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DIY Lighting: ala' Cylon Raider
This is gonna be a ground up look at what's involved with lighting a model using the Revell 30th Ann. Raider as an example.
From blacking out the interior, to mounting the lights, creating lightboxes and baffles, selecting a power supply, running wires, soldering, heat shrinking and everything in between.
Note that this is the cheap and sloppy way to do it. I am no expert in any of this. I'm just not rich enough to afford lighting kits, so am learning all this as I go.
Total costs expected:
1 can of black spray paint= $1.
up to 7 leds at .10¢ ea = .70¢
up to 7 resistors at .01¢ea. = .07¢
Power supply from yard sale = $1
Heat shrink at $1/yd = ~.01¢
Solder at $1/tube - ~.01¢
Scrap piece of card stock and styrene = .10¢
~6" of fiber optic at $30/100' = ~.15¢
Subtotal = ~$3.04 so far.
We'll round up and call it under $5 for all costs apart from the kit.
An Overview:
Black spray paint the kit's insides kills ambient glow and helps fight light leak. If you want light to bounce around inside, spray with silver or gloss white next. Some will use foil tape as well.
Analyze where the leds are going, how many and how you are going to power them -ext. or int. battery or wall wart. Figure out how you want to connect the juice to the model. In this case, I am creating several access ports for a wall wart as I want the option to film this from several angles.
Coming up: Doing the power supply numbers and resistoring those leds.
This is gonna be a ground up look at what's involved with lighting a model using the Revell 30th Ann. Raider as an example.
From blacking out the interior, to mounting the lights, creating lightboxes and baffles, selecting a power supply, running wires, soldering, heat shrinking and everything in between.
Note that this is the cheap and sloppy way to do it. I am no expert in any of this. I'm just not rich enough to afford lighting kits, so am learning all this as I go.
Total costs expected:
1 can of black spray paint= $1.
up to 7 leds at .10¢ ea = .70¢
up to 7 resistors at .01¢ea. = .07¢
Power supply from yard sale = $1
Heat shrink at $1/yd = ~.01¢
Solder at $1/tube - ~.01¢
Scrap piece of card stock and styrene = .10¢
~6" of fiber optic at $30/100' = ~.15¢
Subtotal = ~$3.04 so far.
We'll round up and call it under $5 for all costs apart from the kit.
An Overview:
Black spray paint the kit's insides kills ambient glow and helps fight light leak. If you want light to bounce around inside, spray with silver or gloss white next. Some will use foil tape as well.
Analyze where the leds are going, how many and how you are going to power them -ext. or int. battery or wall wart. Figure out how you want to connect the juice to the model. In this case, I am creating several access ports for a wall wart as I want the option to film this from several angles.
Coming up: Doing the power supply numbers and resistoring those leds.