Sierra West Quincy Salvage

[Polux]

Simply.....a beauty

[SteveCuster]

Thanks Jim, Tom and Pol.lux

[SteveCuster]

I finished the ceiling for the barn workshop and I added some lighting to the interior. This was my first experiment with scale lighting, I consulted Alan's thread on the SierraWest forum for some advice and I used some of his methods and I modified them a bit. http://www.craftsmankituniversity.com/vanforum/index.php?p=/discussion/778/lighting-clinic


I made the ceiling from some scribed siding I had around and used scale 2x10s for the joists. I matched the spacing with the side wall framework. Most of it will not be easily seen so I'm didn't go overboard with detailing the wood.


Here it is installed in the barn, no lights added of course. The ceiling will be removable
but not easily. I want to be able to service the lights but I won't be taking the roof off to show the interior.


For my lights I used some micro leds pre-wired I purchased on Ebay. They are incredibly small and still very bright. The lampshade is from Ngineering, its the larger HO 24" one.
I drilled a small hole in the center about the same diameter as the inside of the tubing. The tubing is Ultra-Thin .032 OD tubing from Ngineering. Its slightly large for HO but not excessive and it works very well for the interior. The wires ran through the tubing with a little bit of work but it wasn't terribly difficult.

This LED is very small. I don't have the patience to solder one this small. The set I bought on Ebay came from China and they cost me $8.00 for 20 leds pre-wired.

This is how I fed everything through the ceiling.

I didn't want to solder the LED wires together so I made this little circuit board using copper tape from Microlumina. I think this is a simple way to wire everything and it's pretty easy to diagnose a problem. I wired all the lights in series, I originally had a current limiter in the circuit but it made the lights far too dim. I should be safe with the 4 LEDs in series with no resistor. Each LED is 3v so 3v x 4 = 12v and I'm using a 12 power supply. I may add a small resistor to darken the lights a bit.

I left lots of lead wire on everything and I just taped it down with electrical tape. I will cover everything with black construction paper so you can see the wires from the upper windows.

Here is how the lights look installed. They are a tad bright, maybe out of scale brightness but they do a good job showing off the interior so I may leave them bright.


If you look in the very corner of this picture you can see were I ran the wires down the wall. I heatshrinked the wires together and painted them black.


The lights really bring the interior to life. I have to give credit to Alan (nextceo on the SierraWest forum) for inspiring me to do it right, the lights in his repair shed were the inspiration for me to take the time and make it as real as I could.

Thanks for checking in. Next step is the roof.

-Steve

[Janbouli]

Looking great Steve, your detailing , weathering , lighting just great.

[SteveCuster]

Thanks Jan

[cuse]

Fantastic. Top to bottom! Thumbs way up!


John

[ReadingBob]

That looks terrific Steve.        

You can tone down the lights a bit by painting the LED's with Tamiya Color Acrylic Paint X-24 Clear Yellow.  One of more coats will reduce the brightness just a tad and take the edge off of the harsh white that some LED's produce.

[ACL1504]

Steve,

Care to give up the China source. It certainly would save time getting them pre-wired. I mentioned to Slim and Reading Bob that I wanted about 75 pre-wired micro LEDs and they just looked at me.

Tom

[Bobby]

Steve,

Care to give up the China source. It certainly would save time getting them pre-wired. I mentioned to Slim and Reading Bob that I wanted about 75 pre-wired micro LEDs and they just looked at me.

Tom

Good question Tom, I was going to ask the same thing.

[coors2u]

Here is an Ebay link. I have order some like these in the past. They actually have smaller ones if you look through some of the sellers.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15-pcs-Pre-Wired-Cold-White-0603-SMD-LEDs-Lighting-Kits-Pre-soldered-Micro-LEDs-/401035299351?hash=item5d5f910a17:g:aT0AAOSwJcZWcr3T

[SteveCuster]

Thanks everyone.
Here is a link to the same leds from the same supplier. The price changes a bit from auction to auction. Still pretty cheap. I think they are 0402 bulbs. I bought a bunch of bigger Leds for lighting unfinished interiors also, they came with prewired resistors
https://www.ebay.com/itm/151901572329
They took a while to get here, about 2 weeks.

Readingbob, I painted the leds with Gallery Glass but it may help to add some color to tone them down. I used the gallery glass to give them a bulb shape but it was clear so it didn't do much to tone them down. Thanks for the tip I'll give it a try.

-Steve

[ACL1504]

Steve,

Thanks for the info on the LEDs. I saw the auction from WEHONEST but wasn't sure about the size. They look a little bigger in the add. But they do fit inside the lamp reflector so I'll give them a try and see how they are.

I've already ordered on pack from them.

Thanks again.

Tom

[Timbob60]

Here's a US source for prewired LEDs. Different sizes (explained) and different voltages. I've bought them, used them and they're great.                         
http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/

Nice job on Quincys.

Geo2rge aka timbob60

[Janbouli]

I can vouch for Wehonest, have had several LED strips and power supplies from them , never disappointed, fast shipping and at no cost.

[barrymk]

Very nice model and great detailing.I shall take inspiration for colouring my own build. Thanks