Adding lighting and fiber optics...

I'll re-post some of what I added to the thread in the aircraft forum here:

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I managed to get a few photos (please pardon the very poor quality!) of my old Tamiya F-117A project showing some of the cockpit detail and lighting I had done. The cockpit includes a PE/resin kit upgrade from Verlinden as well as fiber optic panel lights and LED illuminated screens. The intent was to get the screens to have that 'greyed out' look that a normal CRT tube (ie: television etc.) has when the tube is off. When on, the grey disappears and the bright green of the monochrome tubes shines through.

The nav lights in the wingtips were extremely thin so I had to use lightsheet to get the illumination there (shines through top and bottom). The rotating beacons are assembled from two LEDs and a short bit of red acrylic rod. One LED is a soft steady on, and the second a brighter blinking to try and simulate the flash of the reflector each time is spins around. The LED blink is a little too quickand doesn't have the slight fade in/fade out you see in a true rotating beacon, but it gets the job done for the most part.

Anyway, this was the old kit, and my inspiration for the new project I've been researching here:

Cockpit from above and behind. note CRT screens in their "off" opaque grey state.


Cockpit from the side showing more button/switch detail and the dormant CRT's again.


Cockpit from behind/side. Best view of CRTs.


Cockpit from behind/side showing illumination turned on. Note fiber optic lights above landing gear handle and on the radio underneath the center moving map screen.


Cockpit in natural light.


Another shot outside.


Showing side panels.


Panels again.


Another decent shot of the CRT screens.


Shot of the entire fuselage. Although the image is pretty poor in quality, I wanted to show the nav lights and the rotating beacon as well as the cockpit in one frame.


P.S. You may notice the HUD display is missing from these shots. That's cause my now (VERY) ex-fiancee squashed this poor kit when we were moving. The hud looked SO awesome too...I even had a few FO strands rigged into the lens underneath the screens. It didn't project an actual HUD image of course, but just having the light there was great I thought...

Brian~

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A few photos of the APU unit attached to the main model:





Where the wall adapter plugs into the APU model:


A shot showing the connection in the right main gear well:


Close-up of the connection jack between APU and plane:


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The screens were pretty fun to get worked out - though they weren't *quite* as clean as I would have hoped. Anyway, their basic construction was as follows:

The stock dash from the Tamiya kit is really pretty good and I found I liked it more than the photo etched set from Eduard. The first thing was to open up the screens themselves. This was simple enough with a micro dril and a sharp #11 exacto blade. From there I needed to figure out a means to create the screens and mount them to the kit part.

To mount the screens I figured I'd need a clear, thin surface. Sheet styrene was all too thick (at least what was available athe the LHS). So a trip to the theatre lighting and effects store downtown was called for. I returned home with a small sample book of theatre gels used to color stage lights. The book is small but provides samples (about 3/4 X 3 inches each) of probably hundreds of different colors and effects gels. What I came up with next was using the stock instrument decals from the Tamiya kit and cutting out each screen. Then each screen was cut from a crystal clear gel and the decals were mounted to this. To achieve the look of the greyed out screens when they were switched off, I used a transparent but slightly smoked brownish-grey gel over the decals, then over top of this went a lightly frosted gel. To finish off, each screen got a new "collar" from the PE parts.

With three miniature screens ready to go, I filed down the original buttons on the face of the Tamiya part to give me a smooth surface to glue the screens to. Once the screens were attached, the rest of the part was mounted and the lights were installed behind.

*click for larger image*


I hope to refine this technique on the future kit. The biggest thing that bothered me about using the decals is that when they are illuminated, the back isn't really black. Perhapd layering two or three decals on top of each other might accomplish this for me. Does anyone happen to know if you can order extra decal sheets from Tamiya directly? Do any of you happen to have an extra Tamiya F-117A decal sheet laying around and nothing to do with it? :D


I thought I'd also show what I did to try and simulate the rotating beacons. The diagram below shows the basic construct of the system I came up with. Each of the LEDs was glued to the acrylic rod with a bit of clear epoxy. I painted the outside of everything silver to try and capture as much of the light as possible and reflect it up and out the top 'button' on the end of the rod. The LEDs were wired together in parallel and together with a resistor are powered by a 9V power source.


Brian~

I haven't done anything illuminated yet, besides the most basic, such as light in a diorama.
I'd like to know how others out there do it, as I'd love to add some life like that to my models.

Sean,

Sounds like you're the guy I need to talk to about the rotating beacon thing! Does the set-up you describe allow a slightly softened fade in and fade out as opposed to the 'instant' on and off of the regular blinking LED? That's the biggest thing I'd like to be able to accomplish in this new build.

Thanks,

Bri~

Hmmmmm, I remember from my early years of engineering simple strobe kits made up of 2 LED's, 2 transistors and a power source (duh!), and to adjust the luminance O/P was a simple matter of altering the bias level on the driving tranny.

Easiest way to get a simple circuit, check out a Tandy's store. Simple circuits like the type you require would cost no more than a buck at the most.

As for a brighter light source, do you know anyone with a mobile phone that doesn't work anymore???

The phones are alot brighter than your average LED, and alot of places sell the Super Brite type as well, surface mount purely for phones, and in a large range of colours.

Best part about these is they are small (duh!), and have a near zero current draw, and would last a long time simply on a battery driven system.

In the C119 Flying Boxcar I will be making this year, the SM Led's are going to be used to light up the cargo hold, and optics for the cockpit and landing gear etc.

Best part is the power source, CR2032 watch batteries, sandwiched between 2 layers of metal foil, and stashed out of sight in the base, with wire from a speaker coil running up through the landing gear, and completely portable.

Just my 2 cents.
Sean

If you're interested, I've added the technique used to create the illuminated CRT radar and moving map screens on my old F-117A project. You'll find it near the bottom of the thread:

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16899

Bri~

Does the Destroyer come with FO included Scotty? If so there is one thing I can guarentee you about that kit: they don't supply you with anywhere NEAR enough to do the job right! Seriously every kit I've seen with fiber optic cable included gave you maybe one tenth of what was needed to do it right. There was an old Star Trek Enterprise that I helped on years back now - it came with so few strands - I think 600 total (and since each window is a slit and needs something like twelve strands just to fill one window!) the guy who bought it in the first place had to go buy something like an extra 15 feet of FO cable (the same 64 strand bundle...just WAAAAAAAAY longer than what was provided) just to finish the kit!

I don't say this to try and intimidate anyone away from this aspect of modelling, there is nothing that affords a cooler look when done. But just bear in mind if you follow what the company would have you believe is the "right amount" you'll likely be sorely disappointed in the end result. Can you give any details about the kit itself such as overall size, approx window openings, size and shape of windows and light sources?

I may be able to offer some help in the planning stages anyway. The FO cable itself it pretty cheap. I'd suggest looking online and seeing if you can't find some to keep in the toolbox. Grab as much as you can afford/think you could ever use. It's usually cheaper the more you grab at once.

Check here for starters:

http://www.edmundoptics.com/US/OnlineCatalog/DisplayProduct.cfm?productid=1352

You'll want the multi-strand stuff. I think they have the 64 strand bundle listed about half way down the page - for $2.80/foot I think it is.

Bri~

Just started to build a Star Wars destroyer, open the box and thought what the @#*# have I just brought, only got to number 5 on the instructions and thought I'll have a look soon, so no doubt it will be forgotten about until the next millenium unless I can find help on the forums here or on the net. Instructions are extensive but don't help if you've never done any F/O before.