Lighting in o gauge buildings

[v8cpt]

Hi

 

I am currently starting to model some buildings in 7mm. First one being a coal merchant. Could anyone recommend what they use for internal lighting?. I think ideally coal merchants office were pretty basic so probaby only a bulb on the end of a flex so be good if I can find something like that.

 

I have seen the "grain of rice" lights but have no experience of using them

 

Many thanks in advanced

 

Chris

[Poggy1165]

Grain of wheat bulbs or leds will do the job though.

 

Be aware though that if you light a building larger than a chicken hut in this scale you will almost certainly have to put in full interior detail, as the emptiness of a large lit building will be very evident.

[peter220950]

A couple of things to think about, not deal breakers in either case.

 

I'm a great fan of LED's but they do tend to be predominantly harsh white, not prototypical for old oil, gas, or tungsten bulbs. Go for the soft white ones and try to under-run them, so they are just lighting. I have now taken to de-soldering the LED's from the 12v strips and soldering wires back on, but it's a bit of a fiddle, though you end up with very small 'bulbs'. - If you can find soft white LED's ready supplied with a resistor to run off 12v, and run them at a slightly lower voltage it should look more realistic. If you must go for bright white LED's investigate putting coloured plastic or paper in front to get the light a more realistic tone.

 

 

Grain of wheat bulbs look more natural but be aware that they can get hot, this can cause problems with the surrounding materials. Similarly in an unventilated small box heat can build up. Again it's worth slightly under-running them to not only reduce the light output and heat, but extend the life of the bulbs. I still use them occasionally for things like street lights.

 

 

The advantage is that they are both cheap enough to experiment with, and you can then see which suits you best, always remember that even the best LED will fail one day, so a route to remove and re-fit is always a good plan.

 

 

Peter