This is the ERTL Star Destroyer with Fiber Optic Lighting System kit. I was always interested in the fiber optic kits. This one comes with a 2-foot, 64-strand piece of cable, and about a score of incandescent bulbs (yuck).

The plans called for light sources sprinkled all over the interior, with short fiber runs. I scrapped the lighting plan in favor of one based on LEDs instead. I also opted to light the three main engines. I managed to make the whole lighting system internal, powered by 9V, and it's attached to the engine panel and removeable for battery swap or LED replacement.

The engine pod was fitted using nesting brass tubes, and sculpy. The pod's tubes slide over the fixed smaller tubes located in the hull. I used some ALCLAD2 Chrome paint inside the engine bells, to enhance the already painful brilliance of the super-bright blue engine LEDs. I think it works pretty well. The fiber was run to two locations, lower hull and sidewalls to one spot bridge, upper decks to another. I used a lot of fiber, and even had to buy some more from thefiberopticstore.com, who had the exact same cable.

I also fabricated a custom asteroid base. The clear styrene scaffold just didn't cut it. I used Bondo and inserted dirt clods before it set. Flushing the mud off results in a nice look. A few shades of paint, some trimmed /rounded clear rods for support completed things. I tried a few painting techniques like pre-shading, but the scale is so small it didn't really look right. I settled for a light wash to bring out some details. And like almost all Imperial equipment, it's supposed to be clean!

Image: Port profile

Image: Superstructure

Image: Engine lighting

Image: Engines

Image: Engines lit

Image: "Engines to maximum"

Image: Engine mountings

Image: Fiber layout lower hull

Image: Fiber layout upper hull

Image: Asteroid base