What lights to use for N Scale buildings?


goscrewyourselves

I'm the one
Morning Guys,

I am thinking ahead here but want to know what sort of lights to use in N Scale buildings. The incandescent ones used for HO scale seem too big for N Scale so I am assuming I would nee to use LED's.

Can someone shed some light (maybe a little pun) on this for me please?
 
That might be an interesting way to go, certainly easier than having to worry about wiring. The only down side I see is that your buildings will be permanently "lit", none the less, will be interested to see how it works.
 
That is something I have never played around with. Do you have any suggestions for where to buy them or what they might be called please?
 
I'm going to be experimenting with this stuff:

http://glow-on.com/products.html
I actually did a layout with this sort of paint. N-scale even. I just looked, umm, funny. Or perhaps contrived would be a better term. I guess it really looked exactly like it was. Instead of a nice warm window glowing from the inside, it looked like a window painted with reflective paint.

Fiber optics have the opposite issue. They don't radiate much light out. They will look like a lamp, street light, or porch light, but they will not "light a room" so to speak. At least I've not been able to get that effect even by mushrooming the end in the room, and putting a huge bright bulb on the other.

You can go to the plastic (like plastistruct) section of your hardware or hobby store and look for "translucent" components.
 
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I have played around a little bit with fiber optics but have not yet incorporated them into my modeling.

The basic concept with fiber optics is that you shine a light (such as an LED) into one end of a flexible fiber, then route the flexible fiber to wherever you need illumination. The light follows the fiber and comes out the other end, even if the fiber is bent around corners. The fibers are very small (down to 0.25mm diameter, maybe smaller) and very flexible, so you can maneuver them into tiny places where a light bulb or LED won't fit.

One light source, such as a LED, can supply the light for multiple fibers. Here is an interesting video on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU8bl3TRlLI

And here is one of many places to purchase the supplies:

http://thefiberopticstore.com/

- Jeff
 
Thanks Guys appreciate your thoughts.

Kevin,

It really doesn't matter as such, I was only wondering if people used a particular type of light for their N Scale buildings. On the other hand, if I were to use the good old Model Power Self Adhesive lights, they'd almost be touching the floor in an N Scale building and that would look ridiculous.
 
mewade,

Thanks for the info. I generally buy all of my LED's from a mob called "moreleds.com", but will take a look at super bright as well.

I had a feeling any N Scale lighting was going to have to be LED based. No big deal though.
 
For N scale, you don't want a lot of light ........so big incandescents or superbright LEDs (actual LEDs, not the business) are too much. A big factor with incandescents is heat. A large bulb in a small building could easily become a lighted blob of plastic, especially if left on for several hours.
 



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