Gundam Dagger

'It could not be done that way', I was told.

But since I am feeling a little bit stubborn, I took that statement as a challenge.

It all started when I looked at the 1/144 Gundam 105 Dagger & Gunbarrel kit I bought years ago. This was from the Gundam Seed anime series (which I did not follow). You can get more information from the Wiki about them but for this post, I will go straight to the point:

I want to light up the Gunbarrel

Being a 1/144 scale model, the Gunbarrel is tiny. Very, very tiny. And to light it up, it is not easy. There are no LEDs small enough to enter into the model's internal space. And so, what I need are some fibre-optics and also, very thin wires.

The first problem was solved, thanks to ICW who provided the Fibre-Optic and also the fine drill bits.

You can see that it lights up very well. I am using a red LED for the moment but later on, it will be white since its going to be a strobe.

The next problem is to light up the engine thrusters on each pod. Unfortunately, they were all connected to a solid wing piece. One way is to scribe a micro trench, lay in the wires and the seal it up with putty.

But no. I decided to try my method which they said could not be done. My method is to use a fine drill bit (from ICW) and manually drill through the wings.

Yes, it works but some alighment problem means I need to cover them, maybe with putty. But it worked.

In total, there are five thrusters and this is the fifth thruster located in the Gunbarrel's main body. All four pair of wires are going to come in here. Not only that, I have to figure out how to stuff a chip inside too. Yes, its going to be very cramped.

As for the third problem, I wanted to recast the thrusters into clear so I can achieve the thrust effect I wanted. This is because the LEDs are too big and usng smaller SMDs would solve the problem at the cost of brightness. So, with clear parts, my theory is that the thrusters would be brighter. Unfortunately, I got stuck at this stage where moulding the part and casting it is the main problem. As in professional help and material cost problem.

So, it could not be done. But am I going to take this?

No way. 

I believe there is another solution. In the meantime, 'Hello, to-do bin'