Lighting Models

by John Zizolfo and CultTVman

One of the best ways to give your kits a sense of scale is to put lights in them. More often than not, lighting  creates the illusion of windows on the ship (an easily understood scale element) and instantly gives people a basic idea of how large this ship would be in real life.

Secondly, lighting provides a second level of realism, engines glow, navigation lights blink and control panels can be seen at night (it's always nighttime in outer space!)

There are several methods for lighting a kit. Some are fairly basic, others can  get very complex. Your own technical knowledge aside, things like the size of the kit, the scale of the kit, size and location of clear parts, room inside the kit and the material the kit is made of will all play a part in deciding exactly how much and what kind of lighting will be appropriate for a given kit.

There are several methods of lighting:

Basic:

• incandescent bulbs
• LEDs (light emitting diodes)

Advanced:

• Fluorescence
• Electro luminescent
• fiber optics
• electronics

Wiring:

• connections/wiring

Discuss these and other models in the CultTVman Fantastic Modeling Forum

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