This is my 1:1400 from the AMT/ERTL Enterprise D with fiber optic lighting included, which I got at Federation Models along with the Galaxy class shuttle bay.

Painting and lighting are the most important efforts in this ship. For the base coat I decided to use 5 parts of TAMIYA Light Blue + 13 parts of TAMIYA Flat White + 3 parts of TAMIYA Light Grey, as the scope was to have a base the more near as possible to the original colour that comes from the kit box. For the aztec paneling I've simply increased the presence of light blue. My intention was to have a very light blue, almost white, like the colour I've always seen in the TNG movies. The base has been paint brushed, but the aztec has been manually applied. For the life boats I've used 3 parts of buff and 1 part of yellow, adding flat white to obtain a clear tone.

The box's instructions suggest to drill a thin hole in the windows to light and to insert in it the fiber optic cable. For my opinion this was not a realistic effect for that long windows on the saucer section, so I prefered to totally open the windows to light, and to fill them with epoxy glue. Then I've discarded the fiber optic provided in the box, and I've simply used bulb lamps (some of them provided in the box itself) and white leds. I provided also an external power supply. I've painted the non lighted windows (not drilled ones) with the TAMIYA Smoke. In this way, when the lights are turned off, the non lighted windows are indistinguishable from the drilled ones filled with epoxy.

For the installation of the shuttle bay, the articles publicated here at "Starship Modeler" have been really useful. I've lighted it with only a blue led and I've drilled a big hole inside to allow the insertion of a lamp to light the main bridge and the meeting room.

Building this model took almost two years, meanwhile painting the aztec and drilling all those windows has been really boring. But I've always tried to keep in mind that the final result should have been really impressive and I still believe this!

Image: Starboard side saucer

Image: Lit up, from the rear

Image: Shuttlebay

Image: Again from the rear

Image: Port side

Image: Above/left

Image: Overpass