I recently bought a bunch of MiniArt building kits, and decided to try illuminating some of their street-lamps. I see that there’s maybe a half-dozen manufacturers producing 1:35 street-lamps, but I don’t think any of them are functional, although MIG makes theirs look like it. None of them are cheap, and although some have glazing, I’m not sure any of them look all that much better than the MiniArt version.
You do need to replace the narrow upper pole section, which is solid. You might be able to use some of their other castings for different versions, such as the ornate bracket to make a wall-mounted light, but would need to hide the wire in heat-shrink tubing - or find another solution. I used the bulbs and parts from Model Power 1:48 scale lamps that I had on hand, but the bulbs are widely available 12-16 watt grain of wheat. These can be bought individually, to bunches of 100, from 50 cents each to several dollars.
The lamp on the left is a stock MiniArt street-lamp.
The second from the left is the Model Power lamp, very similar to many in Germany during WW2. If you model in 1:48, a place called Model Train Stuff has the best price ($11 for 3).
The third one uses a wider base I found on a MiniArt sprue, but don't know what it was meant to be. The mid-section is from the O-scale lamp – mostly because it’s hollow, but with the MiniArt lamp housing on the top. I cut some glazing for it, and also cut a small square of styrene to go over the ornate supports at the top - I didn’t like the open bottom of the bulb section.
The one on the right uses the MiniArt base, and then a piece of 1/8" O.D. brass rod, and the 1:48 lamp bulb, but I see I forgot to put the housing back on after inserting the bulb. I also realized that there really needs to be some transition from the pole to the lamp. I used the brass as I don’t have any plastic tube, but even a narrow diameter straw would work.
Power was at about 6 volts in the first photo, and I prefer this of the three settings, or possibly between here and the middle setting. The second and third are around 10 and 14 volts respectively, with the last one too harsh for my tastes. I was using a power pack without a voltmeter, so these are estimated based on the setting. For a dio you could use batteries - due to the low drain even a 9-volt battery should last a good while. Running these at less than max voltage also improves service life. You could use L.E.D.’s, but the G-o-W bulbs look more lamp-like to me, and come with 6-8” of very thin wiring attached – which should fit inside a 1/32” I.D. tube.
Charles
