I have three Woodland Scenics buildings and I think they are great. However, because of the black cloths and cardboard behind the windows and fronts, they are not as easily illuminated as most other buildings.
I plan to use LED’s for lighting, as I have for several other buildings, but wondered if anyone has already done this and how. Did you remove the black cloths? Did you cut the cardboard to insert the LED’s or other bulbs?
Thanks!
Alex
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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
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