Adding LED lights to models - any good 'how-to' guides?

[Caution Wake Turbulence]

Hi,

I'm aware there are a couple of companies out there offering ready-made aircraft lighting sets, but I'm quite keen to have a go at doing something myself. My chosen subject is the Revell 1/72 A400M - I'm not sure any of the off-the-shelf sets cater for the size or complexity required (wingspan nearly 65cm).

Can anyone suggest any good resources on the subject, including circuit design, component selection, achieving the appropriate frequency for flashing beacons and so forth. It's been a while since I've wielded a soldering iron, but I'm up for a challenge! I'm also planning to add motors to drive the props.

Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks,

Andrew

[louiex2]

You might check Hattons or the model railway section of your LHS. In the US I'd recommend Miniatronics- http://www.miniatronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc as a starting place, but I don't know if they have a UK distributor.

[Caution Wake Turbulence]

Thanks Louie, I'll have a look.

Andrew

[ANDYMO1962]

The one thing I'd recommend is lining the interior with foil to create a light-tight box: this seems to me to be the only sure fire way to prevent light leaking through plastic. It also makes maximum use of any interior light? Did this fairly successfully on Star Trek Enterprise and Voyager kits ( sorry they are leant out so don't have photos)

[Anthony Kesterton]

Take a look at this site (http://www.starwarsmodels.com/techelec.html) - this seems a nice intro to using LED's. There have also been good threads on the SciFi section of BM - if you search for lighting, you find info like this:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234954492-revell-uss-enterprise-with-lights-build/?hl=lighting

anthony

[Breaker]

Warren would be a good man to talk to on BM (Madmonk).

I personally have used a programmer controller to get stuff like this sorted, that can be programmed in BASIC. What size are the flashing beacons on the model? If you can get an LED that's close enough, it's a bonus. The other option is to look at a fibre optic bundle to get the right size 'bulb'.

[Madhatter]

Hi there

I know I'm a bit late, but I built and lit the same kit, so maybe I can help

Here's a link to the WIP if you want to have a look: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=265052&st=0&p=2514338&hl=a400&fromsearch=1entry2514338

I used eighteen 2mm SMD's for the interior and I did have SMD's for the wing tips as well but I blew them accidentally after installation. You could easily do the landing lights and as Breaker mentioned above, Warren offers a flashing LED light circuit which is quite small. However, if you want to light the interior, a flasher unit be careful because you don't get a lot of room between the interior insert and the wing root. Not enough to put a flasher unit in anyway.

As for motorizing the props, you could do it with those tiny electric motors you get out of those radio controlled helicopters. I got a heap from a mate who works in a hobby shop that sells them and he gave me about a dozen broken ones. The motors still work and are only 1cm long - perfect for small spaces:

And finally, you don't need to soldering iron - you can always use a wire wrapping tool instead.

I hope this is of some help

MH