I'm ramping up to begin working on the Voyager.  There remain a few points I'd like to perfect in concept before I begin, which include the forward hull light, ensuring the warp nacelles and deflector dish are bright enough, the lighting of the windows via fibre, and the stand (I've heard the stand that comes with the kit is insufficient).

     I photocopied the decal sheet so that I may confirm the alignment of specific parts in relation to where the decals are going to be.  While this applies in general, what I'm specifically after is the landing area of the shuttle bay - there is a flashing running light right at the tail, and this needs to be lined up +/- 1mm with the decal that goes there.

     Speaking of the shuttle bay, the walls that it's made of have a kind of techno-pattern on them, which is just completely wrong.  The episode "Race" (in the last season) show the inside of the shuttle bay well, as does the game "Voyager - Elite Force" in which you can walk around the bloody thing, and I assure you it's nothing like what the walls in the model depict.  I'm afraid it's going to require some pretty serious changes.

     I've found that the local hobby store carries plastic fibre optic cable of varying diameters, which makes things a bit easier.

     I started putting some of the Voyager's pieces together to get an idea of scale and what I'm working with - the circuitry is going to be really, really tight.  The LED's are going to be very close together, barely enough room for the wires (short enough that I'll have to use a small heat sink on the leads when soldering so I don't burn them out).

     I'm also working on how I'm going to get the flashing running lights in there.  I plan on using fibre, but the strands are so thin that they don't provide sufficient light, and they won't come up on the hull like the little bumps they're supposed to be (I'll use a thicker fibre instead of the smaller ones).  I'm planning on taking a little poetic license here, making these lights flush to the surface.  I intend to drill a small hole, put tape on the hull and put a couple drops of window cement in there, then run the fibre and glue it in place.  I think that way it will diffuse the light enough that you can't see the strands, yet be functional and look good (besides, who'd want to navigate a bump when landing a shuttle? :) ).

     I've gotten some great pointers from http://members.tripod.com/Alun/index.html - thanks, guys.