Lighting Up the Fire Prism

[Inquiring M1nd]

Hello fellow BoLS Loungers!

While I was lured out of lurking by a certain contest, I figure, why not make the best of it and introduce myself with some proper content!

I consider myself a dedicated Xenos player, with a good 3-4 K of Tyranids, and some Eldar I've recently purchased from a friend. I'd been meaning to get into Eldar because I loved the Aspects and aesthetics of their tanks. A beautiful blend of elegance and firepower.

That love of Eldar Armor drew me to Yme-Loc, and I couldn't shake the feeling that the epitome of the Eldar war doctrine (Speed, firepower, and synergy) was embodied by the Fire Prism, so I had to do something special. All that clear plastic was begging for some light!

My girlfriend is an electrical engineer and skilled hobbyist herself, and with her expertise in the handling and selection of delicate parts, we got this:

http://youtu.be/XBTCoNnW-Os

Sadly a full demo will have to wait while I repair the snapped turret (see 40K low points thread). Depending on what you guys are interested in, I can put together a bit of a how-to guide, with planning circuits, and some basics on handling components.

[Nightspawn]

Welcome.

[Thiazi]

i would be interested in the tutorials. I have been wanting to light up a monlith for a while and condutive paint soulds fun.

[Jakkars]

glad for see you here guys :)

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[Luke Licens]

Lights are shiny. More please!

[Inquiring M1nd]

As promised, I've whipped up a guide describing the process used when my girlfriend and I added LEDs to a Fire Prism. My inspiration was this thread I stumbled upon several years ago, but was not comfortable with all of the conversion work. I didn't have the tools, nor did I trust myself not to completely ruin such an expensive model: http://s11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/index.php?showtopic=2185

I think it turned out well, In all of it's base-coated glory:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/romorini/LEDDemo.jpg

My technique requires less cutting into the model, is a form of cold solder for linking components, and allows you to create contacts for rotating parts. The draw-back is that you will be running a thick line across the surface of the model. This can be mitigated by drawing on surfaces that are out of sight or otherwise escape notice, like the underside of an arm/cannon, the joint between two components, or an already heavily textured section.

Here's some photos for you to determine if this will be an issue: here is the underside of the Fire Prism's barrel:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/romorini/Surfaceline1.jpg

Okay, so I'll kick this guide off with some notes about supplies and circuits.

This is the circuit writing/repair pen that I used:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3964901

Whew! More expensive than I remembered, and you will note the mixed reviews in the comments below. Things to note: this is a finicky paint pen, with a thick paint, you will need to pay attention to how dirty the flow-regulating tip is, how well you've shaken the mixing ball (note, when in the slightest doubt, shake it another 30 seconds, really rattle that ball!), and how much pressure you re putting on the well. I had some of the troubles mentioned by the negative comments, but I found that they could be overcome by careful examination, cleaning, shaking, and otherwise reading the directions (funny, that).

I haven't shopped around enough to recommend this pen over other items on the market. This particular one had the advantage of being available at the local Radio Shack, and having a fairly resilient finish when dry, which comes in handy when creating contact points. Though, with the powers of the internet, I'm sure someone could locate a superior or cheaper brand. Please post if you find one.


Here's a fun trick that is readily allowed by paint: connections that allow turrets to rotate:

The trick is to have the circuit with separate lines going to and from the voltage source go through the swivel joint. Here, we apply the conductive paint liberally and use the model to prevent shorts.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/romorini/TurretContact.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/romorini/ChassisContact.jpg

Here, we drilled a hole through the center of the peg and fixed a wound wire to the end, this makes contact with a wound wire suspended under the hole, which leads to the battery. For the other part of the circuit to get past the hole, we cut a notch for a coated wire to lead into the field of conductive paint. This connects to the painted outer ring of the turret which has a line which wends it way to the cannon. To connect the wires (or any other component) to your drawn circuit, you glue down the part to your model and just squeeze a glob over the contact and wait for the paint to dry, easy as pie!

[Inquiring M1nd]

My apologies, I bumped int an image limit. Now, let's look at setting up your circuit:

When you look at your model, you know what the end result will look like to you, but what will it look like to the electrons?

This tank:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/romorini/RearOpen2.jpg

is this circuit:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/romorini/Circuitdiagram-1.png

This is called a parallel circuit, which means that all of these components will have the same voltage difference going across them. You can stretch the fork however you like, this is where the instruction guide can help you trace and plan your lines. In this case, you have a battery, a push button switch, and four LEDs. The switch and battery are in the chassis, and the fork with th LEDs has been both stretched down the prism's barrel, and across both engines.

Parallel circuits also carry the benefit of easy isolation of breaks in your circuit. Only the branch with the break will be down, as the circuit is still complete for the other branches. Your enemy is the short circuit. Electrons are lazy, and search for the path of least resistance. Creating photons is hard work, so they will skip all of your branches with LEDs in favor of the short. So plan room for your lines.

Handling sensitive electronics:

Small electronic components are vulnerable to damage from static electricity, levels you won't even feel. The static charge from peeling scotch tape off the roll is more than twice the charge required to fry most sensitive devices, walking around on a dry day generates ten times the destructive charge. This can be avoided by taking off static-inducing clothes like fleece jackets, sitting in a non-rolling chair, and grounding yourself with either an anti-static wrist strap or touching a conductive, grounded object constantly throughout your handling of the LEDs (especially blue ones). Grounding yourself properly depends on your workspace. One good grounded object is the metal case of a plugged in PC with a grounding wire (3-prong plug), another is a water pipe. For more information, look up Electrostatic Discharge.

I went to Mouser Electronics website for components: http://www.mouser.com/Optoelectronics/LED-Lighting/_/N-74g9t?SAP=true

The site is not the most helpful for browsing, so you need to go in with an idea of the size, color, brightness, and power demands that you want. I think my next post will be going into the characteristics of LEDs.

Give me some idea of what projects you have in mind, and I will put together a loose rule of thumb for selection with my favorite expert. Otherwise, I'll just go into why we went with the LEDs we did for the Prism.

[Denied]

nice lighting effects!

[Corvidae]

Looks Awesome!

[energongoodie]

Great stuff!

[Beerzerker]

Now you need to light up the Avatar.:)

[Cpt Codpiece]

great job.

i was gonna do this too nearly exactly as you have done it. then i took an arrow in the knee :D (blood angels and storm raven hehe). i was gonna use a TRS mini jack to run the cables through the turret to allow it to turn and then run some fibre optics from a bundle in the turret, mounted to a super bright LED into the cannon for the 2 crystals, hoping that the fibre optic would not show throgh the main big crystal while it went to the smaller one.

doing that would have allowed me to light the gunners computer screens too by making a cast of them in PVA glue or clear resin.

[trjames]

Now you need to light up the Avatar.:)

Hairspray, match: not nearly as technically challenging as the Fire Prism.

[stewy37]

Who needs to learn how to paint OSL when you can just add real light? Looks awesome man.

[Inquiring M1nd]

great job.

i was gonna do this too nearly exactly as you have done it. then i took an arrow in the knee :D (blood angels and storm raven hehe). i was gonna use a TRS mini jack to run the cables through the turret to allow it to turn and then run some fibre optics from a bundle in the turret, mounted to a super bright LED into the cannon for the 2 crystals, hoping that the fibre optic would not show throgh the main big crystal while it went to the smaller one.

doing that would have allowed me to light the gunners computer screens too by making a cast of them in PVA glue or clear resin.

I really like that TRS idea, I'm going to have to play around with that, see how the dimensions work out.

Glowing cockpit panels are definitely a part of my ideal light-up tank. Replacing the consoles with clear parts is what gives me the greatest pause. That's customization work that requires more fine artistry than I am comfortable with.

I think the fiber optic through the big crystal would be fine visually, You could hide it by running it along the bottom of the big crystalor one of the cages, depending on flexibility.

Or disguise it with a fan of other fibers to create an effect like this inside the crystal: http://media.uxcell.com/uxcell/images/item/catalog/ux_a08121100ux0031_ux_c.jpg

I liked the paint with a second LED inside the distal crystal because it required little to no drilling or cutting of the cannon itself.