I was toying with some of my old electronic stuff (IE: copperwire, LEDS, switches, etc.) and I starting thinking about running some lights into a model. I was just wondering if anyone had attempted this before and if so what type of kit and model make did they use. I see a few problems with this. First finding an LED small enough or finding model kit big enough to hold an LED. Second would it look somewhat reallistic. Just pondering the thought and wanted some feed back. Thought I might let your creative minds help mine.

We were talkinf the othere night of using grain of wheat blubs or LEDs to light the interior of a STUG or any other tank that you want to show off the interior.

Autofix, I´m attempting to make a gun display for my 122mm gun. It will have red digital numbers.
I bought a very small red LED light to go with two 1,5V AA batteries. The whole set: 2 euros.
I´m gonna try it out in a day or two. My problem is that the display is basically a box with front panel with some transparent parts for the digital displays. And this is attached to a wooden rod. I have to take the wiring up the rod all the way inside the box where the LED is...the width of the box is 15mm!
Phew. If it works out it will be amazing effect and I´ll be sure to write a description about it.


Toni

You may want to try fiber optics. I've seen some wonderful aircraft control panels done with them, as well as a few modern armor crew stations. Search the model railroad suppliers.

Be careful with lights. DO NOT use lights that produce heat: it will deform your kit. If I remember correctly, LED's do not get warm and can be used. They do only come in a limited choice of colors, however.
Fibre optics are the best solution if you want subtle lighting for dashboards, etc...

I've been thinking about such a project for some time too...

And here are the technics I think I'll be using :
- LED's to create the light
- fiber optics to bring the light where I want it to appear as a small spot
- clear plastic to bring and diffuse light

I was actually toying with the Idea of lights for my M109 but kabashed the IDea for lack of knowledge. Let Us know how you fair it may come in handy for my M88 w/open hatches.


Josh Weingarten
aKa shiryon