide onto the Nacelle Frame in front of two tabs (circled below) and are different on each side, so this only fits correctly one way. You may also notice one side of this cover is shinier than the other. I doubt it makes much difference, but I did put the shinier side towards the Bussard Collector to reflect the red LED light towards the front, as shown:

Retrieve your Nacelle Lower Frame assembly from Stage 52 and place it on your work surface with the metal forward Nacelle Front Lower facing down. Route the free LED on the cable at the rear of the Nacelle Light Strip through the Nacelle Lower Frame.

To make this fitment easier, you may want to gently bend the leads of this LED to a 90º angle, as shown:

The instructions say the tip of this LED is meant to be pushed into the hole in the black part of the Nacelle Frame. However, I do not feel it can be forced down into the hole as it may interfere with a future part we will be installing. I simply rested the tip of my LED on the hole as shown. Also, be sure the wiring is routed under this part of the Nacelle Frame (arrow below):

To prevent this LED from moving out of place, I secured it down with some electrical tape:

Flip the Nacelle Lower Frame over and start fitting it onto the Nacelle Upper Frame, aligning the screw holes as shown.

At the same time, route the plug of the Nacelle Light Strip up through this opening in the Nacelle Lower Frame:

The front of this Nacelle Lower Frame needs to engage the notches of the black Bussard Collector Reflector Cover we installed earlier, so it may take some fiddling. When it is seated correctly, the two Nacelle halves should fit tightly together as shown:

Secure the Nacelle Lower Frame to the Nacelle Upper Frame with eight (8) CP screws:

Thoughts

It is really something to attach such a large panel to the upper saucer. And, we enclosed the front of our port warp nacelle. I am looking forward to the stage where we complete the top of the saucer. Soon!

Next Up

Stage 55 – Deck 2 Base, Saucer Impulse Engines/Reflectors, Battery Box/Switch/Bracket