OK, here we go! I'm going to be using the VoodooFx lighting kit in this build again. This is a fairly easy install, but you have to make a few modifications to the kit itself to get it in.

I'll start with the cobra neck and headpiece. I've marked the area's to be removed with a red marker so you can see them. I used my Dremel and an X-Acto to carefully clean out these areas. There are (3) pins on the neck cover, the adjoining holes on the main neck, one of the mounting stalks on the headpiece itself, and the back of one of the boxed area's inside of the headpiece. You'll also have to remove the nipple off the back of the transparent red insert of the cobra eye as well.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds001.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds002.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds003.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds006.jpg
Now that you can clearly see what needs done, start hacking!

Once you have all the areas removed and cleaned up, it should look like this:
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds004.jpg
The small red LED will fit perfectly inside the boxed area. It will get sandwiched by the other half during assembly, holding it in place nicely!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds007.jpg
After I removed the nipple off the back of the red lens, I also carefully drilled it out a bit so that the small dimple on the end of the LED fits inside it.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds005.jpg
I pulled two strands off the flat ribbon wire supplied, and you can see here how neatly it fits inside the cobra neck channel. The cover side fits snugly over it sandwiching it in place.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds008.jpg
Next, it's time to do some easy soldering. I use a "third hand" to hold LED's and wires, makes the job simpler and I don't get burned as easy! "Tin" you wires by running a bit of solder on them off the hot iron, and don't forget to put your heat shrink on the wires now! Also, make sure you have your positive/negative wire on the proper side of the LED! It DOES matter!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds010.jpg
Once the wire is soldered in place, slide your heat shrink up snugly, and use the side of the iron to shrink it around your connections. (You can use a blow dryer too if you want)
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds011.jpg
It should look something like this when you get done!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/Waroftheworlds013.jpg
Here, you can see how it all fits inside the boxed area inside the cobra headpiece. I'll start on the body lighting next. More to come! Stay tuned!

Tim,
Why do your pictures look like professional studio shots while mine look like crappy vaction snapshots?

Cuz' I am a perfeshinal...yep.....:freak:

No, not really. Canon 8 meg. with 20x digital microzoom, shot off a tripod, use the timer to snap the shot. All advice I got from a good friend a few years back when my pictures totally sucked! LOL!

<envy> it's always better when you have the right tools </envy>

I tell you, your tutorials are making me think that even a klutz like myself just might be able to light a kit! :thumbsup:

Nice info!

Good to see that even I can do this! :drunk:

This is great I got the war machine yesterday and ordered the VoodooFx lighting kit today :thumbsup:

Ok, here's a few shots of the Cobra Eye in place, wires are run, and I'll be running a simple test to see if it works! Check out the video at the end!!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/011.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/010.jpg
I drilled the holes for the LED's for the lights in the bottom, then taped off the holes as well as the panel behind the front and sides transparent green light caps. The white wall will act as a diffuser for the LED'S. The rest will get primered up inside and out to keep any light from bleeding thru the finished product.
Check out this fun video I made for you guys! There's LOT's of sound, so turn on your volume!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/th_012.jpg

Nice touch with the vid to show how it is coming along.

I've finished the wiring harness. There's a matter of light diffusion I want to work out on the front light, but I've started primering all of it too.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/001.jpg
I didn't follow the directions exactly. I wanted everything mounted on one half of the saucer body, so here's what I've got...
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/002.jpg
I like the planetary base, but I felt it needed something....A little Sculpy baking clay later, and.....
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/003.jpg
I always loved when the Martian being put his hand on the girls shoulder and she just freaked! As cheezy as the paper mache' beast was, it was still cool.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/004.jpg
I actually left it in the oven too long, and blistered the piss out of the clay, but I got this neat finish to it! I went with it!! I think I'm going to drill some holes, and backlight the hand with some red LED's to give it a glow around the edges! A go at this thing with the airbrush will bring it to life!

Man, that is going to be so cool.

Nice touch with the base! :thumbsup:

I love the idea for the base.......

OK, who says martians can't have kosmic kolor paint jobs on thier weapons of mass destruction?! The ships in the movie were actually made of copper and copper colored. I went with a new color called Pearl Copper from Autoaire, and topcoated it with 6 coats of HOK Kosmic Klear, with just a hint of green pearl powder and a pinch of rainbow flake thrown in the mix! It's really pretty in the sunlight!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/033.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/032.jpg
The cobra eye is wired and installed on the upper hull section.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/035.jpg
All the lighting is set in place. Black silicone acts as an adhesive and a light barier on the LED's.
The side and front panels were left the kit plastic color, and will act to diffuse the light for the transparent green wingtips and large nosepiece. I am going to sandblast the inside of the nosepiece as well. This willl hopefully eliminate the "hot spots" fromt he LED's behind it.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/038.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/037.jpg
More to come as I wind down this fun project!

Been watching your posts with keen interest, got my kit last week, waiting for the light kit to show up.....hope you don't mind my using your build as reference! I'm kinda new to the light kits, so this is going to be a real education. Keep the awesome info coming!!

Glad someone is looking, I was starting to wonder! LOL!

Well, this evening I sandblasted the front lens, what a nice difference it makes! Special thanks to one of you guys who suggested this in another thread! I still have some hot spots from the LED's, but not near as bad. I polished the outside of the lens with some Blue Magic paste to smooth the outside finish, and it worked out really well. Lenses are all installed, and the lighting is all working great! This is such a fun build! I've really enjoyed it, and the opportunity to teach something once again. I've been doing online "how-to's" on cars and bikes for many years, so this has been a learning experience for me as well. All of the input from fellow members really makes it a blast to do! Here's a few update photo's,a nd even a short video!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/042.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/041.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/043.jpg
Sandblasted lens....
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/045.jpg
From above, you can still notice the hot spot areas, but I can live with it...
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/046.jpg

Fink Tim, I am impressed that is one outstanding job I can tell how much you enjoy the build! Sonny

:woohoo:
Nicely Done! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Tim, nice job!! Wondering where you'll be putting the power source - I was thinking about running some wires down the base support and housing the battery and switch underneath - does this sound feasible?

Dave

You can fit a 9v battery in the base. the tricky part is chanelling the wiring down thru the stand. You need to drill some holes to make it work. A hollow stand would have been a sweet feature

Yep, the battery fits with little problems right underneath the base. Of course, I created some of my own problems, and ended up putting a piece of plastruct under there to hold the back of it up about an extra 5mm. (I got my switch too close to the edge of the base and it was throwing it off kilter)
I also added some light to the base, to go under a martian hand I made from Sculpee baking clay.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/IMG_9770.jpg
This is the classic, stuffing 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag! LOL!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/IMG_9767.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/IMG_9758.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/Finktim/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/IMG_9756.jpg
As you can see in these photos, I ran the wiring down the backside of the support arm, so it's not too visible. I just used a few drops of Zap to hold it in place. Lou's right, a hollow support would have been nice!

Love the end result, Tim...I'm about to tear into my kit, got a few questions for you:

Is it important to drill holes for the three underside lights as you did? Wondering if not doing that would let enough light filter through the plastic...

I noticed you mounted one of your front lights to the bottom hull; I'm assuming you mounted the other two to the upper hull? Is there an advantage for doing it this way as opposed to Randy's instructions, ie all mounted to the upper hull? Is mounting to the upper hull supposed to aid in diffusion? Curious as to the advantage of doing it this way...

Also, did you actually cement the cobra assembly to the upper hull? Thought it would be kinda kool to leave it loose so it could pivot...

Thanks for your time, and congrats on yet another awesome build.....

Dave

Most excellent work from start to finish!

I gotta learn the cmos two-step before I can get that blinky stuff going for my models. That black gunk was just black silicone? Looks like an awesome idea. That stuff doesn't stay tacky forever? It cures solid over time?

Lovely work. This is one of those subjects where lighting really brings a lot to the party.

Thanks for posting.

I actually mounted all of the lights (except cobra eye obviously!) to the bottom of the hull, they just weren't glued down yet in the pics. I couldn't see battling the two halves during assembly becasue of wires getting caught and all, it was just easier to me! Yes, I did drill a mounting hole in the bottom lights to mount them. I figured they didn't need to be diffused, and wanted more light showing anyway for affect, and it worked just fine. I did the wing tips the same way, just used the kit white plastic as a diffuser, with the LED's mounted behind it, no drilled hole though. That big front lens is the only problematic one as far as diffusion. The sandblasting on the inside of the lens worked really well, but still have some hot spots as you can see.

The black silicone will set hard in about 24 hours. It's rubbery and hard and holds really well, plus it blocks out any escaping light from the backside of the LED's.

Best of luck with your build, and please post some photos of it so we can enjoy it as well! :wave:

Nice, Tim. Following this one. You're a lighting monster........:)

Thanks for the "step by step", it helped me with my first lighting kit experience and I'm quite happy with the results - pix can be seen in my photos folder - now I'm deep into my Flying Sub build, will probably post some shots when completed. Thanks again!!

Glad it helped you! Fun build!

Tim,

I'm with all the other guys, great job and great tutoral! I'd like to ask you about the transparent green parts. Did you diffuse or 'frost' them in any way? It has that look and I had had the idea of maybe spraying dull coat or hair spray (that's an old photograhers trick for diffusion) inside the green parts. The reason for asking is the light looks so well dispersed and diffused.

I sure got a lot out of your pics and vid's and hope you and others continue to post "How you done it's"!

Hal9001-

While I love the work and end results of lighting, I'm not a big fan. Mostly 'cause I'm a skeered lil' girl when it comes to even thinkin' 'bout trying to light a model. The two times I've done it in teh past have been kits that came w/lights and w/in a month some wire somewhere "broke" and half the lights stopped working. :(

That being said, I love this thread. Chock full of useful information. Thanks for posting all your hard work here. :thumbsup:

Don't think I haven't thought about that too! LOL!! Your worst nightmare, zapping the whole thing together, and then it stops lighting!! ARRGGHH!!!!

I left my Seaview "unglued" for this reason. I can pull the whole front unit out to service it if needed. Some of these others, there's just no way! THATS why it is so important to make sure your solders are good, shrink tube it all when its soldered, and use the right materials in the first place. So far, no failures, but ya' never know!!

To state the fairly obvious, let the lights run a while before you seal it up.

Had a heart-stopper myself after sealing closed my MWM - lights worked fine during tests and soon after sealing, a few days later the pulsing red light in the death ray stopped working altogether! After much whining I tried switching out the battery with a new one and it started to function again and has since - not sure what that was all about (something to do with the dimmer?), but I'm glad it "fixed itself".........

Cool.

Don't ya hate it when things like that happen!

Inspired by Tim's wonderful work I started my own MWM. I am only just starting. I have followed Tim's advice and masked off the plastic parts behind the lights for defusion.

I also made a mod to the support. Since the support wasn't hollow I took a plastic tube, left over from a radio control plane, and use some heat to shape it and glued it onto the base. I will run the power wire through the tube so no wires will show.

Thanks Tim for the inspiration!

I don't know if these will really be needed but I figured I'd put them in just in case to prevent light leaks. I added a couple of small pieces of metal duct tape inside the cobra head to act as reflectors.

Steve

Nice progress.

Thanks Starmanmm,

We are practically neighbors, I'm in Medford, MA!

I've been wanting to build a MWM ever since I was a kid and first saw the movie (on TV). I happen to be on vacation this week so I plan on finishing the MWM this week!

I have installed the red LED, glued the neck together and filed the little 'flexible' section of the neck a little deeper. I also have given the neck and it's base it's first coat of copper. I will have to do some more sanding though. A little bit of the seam on the side of the neck is still showing. It is very small but since I was looking for it I can see it. It is so small I don't think I could even use filler. Maybe a drop of superglue spread over the seam then some very light sanding might take care of it. Either that or sanding paint, sanding paint till it is gone.

Steve:)

Here are a few photos of the Cobra head and neck after being sanded after it's first coat of copper. And a test of the lighting before I glue it into place.

I don't know when my hands were shaking more, during the soldering or when I was plugging in the 9 volt for the test. I was relieved when everything lite up correctly. I did have a minor heart attack when after the first cycle all the lights went out but I guess that is part of the cycle. I"m going to leave the lights running for about an hour before I seal it up.

I'm going to install the lighting, close up the body and do the exterior finish. After multiple coats of copper then some clear I'll add the lenses. Last will be to wire up the power after I have the base done.

Two things I have learned, one: I need a smaller tip for my soldering iron and two: With my 50 year old eyes I need to get one of those magnifying glasses that you wear on your head!:p

Steve:)

I have finished the upper hull of the MWM. After three coats of gloss black, sanding between coats then four coats of 'Ace' metallic copper and sanding between those coats the top half of the hull is done. It actually looks better in person than in the photo. The neck is also done too. I just have to do the same to the bottom half of the hull then it will be multiple coats of clear on everything.

Steve:)

Looking good there neighbor!

PM you also.

Here are a few photos of the Cobra head and neck after being sanded after it's first coat of copper. And a test of the lighting before I glue it into place.

I don't know when my hands were shaking more, during the soldering or when I was plugging in the 9 volt for the test. I was relieved when everything lite up correctly. I did have a minor heart attack when after the first cycle all the lights went out but I guess that is part of the cycle. I"m going to leave the lights running for about an hour before I seal it up.

I'm going to install the lighting, close up the body and do the exterior finish. After multiple coats of copper then some clear I'll add the lenses. Last will be to wire up the power after I have the base done.

Two things I have learned, one: I need a smaller tip for my soldering iron and two: With my 50 year old eyes I need to get one of those magnifying glasses that you wear on your head!:p

Steve:)

One good thing is when you put the body together it is so tight you don't need to glue it so you can get it apart if needed.

I thought I was close to finishing the paint on the hull but even after a bunch of coats of copper the seams were still too visable. I even watch parts of the original movie to see if there were visable seams on the original war marchines. I didn't see any so I did some filling and sanding.

I did glue together the two halves of the hull so I won't be able to open it in the future (I may regret that someday) but before I did I let the VoodooFX lighting kit run for a few hours to make sure I didn't screw something up.

Here is a shot of the front seam sanded and AGAIN ready for some undercoats before the copper goes on!

Steve:)

I thought I was close to finishing the paint on the hull but even after a bunch of coats of copper the seams were still too visable. I even watch parts of the original movie to see if there were visable seams on the original war marchines. I didn't see any so I did some filling and sanding.

I did glue together the two halves of the hull so I won't be able to open it in the future (I may regret that someday) but before I did I let the VoodooFX lighting kit run for a few hours to make sure I didn't screw something up.

Here is a shot of the front seam sanded and AGAIN ready for some undercoats before the copper goes on!

Steve:)Looks Great Steve, glad you where able to get the electronics in! Nice job! Randy Neubert/ VoodooFX
:thumbsup:

When you sanded between color coats... what grade did you use?

I used some Testors sanding film, 600 grit. Then I wiped it down with denatured alcohol....I should have wiped it down with vodka so I could take a shot at the same time!:)

Finally done with painting the MWM itself and the base. Now I just have to do a few coats of clear. You can see there are two 'freinds' looking on to see that the MWM is coming along as it should. The paint is copper but it looks different in the photo than in person. I wish the clouds came out better on the base but my cheapo airbrush didn't spray fine enough for smaller clouds.

Steve

I want to thank VoodooFX for a great lighting kit also Tim Nolan for his great work and direction and Starmanmm for his encouragment. I suppose as long as I'm talking like I won and oscar I should also thank Peggasus Models.

After, I think, 3 coats of black, 5 coats of copper and 4 coats of clear it is finally done. In fact I had so much paint on the body it was a little bit of work to get the green lenses on! The "Ace" hardware copper spray paint and window frosting spray worked out great.

Here are some finished shots.
Thanks All,

Steve:)

:woohoo:

One of my favorite movies. Looks great!