The first picture shows you the optics. It's made out of transparant stretched sprue. While working on it I discovered that not all transparant sprue can be used. Hasegawa and Italeri sprue work just fine. Tamiya has a tendency to snap easily (at least the piece I used). Revell sprue just doesn't work at all.
The thin sprues are then set into transparent polyester resin. Insert the sprue just as the resin starts to solidify, the while stay nearly in the position you've put them in.
On the second picture you see the LED (Light Emitting Diode, for the electronically challenged) in full action. I used a high brightness SMD (Surface Mounted Device) led because it is small enough to fit in to awkward places.
To show how small, i've included picture three. The figure is 1/35, the finger is 1/1 :-)
Picture four shows the temporary fixing of the led with plasticine. On the finished model it will be fixed with clear epoxy glue. Just above my hand you see a 3mm led, which I found to big for this purpose.
And finally, the full picture of led and electronics.
As you can see, I've build it up on an experiment printed circuitboard, because I wanted to see if my theorethics worked. I'm not publishing a schematic yet, as this was build just as a test. This circuit is designed so that it works on a 9V battery and isn't designed like a good circuit should be.
Mark II is already in development which should be more flexible. Mark II will normally operate on a power source ranging from 6 to 24V, with a possibility to connect any type of led without having to calculate a special series resistor.
I would also like to make it so, that continuous random flickering can be selected so it can be used to simulate fire. Or select a steady rate to simulate machinegun fire. Well see how this turns out.
If you have anymore questions you know where to find me.
Kris
