To light or not to light

TJCampbell

TJCampbell

Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
61
Points
78

Location
Windsor, ON
Good day all,

As I learn and perfect my skills I find myself in a competition with myself to up my game with every new build I undertake. As most of you should know by now - I primarily focus on modern bulk carrier (and their variations, eg. self unloaders) that ply the Great Lakes. My current build (which I have no build log, but will post the final photos when it is done) is my first attempt at a self unloader.

With that being said......I pondered the application of micro LED lights to represent at least some of what would be present on a real ship. Mainly the mast light (front and back), as well as port/starboard, as these would be the basics if I am not mistaken. I was able to accomplish this as an afterthought on my list build (I have to find the right pic(s) and will update this post later) when my build was 90% complete, so had to try to find ways to hide all the wiring as best I could. I will say I think it looks really cool, especially with the room lights off, but there is a mess on my model with the wiring, as I wasn't going to spend a crazy amount of time rebuilding.

I am at a stage now where I can attempt to run the above mentioned lighting, as well as some other lights that would be mostly run at night (interior lighting in the various decks, some exterior lighting) as well as the lights that run along both sides of the spar deck - on a 740 foot long ship this an be quite a lot! However.....having already purchased the lighting I am realizing that it might be a project not worth going forward with. These micro led lights (Evan Design) need to be wired up and thus connected to a power source (I have a 2 AA battery pack with switch) that has to be mounted externally. I would have to solder everything together (red to red green to green) inside my hollow hull and probably have to have a void where the wires would come out of the model to the power source. Would this ruin the model? - of course that side could be the non-viewed side of my display. How would I access the wiring once everything is secured down (I guess I wouldn't be able to?)? I am now thinking that it might not worth the endeavour at all aside from the the P/S and mast lights......

Thought I'd throw this out here and see what you all have to say.
 
When I add lighting I tend to run the wiring through the keel, I also prefer to use a 9v or 12v adapter you would need to add a resister to the lights to reduce the voltage or you will end up blowing them, saves on having to replace batteries, if you want to hide the wire it can be hidden in the stand, and run out through the base
 
I think that if the brightness is to scale, a lit model can be very interesting. By this I mean the lights will appear to someone looking at the model from two feet away to be as bright as the real ones as seen from scale times two feet away. (eg. In the case of a 1/64 scale ship 128 feet away.)

Most that I see online appear too bright, although this may be caused by ‘smart’ cameras.
 
I lit my King of the Mississippi model from Artesania Latina. I used LEDs I bought on Amazon that did not require resistors. I kind of went oveerboard lighting each deck and using two battery power supplies. The top deck was fitted with magnets so that it could be removed just to turn the lights on in it. I wrote a practicum on the entire build and went into great detail with photos as well as step by step instructions. See https://lauckstreetshipyard.com/shop/ols/products/king-of-the-mississippi

Bob
 
Here is what I ended up with - used super small led lights from Evan's Design. It is a hollow hull, so I ran the wiring for the lighting inside, and have it coming out a small hole in the bottom of the hull.

I still have touch ups to do on this model, as well as build a base for it, and acrylic case too.

I want to find some kind of pre-wired power board to attach the lights, as they are really small wires....28 AWG and 32 AWG. I see a few out there, but they only go down to 26AWG, so I ended up soldering the wires to the switch power supply (which runs off a coin battery) to a length of n scale railroad track and each light is also soldered to the track - which of course is conductive.

CdnCenlitcomp.jpg
 
As far as lights being too bright, I used to ride my bike to work along San Francisco Bay before dawn, and the lights on the ships moored in the bay looked very, very bright against the night sky and the opposite shore. Undoubtedly it was different in the age of oil lamps and spermacetti candles, but incandescent, fluorescent and LED lights look painfully bright at a distance against a dark-ish background. If anything, you Laker looks too yellow, but very effective. Were sodium vapor lamps used on these ships? Those were yellow.
 
pebbleworm said:
As far as lights being too bright, I used to ride my bike to work along San Francisco Bay before dawn, and the lights on the ships moored in the bay looked very, very bright against the night sky and the opposite shore. Undoubtedly it was different in the age of oil lamps and spermacetti candles, but incandescent, fluorescent and LED lights look painfully bright at a distance against a dark-ish background. If anything, you Laker looks too yellow, but very effective. Were sodium vapor lamps used on these ships? Those were yellow.
Click to expand...
The new build lakers most likely use LED. This one was built in 1967 (celebrating out centennial, hence the name Canadian Century).
Here is a recent photo of the actual ship in the Welland Canal, with her current paint scheme.

JOHN D LEITCH Ship Photos | AIS MarineTraffic

Photos of vessel JOHN D LEITCH uploaded by the MarineTraffic community
www.marinetraffic.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top