Trench Sections in Progress.

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Most of my spare time is spent writing at the moment, but I have been tinkering with LEDs on my dugout. I had to Dremmel out some holes from behind in the confined spaces of the shell of the model. I removed the baseplate and had to use a flexi-drive to have any chance of getting in. Then I had to grind blindly, because the flexi-drive head blocked any view of what I was doing!! The first hole went well for the candle but I had a bit of a disaster where the lamp will be. A hole appeared in the wrong place!! Thankfully I have been able to move my dirty washing to cover the hole. I'm using strips of 12volt LED to light each section from above, so was keen to keep the voltage the same for internal lighting. You can unsolder one bulb from the strip if you're careful, but I chose to just tape off two bulbs with insulation tape and bend the last bulb round. The LEDs that are lighting the main sections are 'cool' bulbs for daylight, but I wanted 'warm' lights for the lamps.

The top strip has been taped off so only one bulb shows. The lemon yellow bulbs are 'cool' LEDs. The golden yellow bulbs are 'warm' bulbs.
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I've trimmed off the end which can be soldered as I don't intend to add any more. I've then bent the end round 90 degrees.
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Here are the bulbs in place. I have to filter them a little with some thin translucent acrylic. The lamps hide where the LEDs are.
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I've now got to get the two figures painted!
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This shot shows the strip of cool bulbs that will light the front of each section model. I moved my butterfly forward so he's on the front edge. The ground is rather close to the top of the box! I'm limited with the perameters of the series which limit what I can show. The boxes are all the same size except for two which are a little longer. Eight are 150mm long, two are 200mm.
330511
 

JR

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Fantastic, just sets if off .
 

wotan

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Andrew

very well done sir. BTW if you want to dim or colour an LED you can just give it a dab of Tamiya clear paint, which comes in orange red, blue green etc, to achieve different effects. ALso you can run fibre optic strands if you want really small lights like a cigarette glow for instance. Fibre optics cost next to nothing.

John
 

Steven000

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Nice progress Andy,
I love all the details your putting in your work :thumb2:

Cheers
Steven
 
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Andrew

very well done sir. BTW if you want to dim or colour an LED you can just give it a dab of Tamiya clear paint, which comes in orange red, blue green etc, to achieve different effects. ALso you can run fibre optic strands if you want really small lights like a cigarette glow for instance. Fibre optics cost next to nothing.

John
Thanks John,
I've got fibre optic available, but didn't think that it would produce enough light for what I wanted. I know that there's all sorts of clever LED/fibre optic solutions. I used this because I have the LED strips lighting each model. They are 12 volts and are spare from work, so free! I've also bagged an old transformer from an old model to power them from the mains. They all link together off one power source. I wanted the warm bulbs in the dugout to run off the same 12v source and had some 'warm' strips. All this cost me nothing! which is even better than next to nothing!
I do appreciate your help though, so please keep the advice coming. I get things wrong and don't know everything!
Andy
 
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I've been busy working on my book over the last few weeks. I have done a bit of modelmaking the last couple of days on my German bunker. I wanted to make the concrete more shingle like, so I gave it speckles of brown, dark grey and off white. Today I began putting on some washes of colour. This is work in progress, so it's not finished but I'm happy with the direction it's going in.

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I plan to make the outdoor wood more weathered than the inside wood and will probably change the metal posts hoding up the revetment with some wooden frames. Things like the metal reinforcing rods aren't painted yet.
Sorry for my lack of prescence here. Live is busy. At least it's easier than last year!
Andy
 

Dustbin

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Stunning work as always Andy, glad this year is going better for you. I can't wait for more details about your book too. I will definately be purchasing a copy. Thanks for sharing your skills.
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Thanks guys I've just had a break from the minefield of copyright to prepare my pillbox for a LED. This involved hitting the section with a large hammer to break open the base from underneath! Then Dremmeling up into the Chemiwood towards the raised platform. I will do the last few mm's tomorrow, very carefully - especially after nearly wrecking the dugout last time! So far, so good. It gets me praying!
Andy
 
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