Illuminating Woodland Scenics Buildings

I removed the cardboard in all cases and used plastic and such to make more realistic interiors - especially near the display windows on the first floor.  In one case I mounted an incadescent light and it lined the back of the plastic facing the light with tin foil to reflect, etc.  Other place I use LEDs.  I cut the plastic in places (unseen from outside  to let light through to rooms, etc. 

I prefer to use grain of wheat bulbs and the best source I have found is Model Power's Peel & Stick Lights.  They offer two sizes, the 510/511 for N & HO and the 520/521 for O & G.  To me, the smaller lights look about the right size for a bare incandescent light bulb once in the building. On the hardware store I used two of the peel and stick lights and adhered one each on the lower level in front of the ceiling fan that is printed on the back wall.  I took the bulb out of the peel and stick base, drilled a hole just large enough to pass the wires through just under the fake light shade over the Harrisons sign and super glued the bulb is place.  I also drilled a small hole under the front awning and placed a bulb there.  A fifth bulb was placed in the upstairs.  I kept the background and the paper blocks in the upstairs because I felt the black paper allowed the upstairs rooms to just have  a faint light such as a bedroom might have.  The end result gave a very nice effect.

If you are planning to detail the interior, I would remove the printed background but if not , I find the printed background to be quite believable.

Good luck and happy railroading,

Don

I just completed adding lights to my three buildings.

First I removed the black paper inside.

Then for each building I used Silicon RTV to mount two 14volt light bulbs from Miniatronics to the inside of the roof.

I left the cardboard display in on the first floors and added 12volt Miniatronics Painted Lamp Shades to their cellings by just making a small hole throgh them to pass the wires through. For each 12volt painted lamp shade I added a 68ohm resistor in series to reduce the light output.

Lee, Don, Bob -

You have given me very viable approaches to accomplish this task, and I will use several of them.

Thank You!

Alex