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Well it's that time of year again! Two years ago I competed at the Nova Open in the lighting competition and was amazed at the amount of work and effort people put into all aspects of the hobby! And so my journey began... Two years ago I had a simple desire to add LED's to some of my models to complement WIP Train table based in the 40k universe. Some friends of mine suggested I create a hobby blog about the amount of time I put into my creations and so two years later here we go. The first pictures are from my first attempt at just making a Display board for some of my Astra Militarum covered in Snow.

This was my Nova Open first place winner for Display lighting in 2014

My 2015 entry included some new mechanics when I added rotating AA guns with the use of micro servos and a control board as well as a working smoke stack in the manufactorum. Which now brings us to 2016! Below is the Relicos Militarum being lit with 3mm LED's and is my current project for this years Nova Open entry in August. Currently I am at about 40 hours worth of work running the LED connections and internal piping. Yesterday I managed to lay down the floor with Diamond plated plasticard and get the holes pre drilled for mounting. And luckily my AC power adapter came so that was mounted to the Bunker for power. I Will try and load a video of the building lit up as a whole but still trying to figure out how to do it!

Mirrsith wrote:
This was my Nova Open first place winner for Display lighting in 2014

Bloody well done!

I had no idea lighting had gotten so small scale.

Trying to upload my video of the building with the lights on!

Just to let you know I am going for all three of the lighting awards at NOVA this year....two last year was just not enough hehe

Your stuff is looking good and I liked the servo guns you had last year. It was a really cool addition!

Thanks I really appreciate the compliments your Nids were amazing last year! Truth be told I hold you in high regard and truly love the competition! I missed the update last year for Single models and Army so I wasn't able to enter a model :( hopefully you bring your A game again this year! Personally i would just like to see more people enter the lighting as I think it takes the presentation to a whole new level!

I am bringing my A game with you in mind heheh. My goal is to win painting and light effects in a sweep. Let's make it a point to search each other out and show our stuff off to each other!


I saw you were planning on running a power supply which means you will need a power source. That means your army will be stuck to the walls and pillars for display. PM me if you want to figure out some other options and I will help you where I can. Several years ago I ran a lit display board for my Kroot mere list with flowing lava and had to power it with a deep cycle battery at the last GW Chicago GT. The guys traveling with me were pissed because we had to carry the furniture that was the display, the battery, our armies, and the battery charger heheh.

The building can run on AA battery packs like i did for last years entry however after Nova it will be mounted on my Train table at home so I was going to just utilize an AC adapter this time. Since I also built the table last year i can mount an AC power pack under it as well which thanks to technology lol will be a little easier than lugging around a car battery. I found this one on Amazon- ChargeTech - 12,000mAh BLACK Portable Battery Pack w/ AC Outlet & USB Ports After Nova I will just hardwire it to the table as the company i use also produces larger packs for for 3-400 leds.

Although I ran into the same problem last year as I had to transport my entire display and the table to Nova I ended up Just driving myself from NH. The only thing I will say is that I hope they do some cool prize support this year for lighting! As for searching each other out we need to schedule a beer!

Beer is always a good thing heheh. Consider it done!