Black Pearl - Zhl 1:50 by Vfordyce [COMPLETED BUILD]

I’ve torn out the 5 lights I had installed from the kit. They weren’t as bright as the new nanos and I didn’t want two levels of brightness on the same deck. I then constructed the lantern cages around the Evans Designs nano LEDs and routed them through the original holes I had previously drilled. The wires are only 14” long, but I can solder them to the twisted red and black wire I bought with the LEDs. I also have shrink tube to insulate it. All the lights work so far! And I haven’t lost a thing!BCAF1DBB-E890-4679-A8F7-D1C2646B275C.jpegC2078840-C856-4FFF-B86F-8802E9487DB0.jpeg4C317DFA-B632-4A9E-9921-28268E6F5806.jpegBCAF1DBB-E890-4679-A8F7-D1C2646B275C.jpegCC7CD333-8C26-4287-A92A-0567D689A041.jpeg
 
Awesome!

I will order some this week :)

I see you got soft white LEDs, was that your choice or did they not have amber lights?
The battery powered on/off switch, was it also ordered from Evansdesigns?

Are you gluing the wires to the hull, in some of the photos it looks that way ?
 
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Rowboat said:
Awesome!

I will order some this week :)

I see you got soft white LEDs, was that your choice or did they not have amber lights?
The battery powered on/off switch, was it also ordered from Evansdesigns?

Are you gluing the wires to the hull, in some of the photos it looks that way ?
Click to expand...
Great questions, Rowboat! They call them warm white. Some actually seem brighter than others. I was a little disappointed with that. But I guess some candles might produce more light than others too. Evans Designs has several colors available on their website. The battery option is from them as well. I thought the battery could be just plugged in to the transformer piece, but it appears that I will have to have a pair of red/black leads that are attached to the positive and negative wires of the lights come out from the hull of the ship. Then I can plug the leads into either the transformer or the battery pack. Both have on/off switches. The battery directions say they can run one light for 140 hours. I assume that 30 led lights would shorten that time considerably. I don't know offhand how to calculate that. I'm sure someone on this forum could do that easily.

I did not glue wires to the hull. I did use the provided brass hooks to fasten the wires to the beams and ribs. Then I glued the wires to the hooks after I tightened them. I also drilled holes for the wires to run them along beams that were not on the visible sides of the beams. I also painted them black to decrease the visibility of the wires. It looks like there are some cut outs on the gun deck that allow you to see into the deck below, so I wanted to make the wires as invisible as possible.
 
The second deck (gun deck) was hard to fit in. I think I read somewhere I was supposed to keep the starboard ribs loose and tighten them up later. It didn’t make sense to me at the time. Again, directions, we don’t need no stinking directions!image.jpg
 
Good progress Victator! You are a brave man with all those LEDs.
 
Vfordyce said:
Great questions, Rowboat! They call them warm white. Some actually seem brighter than others. I was a little disappointed with that. But I guess some candles might produce more light than others too. Evans Designs has several colors available on their website. The battery option is from them as well. I thought the battery could be just plugged in to the transformer piece, but it appears that I will have to have a pair of red/black leads that are attached to the positive and negative wires of the lights come out from the hull of the ship. Then I can plug the leads into either the transformer or the battery pack. Both have on/off switches. The battery directions say they can run one light for 140 hours. I assume that 30 led lights would shorten that time considerably. I don't know offhand how to calculate that. I'm sure someone on this forum could do that easily.

I did not glue wires to the hull. I did use the provided brass hooks to fasten the wires to the beams and ribs. Then I glued the wires to the hooks after I tightened them. I also drilled holes for the wires to run them along beams that were not on the visible sides of the beams. I also painted them black to decrease the visibility of the wires. It looks like there are some cut outs on the gun deck that allow you to see into the deck below, so I wanted to make the wires as invisible as possible.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that helps greatly.
 
Now you are moving along at a good lick. Yes, it doesn't matter who the kit supplier is - some filing and sanding seem to be the standard in most cases.
 
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