The madness begins........ Grey Knight Thunderhawk blog

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**sam0**

Definately going to sub to this. This thing Is just beautiful.

**cjharrisman**

All 3 engines and exterior lights up and running, time for the sunglasses ...

**mxwllmdr**

Time to trip the lights, Fantastic......

**jabbakahut**

Looks so cool with the lights.

**cjharrisman**

I am going to add diffusers to the tail lights to angle them more towards the tail as they are too blinding and they take the focus away from the engines. The lighting is now finished apart from the blinking navigation lights which ill be fitting tomorrow.

**Swordwind**

Now that is ridiculously cool. Can;t wait for painting.

**cjharrisman**

A short clip of the working navigation lights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdOjwy2sGpQ

How do i get the youtube vid to show on the forum post?

**Swordwind**

Type in [ youtube]url[ /youtube] but without the spaces.

**cjharrisman**

ill try again

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woot

**mxwllmdr**

WOW, that's gotta be the best part yet......

Can't wait for paint on this bad boy.....

**cjharrisman**

I have had a response from Forgeworld after i posted the video and photos on their Facebook page, they think its most impressive and wanted to know how i did it.

**Vitruvian XVII**

Thats awesome.

**cjharrisman**

Just got back from Mapins with new soldering iron bits, heat shrink and some other bits, back to work. Thanks for your replies, it makes me work even harder knowing that you guys like what i do

**Horst**

mxwllmdr, take notes. If your thunderhawk's lighting looks anything like this in the end, It will be very well received

**cjharrisman**

mine is not that special or complicated, i actually got some good info and ideas from his scratch built thunderhawk. Great compliments to him.

**mxwllmdr**

Thanks, but Horst is right, you though of certain lights that I didn't think of and now don't have the poption for. There are some that I do still have option for though.

For instance, I don't think I could do the front landing lights too easily. Maybe, but I have to look at how the external detail could be manipulated to hide wiring.....

But the rear fin tower lights and wingfront lights are still possible.

How did you make them flash? Bearing in mind that I have limited electronic knowledge.....

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Engine lights have always been in the plan.....

**cjharrisman**

if you have a local eletronics supplier, or even Amazon, you can buy a kit which lets you have 2 LEDs flashing, you can extend it to 4, its a simple step by step kit and is very cheap, maybe £5 here or a few dollars,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00409OWEC/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_d3_g23_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0SYF936M6RYBJ3V0280K&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294

**mxwllmdr**

Radio shack has that. What did you do just remove the stock LED's and put in wires to your own?

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As seen here:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11007965

**cjharrisman**

the kit has 2 , 5mm leds, which i removed and ran red and black wires to 2 smaller 3mm clear leds, i then ran another Led off the other, like a daisy chain, then attach the battery then all 4 lights flash. pretty good kit.

**mxwllmdr**

Why only four? Does the card not push enough amperage or wattage?

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And do you think I could wire that into my existing 2x AAA battery pack?

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Or do you think I should run them all on a 9 volt?

**cjharrisman**

I only tried it with 4, but it might go to 6 or maybe more, but the 4 was the effect i was after. The pack runs off a 9v battery, and you can also have the static lights running off the same battery

**mxwllmdr**

Man so many questions, so little time to enact every good idea I get.....

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Right, have them all on the same on/off switch but run the flasher card off seperate leads?

**cjharrisman**

have multiple models, my next flyer is the Razorwing, which is going to have flickering blue leds in the engines

**mxwllmdr**

How does the rating of the LED's being different affect the circuit board?

Would they all have to be the same rating? Size, Output, Wattage?

**cjharrisman**

Thats something i dont know, i just soldered them in and hoped they would work,

**winterdyne**

Can't believe I missed this. AWESOME work. Subbed!

**mxwllmdr**

I have burnt out many an LED doing that. I will let you know how it goes......

**cjharrisman**

if you connect a resistor to the LED, it wont burn out, i use 200ohm resistors on the LED, you can go higher but they will reduce the brightness of the led, if you use super bright leds then you need the lower rated resistor.

**overkill76**

Most would consider your efforts madness or genius!

Thankfully, I am in the later camp.

Really inspirational to see what someone can do with the right skillsets and dedication.

**mxwllmdr**

Me too, but then again my friends all consider me mad......