Custom snow plow part/Christmas layout.

[ripley802]

Looking good Ripley

How did the Annie and Claribel coaches with lights turn out. Do the ceramic Xmas buildings and snow mountain have lights too?.

The coaches turned out ok. I have plans to paint the inside black to filter some of the light and then paint the outside (color to be determined). There ceramic buildings do have lights and the mountain has lights and sound. I will try and get some night pics of it lit up when done.

[ripley802]

Well making more changes as you can see. I either end up getting more stuff or decide I need to add something in that I had. Anyway, here are the updated pics and then also some of it lit up. I may add some more lights, but it is a start.




And lights!!!




Thanks for looking..

[Super]

Now you've done it......piqued my Xmas spirit.......

Looking jolly, I love the red and green lights on the girder bridge.

Cool! But it could use more lights! Just kidding.
Where is the power source for the lights hidden?

[ripley802]

Cool! But it could use more lights! Just kidding.
Where is the power source for the lights hidden?

Haha. Thanks. Yeah I am thinking of adding a few more. The lights are actually led which are attached to a battery back. I found these on sale a few years back I think for $.75 each so I bought several. The bad thing is they take C batteries which are expensive so I have used AA. The ceramic buildings are regular plug in lights as is the tree.

Neat. I should do a X-Mass setup.

[ripley802]

Looking good Ripley

How did the Annie and Claribel coaches with lights turn out.

Well a bit overdue and these have been done for awhile, but here are the 4 coaches I repainted and added lights to. I will probably eventually change the lights as what they have now is too much. Each car has 2 X 1.5v led's and 2 X AAA batteries. Each has its own switch too.

Two are a silver and blue and two are a copper and blue theme:


Window glazing is simple "matte" scotch tape and a clear piece of plastic:


Lights on: (not the best picture)

Nice work on the paint, looking really good!

I've always liked lighting up the coaches for night time running, what do they look like inside? Have you considered running a cr2032 battery for these instead? They make the carriages weigh a lot less so they are easier to pull, and if there are only x2 LEDs they should be plenty adequate, the only carriage I found to need more than a cr2032 was when I was running red LEDs with dropper resistors, there was just too much current demand

In this one,

(Is this the same as your carriage before you painted it?)

I had to mount an AA with which I connected to a voltage amplifier so i could power the rear facing red light and the interior lights, in hindsight I wish I'd mounted a AAA sized battery instead,



This was running the rear carriage on a cr2032


And this was after I upgraded the battery to the AA

You can see the difference in light output, in the first it was the dullest carriage in the rake, and in the second, it was the brightest carriage,

If your just running interior LEDs I'd opt for the cr2032 I each carriage with x2 LEDs

[ripley802]

Excellent. Thanks Tramp. Yeah I was struggling to find the right fit. I ordered a bunch of dual AA battery packs/housings, only to find they were a hair two big. So I instead fitted two AAA packs/housings. I will have to look into the button cell batteries. Do you find they stay useful for awhile? I mean do the batteries die very often?

I am toying with the idea of stringing all of the coaches together and using a set of 10 LED's that run on two AA and fitting a rear caboose or flatbed with a tarp like housing to cover. Not sure how that may work though. I like the one super did with the red coaches.

Awesome videos BTW. Very Nice work...

[Super]

Fantastic work, and like Tramp says, terrific job on the paint. I too would like to see the insides and a closer look at the windows. Do you use the matte tape just to give the glass a milk like finish so it they can be seen? You mention you used 2x 1.5volt LED's but you used a 2x AAA Battery pack. I have not seen 1.5volt LED's and wouldn't the 2x AAA's put out 3volt? Very nicely done. Is the paint air brushed or spray can and did you have to paint the inside so the lights did not emit through the plastic or did the outside paint block it?