I plan on installing LED light stripes on the inside roofs of my passenger cars and I am wondering if anyone has tried using mirror or reflective tape on the floors to enhance the light in cars with silhouettes or window tints?
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Chas,
That sounds like a good idea to me. I haven't actually tried it myself, so I can't say for sure how the results will be, but I imagine that it would enhance the lighting and the silhouettes. Lionel installs reflective light shields on the roofs of some of their cars to enhance the lighting and stop it from leaking through the roofs, so keep that in mind.
I just converted the lighting in my PE cars to LEDs with GRJ's LED Lighting Regulators. They look great compared to the original incandescent bulbs, plus no more flickering!
I might just open up my PE cars again and test your idea out when I get the chance. Good luck with the project!
Scott
I've installed them in a bunch of silhouette cars, and I've never needed to enhance the light. I'm sure it'll have an effect if you do it.
Yes I’ve done it with good results. Especially where LED’s mostly aim the light in one direction anything reflective to bounce off of will help disperse light. Same idea with incandescent lights reflective tape certainly won’t hurt. This is a project I did a while back with a K-Line passenger car with silhouettes to disperse the LED lights from the roof.
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@Chris Lonero posted:Yes I’ve done it with good results. Especially where LED’s mostly aim the light in one direction anything reflective to bounce off of will help disperse light. Same idea with incandescent lights reflective tape certainly won’t hurt. This is a project I did a while back with a K-Line passenger car with silhouettes to disperse the LED lights from the roof.
Thanks for the replies so far. I am thinking about using warm white LED's with some green mirror tape for my passenger cars with silhouettes to possibly give a little green tint to them and cool white LED's with regular mirrored tape for my passenger cars with green window strips.
Sure why not? Experiment with what looks best to you.
I’ve done tin foil on the floor in cabooses before. It made the whole car better. I would imagine reflective tape would be even better.
I use white cardstock on the floor and it disperses the light well.
Great idea!
@Chas posted:I plan on installing LED light stripes on the inside roofs of my passenger cars and I am wondering if anyone has tried using mirror or reflective tape on the floors to enhance the light in cars with silhouettes or window tints?
What brand/style of passenger cars do you have? I ask because I've put LED strip lights in my LIONEL 15" aluminum silhouette passenger cars and found the lighting was fine using warm white 3528 LEDs with unmodified interior spaces and black frame/floor.
Post some before and after shots when you can.
I personally done the reverse with Aluminum foil and incandescent light bulbs. The interior lighting improved by 30% plus created a heat sink and protected the plastic shell.
@Former Member posted:I use white cardstock on the floor and it disperses the light well.
That is my thoughts too. Rather than using something mirror like that would only refect a mirror image of the light source, the white cardstock would reflect the light in all directions.
@Big Jim posted:That is my thoughts too. Rather than using something mirror like that would only refect a mirror image of the light source, the white cardstock would reflect the light in all directions.
Diffusing the light would work better, Jamie's shirt on Mythbuster's proved it in the You Light Up My Tomb episode. I would image if you could fold the card stock at about a 90 degree angle, place it with the fold up, the light would reflect/diffuse at the 45 angle at the window silhouettes.
My MTH Premier UP Vista Dome is so well lighted the floor needs carpet instead of foil.
