Martian's Jolly Roger

I am using button cell powered tea lights. They have a circuit already in them that simulates "candle flicker" and there are two yellow bulbs inside each unit. $1.99 at A.C. Moore. I also found a green battery tealight at one of those one dollar stores for a dollar. The green one only has one LED but the same effect. Not certain if they will be bright enough but I have two ideas. One is to use amber "jewel beads" (possibly dipped in future floor polish for more shine) or better yet these cheap glass prisms they sell at the local dollar store that i assume ar for hanging in you car. Of course neither of thes will look authentic looking in the interior but from the out side they may diffuse the light just enough.  have bought a set of decorator wheat bulbs in the past to experiment with but my experience with bulbs has shown that they do not last long on DC power and there is the "blow out" issue. I have never actually used my wheat bulbs so i can't say anything for certain about them. This past week ent a did a test with with an LED flasher and they burned for 48 hours straight on 2x AA and was still bright. (I wanted to make sure that if I used them my lights would stay lit if I didn't make it back to the art room to switch it off.)

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This is the blinkers I used in my experiment this weekend. If you look beside you will see the bottom of a display box with the same battery case visble. That is because I routed those same LEDs into this...

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/MartianGundamModeler/P1010838.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/MartianGundamModeler/P1010839.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/MartianGundamModeler/P1010842.jpg

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This was my forst time using fibre optics which I used in the formation lights in the "horns" in the bow. I routed a second yellow LED to the same battery box and mounted that in the engine. Not sure of teh drain of the extra LED. I'm 'lectrician so I find what I need in old toys, displays, and such and canniblized them to my needs. I am sort of the Borg of modeling.lol

[Oh by the way this is a VERY small model. Only about 6 1/2 inches at most.]

Quite a few years ago (long before the LED was invented) I built a Revell 1/96 Constitution and decided to illuminate the captain's cabin.  (As anybody who's built that kit knows, the captain's cabin contains bulkheads and some basic furniture.)  I painted all the parts (including the ship painting on the bulkhead) meticulously, painted the underside of the quarterdeck black (to prevent light from shining through it), and installed a grain-of-wheat bulb with framing painted on it to look like a lantern.  The owner of the hobby shop where I was working at the time had assured me, on the basis of his model railroading experience, that "grain of wheat bulbs don't burn out."  That one did - long before I finished the model.

My current big ongoing project (frequently put aside for smaller ones) is a scratchbuilt model of the clipper Young America.  This time I decided I wanted illumination in the main hold.  (The model is plank-on-solid, but I hollowed it out in that area so the observer can see through the hatch all the way down to the keelson.)  I got some better advice this time, and used amber LEDs.  It's my understanding that they indeed do not burn out (at least not for many years), but just to be safe I arranged access to them through a removable deckhouse.  They certainly don't give off as much light as a grain-of-wheat bulb with the current ramped up, but the amber, lantern-like glow in the ship's hold is just about what I had in mind.  The "+" and "-" wires from the wiring harness (which includes the necessary resistors) are soldered to brass nuts.  The model will eventually rest on three turned wood pedestals, through which pass long steel bolts.  Two of the bolts go into the nuts with the wires soldered to them.  When the model's finished (as it may or may not be during this lifetime), I'll run another pair of wires from the boltheads under the plexiglas case to a switch and a battery.  That strikes me as a workable, simple way to operate the lights, without any visible wires or other electrical gear hanging out of the model.

I have experimented with LEDs on the Victory I am building, but I found that the light emitted thro' the gunports and windows to be very faint having little impact even in total blackness which is required to see anything at all. I think several LEDs  in a small area would be required to produce an adequate light. My tests were with yellow lights as I wished to reproduce the 18th century effect, but white light may be more effective.

The best effect in my tests was the glow thro' the gratings which did give an authentic appearance.

There is an excellent' how to' article about  installing LEDs over at:

http://www.chumster.co.uk/forum/index.php?mforum=bobbie

Grain o' wheat bulbs give I understand a brighter light but there are heat issues with these and plastic kits.

Good luck with your research.

Very interesting idea using LED to simulate ship lighting. How do you rig the LEDS and what would be a good source foe these lights?  I just started the Captain Kidd ship model.

Keep us posted on your progress

RG Williams