Car with Dome Light

One of the many little details I worked into the White River & Northern IV was a car with an open door and a working dome light. The image below is a daylight scene, so you can't see the effect.

In addition to several scenes and details on the new Men At Work diorama inherited from or inspired by the WR&N is this effect. I no longer have the vehicle in the image, but I do still have one very similar—in fact, it's the car that was on the lift in the original garage (a Toyota Crown from Kato). Since it wouldn't fit on the new lift, I decided to use it for a new dome light effect.

To open the door, first I gently scribed the car body along the door lines with a knife blade held backwards; then I bonded the door back on the car in the open position. Next, I lined the roof of the car with aluminum foil to prevent light leaking through, applied a bit of double-sided tape over the foil, then placed a warm white prewired 0402 SMD LED in the center of the roof, running the wires down one of the rear roof posts.

Although the model has some rudimentary interior detailing, with the driver's side door open and no driver standing in it as before, not to mention a light shining within, it's obvious there's no steering wheel, which I'd consider a necessary detail at minimum. So I scrounged around my etched brass stockpile for one. Also, the solid glazing part was no longer useable, so I installed acetate in the front and rear windows, just as I had done two-plus decades ago. Some license plate decals and detail painting finished off the model.

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