Any hands on experience with adding lights to models?

[Tulkas]

Hey guys, do any of you have experience with putting LED lights in your Space Marines? I just bought the plastic Ven. Dread and Im thinking of adding a LED light behind the visor and another one in the barrel of the Plasmacannon.

 

But I don't have any experience with this and I don't wanna melt my models down, nor am I experienced with wiring stuff. If there's someone on here who has, please post and let me know how you did it if possible. Pics'd be greatly appreciated too.

 

Thanks!

[Br0ther Rafen]

I'm afraid I don't have any experience with attaching lights to your models, but if you dig around the forum a bit, you can find some painting tutorials for doing glowing eyes, which can easily be applied to PLasma Cannons and such.

Hope this helps

[Marshall_Brant]

It's not going to be easy I'll tell you straight up. There's a reason not many people do it. I looked through the tutorials sub-forum I only found two threads for lighting up units and those were for a bike and a rhino.

 

Rhino

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=173331

 

Bike

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=94898

The only thing with this one is; it's not finished.

[puck]

 

 

Found this on youtube. This guy is pretty slick. You're going to need a drimel drill and an area large enough to hide a battery. Depending on the size of the LED you might be able to use a watch or hearing aid battery. Put neodymium magnets on each side of the battery (they conduct), and run the leads from the LED to either side. In the video he says to make sure the leads are insulated so they don't short circuit. Use a small metal bit to complete the circuit and bam anything you want can be lit up. To me the hardest parts seem to be planning where the battery will go (it needs to be accessible to it can be replaced) and drimmeling out the pieces without really messing up your stuff.

 

I really want to try this now but alas there's so many projects already in line.

[Purdy81]

Ive been thinking about doing the same thing, adding light to my SM tanks and stuff, the only thing ive really found thats suitable comes from the states, have a look at this website, the sizes are perfect with LED's at 1.8mm 3mm and 5mm postage to the uk seems reasonable too. Im ordering some at the end of the month when i get paid so I'll let you know how i get on.

 

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/ledlights1.html

 

If you come across any uk sites doing the same stuff can yo let me know, also check out the videos on the site and you'll get an idea of how cool it would be

[Tamwulf]

You're gonna have to become a bit of an electrician, and you'll have to use a little basic math. I have found This LED site for Beginners to be very helpful. There is a lot more to it then at first glance. And it could get expensive.

 

At the very least, you will need:

Safety Glasses

Soldiering Iron

Solder

Flux

Electrical Tape

Shrinktube

Wire... probably like 22+ guage, in two different colors

Wire Strippers

Needle Nose pliers

Diagonal wire cutters

 

That's the basics, after that, you'll need your:

LED's

Resisters

Switches

Batteries

 

If you want the lights to blink, it gets more complicated. Add diodes and capacitors to the list of materials.

 

This is just for the lights. On top of all that, you'll need some serious modeling skills to hid all that in the mini. We're talking dremel tool, very small pin vise, etc. etc. It's a great deal of planning and work. Not to discourage it, because if you can pull it off, it's awesome. But it's a LOT of work.

 

Good luck!

[Gurth]

If you want the lights to blink, it gets more complicated.

Just buy blinking LEDs.

 

This old thread may help, too — my article about adding sound and light to a Land Raider Prometheus.