This was another styrofoam project that required several disks to be spray painted silver. I learned my lesson with Toucky when I made the mistake of spray painting that sealant on it, only to cause the styrofoam to dissolve. Through some experimentation, I found that I could use my heat gun on the surfaces of the styrofoam that I wanted to paint first and then spray the silver paint on. The heat sealed the surface so the aerosol in the paint had no effect. I had to make several disk layers of various diameters to accomplish all the plans I had for this project. The two largest disks are four feet in diameter.

The disk to the right is the bottom of the space ship and the clear plastic piece will serve as the tractor beam. The small upper right disk is the top and the plastic will serve as the guidance headquarters where the aliens can look out in all directions.

Looking at the picture above, this is the smaller disk in the middle. that will be sandwiched between the two large disks. I shaved out part of the outer diameter of the disk so I could install a string of solar LED Christmas lights. I had to calculate how many lights would go within each foot so I would end up at the end with all lights being evenly spaced. To install them I poked holes in the styrofoam at the proper spacing and shoved the lights through the holes. These lights will be programed to change colors and flash when they come on automatically at night.

Here you can see the above light system is now glued to the large disk. There is also another light assembly glued on which will serve as the bottom tractor beam lights. These will show a constant white light.

This is the top piece. It also has a light system for it which slowly changes colors.

This is the final stage of the construction. All the pieces have been glued together. This is looking at the bottom of it showing the tractor beam light assembly. The bricks are on to weigh it all down so the glue bonds well. The only step left now is mounting in the crab apple tree that has now had several dead branches removed.

This is an evening picture of the ship. You can see the "dancing" lights in the middle and the tractor beam at the bottom. The changing colors from the top lights don't show well in the image.

You can download a short evening MPEG video showing the light system if you wish.