Well, my abnormal fetish for putting lights in
40k models has not abated. Here is my latest work in progress - an Ultramarines Rhino. Obviously, it's only partially painted.
Here it is with all the electrical stuff done. All the joins are soldered. This image gives you an idea of where I situated all the wiring. I first painted the internals and the back door, and assembled the inner sides, inside bulkhead, and outer door together so I still had access for wiring.
Here is the top hatch being lowered into place.
This shows you how I did the headlights. I cut a hole in the top, stuck them in, and used a hot glue gun to fix them in place, as well as keeping the terminals from touching when it gets moved about. To avoid the long terminals from the side LED's from touching, they wrap around the side door frames.
Here is how the battery holder will attach to the front panel, and I've started hot gluing the solders to the model. Unfortunately, I glued the battery cover on, and forgot that I need to prime and paint it, which is a lot more difficult attached to the rhino. Luckily it came off fairly easy with no damage. The chip in the right corner (which you will see in later pictures) is how it arrived from Forge World. Good going, guys, as always.
Here is a shot with then top on but not yet glued in place. Headlight test. I still have time to solder in an emergency resistor if need be, but it looks OK without. At this point I glued on the top hatch.
Here is a peek inside the top. I carefully cut out the computer console, made a cast of it, and then recast it in clear polyester resin. Once it cured, I glued it in place and used 4 different LED's to light it. In this picture, the green ones sort of overwhelm the red and orange ones, but it's a lot easier to see the light differences in the actual model (and even here, the orange one stands out well).
Here is a shot of the back hatch closed. There is a little piece of brass etch on it. On a side note, my brass etch came pretty badly tarnished. I emailed Forge World about how to best clean it, and got their standard answer (no response). I decided to use Brasso, since it's got brass right in the name. As it turns out, I might not use it again. It did remove the tarnish post haste, but it also subtly changed the color and character of the brass - way less shiny and bright. Once I washed it with Gryphonne Sepia (as pictured here) it didn't matter too much, but there might be a better way to clean it. Of course, if the whole model is getting Dullcote anyway, maybe a moot point.
A shot of the underside, showing the power switch.
And here we have the sides on, test fitting. Side doors are also test fit into place with some blue-
tac. Not yet primed or painted.
Finally, here is the front-on view. Lights are bright but not too bright. The lights appear far more orange then they actually are - my camera's color correction isn't great, and Ansel Adams I'm not. You can prominent see the chip in the bottom right of the front plate, which will be covered with a purity seal or some other appropriate piece of bling.
I'd like to be able to write a tutorial that explains how to light your models with more emphasis on the electrical, rather then the mechanical. Unfortunately, I don't feel qualified to do so responsibly. I don't have a great feel for such things as correctly calculating voltage for maximum battery life, what sorts of LED's are best, how LED viewing angles work - essentially I take a shotgun approach to ordering electronics like LEDs and batteries (when they are 10 or 12 cents each, I don't feel bad about ordering 6 or 10 of 10 different types) and seeing what works out. Any sort of tutorial I wrote would require a parts list, and I'd hate to think I had someone order LED's that didn't work, or burned out in an hour, or something. So I won't do that. Instead, I will apologize for my lack of detail, and point you towards the vendors I use for the electrical components:
All-Electronics has lots of good kits for blinking lights as well as other basic stuff.
Electronic Goldmine is another good generalized vendor with all sorts of stuff.
Future Electronics I'm very, very hesitant to recommend these guys. They have the best storefront, best item descriptions, and the best inventory - they have everything. One problem with the above two guys is they both tend to have
almost everything I want, but are always missing like one battery holder or something. Not a problem with Future Electronics. The problem is - they overcharged me. My order was $33, and they put through a bunch of charges - like 4 - which totaled $44. When I emailed them they prompted refunded the overage without delay or explanation. Normally I would not order from such a company again, but rather then pay 2 different shipping charges for one set of stuff I wanted, I ordered from them again - and the
exact same thing happened. I ordered X amount of stuff, and they ran though 4 or 5 charges totalling X + 33% or so. This time I called, and they have a department, apparently, that handles overcharges. I left a message, and got an email later from them explaining the problem was both orders, I ordered lithium batteries - which have a special handling charge (indeed, they were packaged separately, and in a manner which would have been appropriate for a nuclear weapon. She then refunded the money anyway. The batteries are available from drugstores anyway in the hearing aid section. My impression from their site is that they are a multibillion dollar organization that really isn't geared for selling to the public but mostly sells to large organizations and governments which I suspect don't read their invoices as carefully as I do - but that's just speculation. So, if I order from them in the future, I might just forgo the batteries, and give them a "last strike" type order. The site really is nice, and they really do have everything for cheap.
Chaos Undivided - The Pyre 
Chemos' Seekers 
