Need advice or suggestions on lighting CVN-65 hanger deck

Conventional light globes can be problemmatic.  They generate heat and can blow quite easily especially if confined - they can even melt plastic.  They're cheap and easy to wire up and use but they will inevitably blow one day and if they do it will probably be impossible to replace them without major surgery.  I built the Bandai Star Trek Enterprise a couple of years ago and last year when I came to display it at a show all the six light globes had blown - apparently got too hot through being on for too long.  Fortunately that model was easily dismantled so I replaced them all with blue and white LEDs (the result was fantastic!!).

I recommend Electroluminescent (EL) sheet which the Sci-Fi modellers use for space ships ( http://www.starshipmodeler.com/olb/olb_sm_vgr.cfm ), it's also used to light buildings by model railway enthusiasts.  Another possibility is Cold Cathode Flourescent tubes.  Both these options run cool, give a realistically coloured light and are not too expensive.  Another option is white LEDs.

If you Google these products you'll find suppliers in your country.  There are lots of lighting articles on SF modelling sites and the principles apply to ships just as well.

EL sheet and CCFL tubes both run on about 12V, the only drawback is that each needs an 'inverter', an electronic circuit mounted on a small board (typically 1/2" by 3") which also needs to be accomodated in the model.

LEDs tend to be focussed like flashlights so it's a bit more difficult to distribute their light.  Using reflective surfaces it can be done though.  Unlike light bulbs you have to watch their polarity too i.e. + and -.  The best things about them are they only need a single resistor in circuit for each one (chosen to match the voltage selected e.g. 480ohm for 12V), they don't get hot, they're cheap and they'll last practically forever - or at least as long as your model.  It is possible and feasible to use batteries with them as their power consumption is incredibly low.

That's just a general overview off the top of my head, others may know more and have better advice.  If I spot any sites of interest I'll pass them on.

Michael

It should be noted that the inverters that supply power for EL and Flourescent lighting produce 120-500volts.

That's true, and they can give you a tingle from the business end, but only if you touch it and short the contacts while it's on.  If you have ot handle them while on do so at the low-voltage end i.e. the opposite end to where the light is attached.

One site that specializes in EL material is Miller Engineering @  http://www.microstru.com/  They also handle the CCFL lamps and EL 'wire'.  I bought an Experimenters Pack from here some time ago and it was very instructive.

I would recommend not using batteries, especially if you choose to use light-bulbs.  Batteries in the afore-mentioned Enterprise went flat in about one hour.  A plugpack is a much better option and the wires can be unobtrusively run into the hull via the stand.

Michael

I dunno but you could try fiber optics for a light source since you can have the light elsewhere and the light goes through the strands and they look like conduits when painted gray.

That's a good point and I like the idea of disguising them as conduits.  The problem in my experience with fibre-optics is that while they make excellent 'model' lights and look very realistic, they don't actually illuminate very well.

An ideal solution would probably be using FO's to represent the actual lights while hidden light sources such as LEDs or CCFLs  provide indirect lighting to actually illuminate the area.

Michael

depends on how you reflect the light though but would it make the light from the fiber optics brighter if you painted them with chrome silver then a over coat of gray? plus the light source would need to be reflected too. But I also found that fiber optics also work in the Island area especially in the section on the side that has the ships numbers on it.

No, painting the outside of Fibre-Optice filament would not alter its light transmitting capability in the slightest.  FO's are glass (or plastic) filaments coated in a transparent 'cladding'.  The theory behind FO's is that light entering one end of the filament 'bounces' off the inner walls of the cable due to the differing refractory qualities of the filament and it's coating.

It's like looking into an aquarium - the side walls appear to be mirrored from from your viewpoint due to the differing refractory properties between the water and the glass until you reach a point where your line of sight intersects the side wall at greater than about 45 degrees.

That's how the light in a FO cable 'sees' the inner surface of the cable, so it bounces on and on, from side to side, till it spills out the end.  If it could strike the surface at 45 degrees or more it would escape and you'd see a long line of light such as in the type of cable used to illuminate theatre steps in the dark.

The only light lost in this process is that absorbed by impurities in the fibre material, which might also reflect a little of it at a great enough angle to escape, so the shorter the cable the more light reaches the end.

Have a look here for a more professional description!  http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/fiber-optic.htm