Specific Fiber Optic question for you FO masters out there.

Optical fibre is designed to constrain the light within itself, using Total Internal Reflection to minimise losses. From the 'pure realism' point of view, any laser beam would only really be visible from directly along the beam (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!!) any indication from the side would be down to reflectionss from dust particles/vapour droplets along the beam path. From the artistic point of view, you are trying to show the beam, so you would be better using a short piece of acrylic rod. Now I don't know if you're aware, but you can buy 'light gathering' rod which contains fluorescent dye and captures any available light, transmitting it to the end where it will glow brightly without the hassle of providing a light source:

http://www.ema-models.com/catalogue/0051-round-rods.html

look about halfway down the page

Hope this helps

Colin

That does help. Thanks Colin. However, I've already got some FO and some clear acrylic rod, so I think I'm going to go with that. I've got to run some FO to other spot on the model anyway.

See my postings inf Figures (Modeling a "night" scene & 120mm OIF figure) and you'll get a pretty good idea at what I'm looking for.

Thanks again.