Model Ship LED Lighting - Creating the Lamp Body - #2

Описание: This is where I purchased the lights! - https://evandesigns.com/?aff=5
And this is where I purchased the tubing - https://amzn.to/3rpiawb
And this is where you can find the mini-saws (use smallest tooth blade) - https://amzn.to/39QYbjY

his is a short video showing how easy it is to incorporate LED lighting into ship models, or any type of project for that matter. A future video will show what this lighting will look like when installed within a model ship.

Bio: I started my "career" of crafting around 1st grade, when I made a funny car out of a cardboard toothpaste container with wheels also made from cardboard. I then "graduated" to cardboard versions of Star Wars x-wings, tie-fighters and sandcrawlers. The crafting bug bit me early!

Fragment from LED Lighting Ship Model video:

Today I get to reveal the little LED light I’d mentioned in the prior video of this series. It sure took a while to make, but I’m really, really happy with it. I’ve placed links in the description to the materials I used to construct this little guy. I imagine most crafters already have most of these materials already on hand.

In order to shape the plug, I tore off a small strip of sandpaper, folded it over, rounded it, and gently twisted the dowel in one hand while holding the sandpaper over the plug end in order to shape a smooth cylinder. I just kept sanding until it fit smoothly into the brass tube.

So this is where more experimentation took place. When I inserted the LED light into the lantern (incidentally, the LED just barely fit. If you do this project, I think 1/8” thick diameter tubing is the smallest you should try, unless you are able to find even smaller lights). But back on topic.. When I inserted the light, it was just too bright when I turned it on. I decided that waxed paper might be a way to lower the glare a bit, so rounded a small piece cut to size, over a section of brass tube, and slid it into the light.

And you’ll recognize this photo from earlier. Now when I turned on the light, I love it! The effect was exactly what I’d been hoping for. However, when it was off, it just didn’t look right. The lanterns that I’d been looking at all had clear glass, while this is white. Now if I was installing this into my wood model of my Chinese junk, this would have been perfect, and I’m thinking of doing just that, with square tubing, and the waxed paper. But for this project, I knew I needed to do something different. As luck would have it, I had a small section of thin plastic which has been part of a product sent to me in a blister pack.

As another sidebar, the model in these photos has been stripped of planking all around; it will look nice when completed, and I’ll post a video of the model when it’s in its finished state, as well as more detailed images of how I ran the wiring through the model.

So this plastic piece.. It looked great when installed, and the lantern was dark. However, when the light was on, the plastic didn’t dim the light at all, as the plastic was clear. I was hoping there would at least be a little dimming effect, but it was not to be. Soo…. I decided to use the same bit of sandpaper to “frost” the inside of the plastic.

So here it is, lit! Even though it took a lot of fiddling to get to this point, I was very happy with its appearance. It was at this point however that I realized that it didn’t have a handle. And of course we can’t have a light without a handle.

So, here we go. I removed the light from the model, took off the top, and very gently sawed two slits in the top of the tube, one on each side for wire to attach. I then cut a small piece of wire, stuck each end into the slits in the tube, and then placed the end of my small round file into the top of the tube which pressed the ends of the wire against the inner sides of the tube, which bent the wire into position. I then cut corresponding slits in the bottom of the top piece, so it would still be able to slide down onto the tubing when the wire was in there.

And as I mentioned earlier, when I’ve replanked my model, I’ll post a video of how both this lantern looks, as well as the light I’d placed under the gratings on the maindeck. I think I’ll be running both sets of wires down through a wooden stand and into a display case so the viewer can hit a switch on the outside of the case in order to activate the lights.
This is the spooky Halloween version….
Ok, that’s it for this week’s video. Thank you for watching, and please do subscribe to see future videos. Thanks everyone.