Model Railroading > Rooftop beacon with led lights

Now we have leds small enough to fit inside the orange plastic castings or strong enough to carry light through a light bar cast onto the bottom of the orange beacon casting I find the leds are just too bright. They overwhelm the orange plastic making the light almost white.

Yesterday I bought a bottle of Model Master Transparent Orange acrylic paint. The part number is 4625. In the bottle it looks much to boxcar red and far too opaque. When applied to the surface of a bright white led the color becomes a perfect match for a rooftop beacon. This seems an excellent solution to our beacon problem. This is especially true for the Detail Associates Stratolight which has a beacon which is too yellow. I haven't painted either the inside or outside of the beacon casting only the led which seems just fine.

I call water based acrylics the 007 paints. They work best when stirred not shaken. That holds for this transparent paint.

Tamyia also offers transparent colors.  I no longer shop for colored MV lenses, or even colored LEDs.  Buy everything in white, and paint them.  For signals this simplifies the circuitry needed to drive different colored LEDs especially yellow.  Marker lights, class lights, switch stand lanterns...  For reflectors and lights on automobiles, a tiny dab with a silver Sharpie and a dab of orange or red and instant tail lights, clearance lights and turn signals!

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO

I use Sharpies to "paint" lights on semi trailers and roadrailers.  Works great!

Eng.Shadetree

 

I've always found using a 10 or 12k resistor works great on dimming an led. I use a 3v power source and a 10l resistor on my smeaphore signals and they look great, light but not overpowering.

My first thought was the Tamiya paint but it was not available at the LHS and the Model Master was. I don't remember if the Tamiya is available in orange or just yellow and red.

I have used Sharpies for marker light colors on model trailers. The idea they are not opaque allows the silver paint to show through which gives a nice effect. The problem with the Sharpie is you cannot add a second or third coat account the solvent in following applications disolves the solvent in the first application and you may lose more of the first applicatio than you add in the next.

1K ohm resistors is what I have on hand. Who knows if the 'Radio Shack' store up the Bitterroot has resistors in a box or not.

Thanks for the replies.

If you want a bright silver - look for Molotow (pronounced like the cocktail) paint pens - where Sharpies are silver, these are Chrome.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/18 03:17 by shortliner.

fbe Wrote:
 I find the leds are just
> too bright. They overwhelm the orange plastic
> making the light almost white.
We found this out at work when we started working with LED lighting in busses. We found out unless you want white light, dont use White leds or they will flush out your intended color, unless you want white light. We tried painting them and everything else. In the end you have to use the same color LED that you want to reproduce. So use an yellow LED for a amber light, Red for red and so on.

Tom,

The tiny leds I am using to go inside the beacons are white which is the only color I have found. I will look at Evan Designs since their product offers a wide color range at least in the larger sizes.

I will be traveling north through Calgary next week and I see they have a couple of electronics parts stores active so I can stock up on 1K, 5K and 10K resistors. One of my choices at home are the surface mount 1Ks from Ngineering and their mounting boards for tiny spaces. Walthers stocks those.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/18 10:58 by fbe.

This is what your looking for.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/T0603Y-20pcs-Pre-soldered-micro-litz-wired-leads-YELLOW-SMD-Led-0603-NEW/252440293275?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D52885%26meid%3Df7212eb40ab741f8afcfe8269c9d0459%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D122092861783%26itm%3D252440293275&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851