I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon working on adding lights to some structures on the layout. i couldn't post any pics yet, because 1) camera is missing, and 2) our wireless network has this odd habit of taking sundays off. Weird. Must be a Baptist network.
I had the idea to simplify things by getting a couple of cheap christmas light led strings attached to an AA battery pack. This is a lot simpler than the usual way of splicing individual light bulbs into bus wires run underneath the table.
I bought 2 strings a few days after Xmas, when the cost was next to nothing. I'd thought of this last year, but after all the Xmas merchandise was gone.
While this new method made the installation a snap...
Step 1 - drill hole through table
Step 2 - poke light up through hole
I wasn't thrilled with the outcome. I used white leds, which in in this context, make the bulding appear to be flooded with weird neon light. Yellow ones would look much better, so I'll be on the lookout for any that are left. I might have better luck just getting some colored cellophane or something, as most stores have probably moved on to their next Big Thing.
At any rate, I ran lights for 3 buildings yesterday. Yeah, this is pretty useless without pics, but they will be up soon...
I also did some checking of the dimensions, to see how the changes I mentioned earlier would fit...looks like it'll work, with less destruction necessary than I thought.
2 comments:
Did you get the small lights? I know michael's has those all the time: they're super-small lights for crafting projects. My aunt used to make miniature christmas trees and used these to light them. They're usually in the yellowy-white, but I think some may come multi-colored too.
They're pretty small - each one is probably 4mm across. I thought they were the yellowy-white when I bought em, but they are a stark plain white that just looks odd.
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