Flickering Shop Light

This is something I've wanted to model since the very early 2000s, but the technology wasn't ready. With the advent of pre-wired white 0402 SMD LEDs, I had at last the raw materials to realize my vision: a scale shop light. Being only four N Scale feet long, or roughly a quarter of an inch, it was insanely difficult to make, taking nearly an entire day just to make one, with many rejects.

It requires drilling eight #83 holes, four each in the ends of a rectangle of 0.010" thick sheet styrene bent to make the shade. Each of the wires of four 0402s are threaded into these holes. The LEDs are very carefully positioned to face inward, and secured in place with CA. Then, two lengths of fiber optic material are cut to exactly wedge between the pairs of LEDs; then their ends are touched to a droplet of CA and positioned. This process can take many, many tries, since the fibers must be precisely the right length. Once everything is in place, additional CA is applied to hold everything together. Finally, the styrene is painted black on the back side to make it light-tight, then the whole shebang—lamps and all—is sprayed flat white.

The effect when lit was less than adequate. When I scraped the white paint off of the "tubes" and sprayed them with clear matte finish, it improved greatly. Then I was challenged by a fellow modeler to make one lamp flicker—he was trolling me good-naturedly. What he didn't know is that it was trivial to do just that...

The shop lights now have an appropriate new home: the gas station, now part of the Men At Work diorama. I'd wanted to install them there all along, but never bothered because I assumed there wasn't enough room. But you know the problem with assumptions, and late one night I held the lights up in place. It was a really tight fit, but... it worked. 30 July 2022 it all came together.

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