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Also, one other caution for people soldering their wires to the base - if you use a lot of solder, you can accidentally solder the battery's clip in place, and this is a pain to cut out (but doable). I didn't have a solution to avoid this, besides being careful to use less solder.

Oh, and any putty recommendations?

Pretty good write up.
Lot of effort.
I've been doing LED's in mini's for a couple years... nice to see more people doing it or at least thinking about doing it.

 Rhich wrote:
Pretty good write up.
Lot of effort.
I've been doing LED's in mini's for a couple years... nice to see more people doing it or at least thinking about doing it.

Screenshot or it didn't happen.

You just opened a door to something new!
Thanks mate!

Ricter wrote:
Also, one other caution for people soldering their wires to the base - if you use a lot of solder, you can accidentally solder the battery's clip in place, and this is a pain to cut out (but doable). I didn't have a solution to avoid this, besides being careful to use less solder.

Oh, and any putty recommendations?

Man I think the only solution is to not glop on so much solder. As for putty recommendations, I would just go with like PC Marine Bond or something similar. I would look for one that seems like it will mix up looking white. Seems like the whiter the putties are the more pliable and workable they are (chemical differences), and I would go for the ones that advertise longer work times. 30 minute putty should give you good results.

If anyone is interested, I'm expanding into another tutorial, focused on lighting space marines. Working on it right now

If you're having problems with the LED heating up, use a heatsink.
Clip it onto the leg of the LED between the LED and the point you're soldering.
I use a set of forceps for this.

I also put the tip of the iron under the wire I'm joining, then feed the solder onto the top of the wire.
The solder doesn't touch the tip of the iron (apart from tinning the tip before I start).
It makes for better joints.

Thanks for the tutorial, I've been wanting to LED some models for a while now, and this has definitely given me some room to work with! Thanks!

@Marv: I'll have to try that method. I just worry that, since I don't have any heat sinks available, I'll burn out the LED.


@Rennoc: Glad I could help. Hope to see your stuff glowing very soon.