Lights

what scale is it? I had a B-24 that I put an electric motor in the wing in the "engine" on the wing. I put the batteries in the bomb bay(closed) but I dont know where you would put a motor at in the helicopter, but you could probably put batteries in the base. Also I don't know about the lights, but you could try fiber optics.

It's 1/35th scale. I found grain of rice leds from micromark that I think will work

QUOTE: Originally posted by 1st_combat_comm I am working on a dio of a mh-60 pavehawk. I want to try to add nav lights and 2 motors to spin the props. Has anyone done this before? Will the grain of rice lights by micromark be the right size?

Do you mean grain of wheat bulbs or are they LEDS? Because the bulbs will get too hot and melt the plastic but LEDS will be fine. Find out if you can get a flashing unit to make them flash cos that will make them more realistic. You should be able to fix a motor in the engine cowl underneath the rotor but for the tail rotor you might have to try fitting it in the tail section and then a gear system stretching back to the tail head.
Good luck with the project, should look impressive when done.

Are you still working on this?  I added motors and LEDs/fiber optics to my 1/35 Blackhawk and it went great.

In the tail, I used a pager motor (per the article here on FS), and a CD player motor for the main rotor.  The tail rotor spins terrific; the main rotor won't lift anything, but it looks great.  I ran the main rotor wires through a detailed ceiling someone else had created for their fantastic "Wolcott's Bird AH-60" over in the Helicopter forum.  They blended right in (with a little paint) as standard issue electronics.

I rigged up 3 LEDs to a slow flashing circuit like this: http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/cj_blink.htm, and ran fiber optics to the cockpit and a couple of the nav lights.  Totally awesome, if I do say so myself.

I stuck the circuit, LEDs, and batteries into the tail behind that rear wall.  I didn't glue that piece in so I could replace batteries as necessary - it's attached to a tiny bit of strategically placed velcro.

Cool huh?

If I had it all to do over again (maybe), I'd definitely rig it up to have external power.  Maybe wires running into a base, like through the struts/tires.  Something.

TommyHawk wrote:

Are you still working on this?  I added motors and LEDs/fiber optics to my 1/35 Blackhawk and it went great. In the tail, I used a pager motor (per the article here on FS), and a CD player motor for the main rotor.  The tail rotor spins terrific; the main rotor won't lift anything, but it looks great.  I ran the main rotor wires through a detailed ceiling someone else had created for their fantastic "Wolcott's Bird AH-60" over in the Helicopter forum.  They blended right in (with a little paint) as standard issue electronics. I rigged up 3 LEDs to a slow flashing circuit like this: http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/cj_blink.htm, and ran fiber optics to the cockpit and a couple of the nav lights.  Totally awesome, if I do say so myself. I stuck the circuit, LEDs, and batteries into the tail behind that rear wall.  I didn't glue that piece in so I could replace batteries as necessary - it's attached to a tiny bit of strategically placed velcro. Cool huh? If I had it all to do over again (maybe), I'd definitely rig it up to have external power.  Maybe wires running into a base, like through the struts/tires.  Something.

 

Sounds awesome, have any pics of it all up and running.

Sorry, as is stands, I don't.  My camera gave up the ghost some time ago...  I'm thinking of acquiring a camcorder, so I could post a little video somewhere.  I'd really like to show the others on the forum.

You might consider http://www.miniatronics.com as a source of LED or Incandescents. By the way, they also make the type of control circuits to help create realistic lighting effects as well as such components as micro switches, neon lighting effects, and other neat items.