Ranks

As I'm new to the forum I thought I'd better be polite and say Hello.
so.. Hello all.
1:35 WWII vehicles is my thing just at present but I like aircraft too. I've just returned to modeling now that I finally got my eyesight fixed and I bought the Fieseler Storch Milestone 100th Tamiya kit today. Having had a quick look through the box I'm looking forward to giving it a go.
I recently became a little obsessed with adding working lights to a 1:35 motorbike kit and other vehicles. The difficulty is getting small enough LED's to fit in the light fittings. Does anyone else bother with working lights? or is it just me. If anyone is interested I can show some pics possibly.
Cheers!

rjwood_uk

Hi Ranks.

welcome to the forum!

a lot of armour fans on here so you came to the right place.

as for working lights, tigertc has done a bit on his tamiya 1/16 toy tiger (lol) and bluewavestudios has done it on his r/c and i/c cars but havnt seen anyone else do it on here. seen it done alot on large sci-fi models but not on motorbikes.

show us some pics!

thanks,

Richard

Ranks

This is the first model to get the lights. when I built it, it just struck me that It might look good with a working light. So this was a bit of an experiment- try out thing. problem with this was hiding the battery and switch. Its quite dark to show up the light. I may buy another and do it properly this time. see what you think. The second photo shows the scale of the lighting rig.
I've done photo's as attachments does that work? they seem to have disappeared.
ok the pics are in the Gallery

Bunkerbarge

Hi Ranks and a warm welcome to the forum. I can't believe that you got lights into a 1/35th bike!! looks great though. If you are doing that with 1/35th bikes what other ideas have you up your sleeve?

Have a look at my own bikes in the gallery, a collection built up over a number of years!

__________________

“Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days"

Ranks

As I said, I just got the Tamiya Storch and am thinking that it would look great with working wing tip navigation lights and maybe a internal cockpit light. I would have to scratch build the nav lights though because they are molded as part of the wing in the kit. They are also very small at this scale. I think a fibre optic might work, I just need to find some clear red and green stuff for the tiny lenses (approx 1mm x 0.5mm) Any suggestions?

Pan_Am_Clipper_Girl

Hi Ranks. Welcome. I'm going to light the Revell cut-away 747, though I'm no where near to building it yet, need more passengers and crew. I've always toyed with the idea of lighting etc but never get round to it. Now things have changed on the electronic side it might be worth another shot with other planes etc.

Ranks

Thanks for the messages, Bunkerbarge, your bikes look very good, I especially like the action scene with the dirt bike.
Good luck with the cut-away Pan-Am-Clipper-Girl. (how about Pam for short?) I think lights will add something special for you.
I just noticed that the Storch has a very nice landing light fitting under the right wing and is supplied with a lens on the clear sprue. I am hoping that I can modify the fitting to take one of the very small LED's. I am trying a similar thing at the moment with a model of the Sd.Kfz.222 This has "frog eye" headlights on small stalks. The Photo's show how this works.
Model lighting-005.jpg
I drilled out from the back then just fill the hole after positioning the LED.
Model lighting-004.jpg
There is plenty of room in the main body for batteries and I think I will conceal a small switch underneath.
I'll drop some photo's of the soldering method in the Gallery.
Cheers!

lancer

Hi Ranks,Welcome aboard!For wee LEDs try Expo Drills & Tools (wwww.expotools.com) Lots of goodies ideal for modelling,including Humbrol paints,AND very nice people to deal with !

Pan_Am_Clipper_Girl

Perry will do if you would if you or anyone else prefers!

Ranks

Perry it is then.

Lancer thanks for the tip about expotools. I will keep it in mind for the future. They do sell wee LED's but sadly they are not wee enough. The LED I use are made for direct soldering to a PCB and are less than 1mm width, they also, crucially, run at 3V in other words from a single small battery. I get most of this stuff from RS components. great choice, very reliable service.
Cheers!