I picked up a string of "white" LED Xmas lights and would either like to "paint" them a light yellow color or order some from Digikey or Mouser but don't know which of the hundreds would look best.
1. Any suggestions regarding paint or ?nailpolish to change the blue/white of the Xmas LEDs?
2. Any specific part number/ suppier for a natural looking indoor sturcture lighting LED?
John
I would only suggest a little caution if you are looking to 'tint' an existing led. Abt 10 yrs ago I had a surplus of yellow LEDs & wired them into a 1/24 model car. I titnted them with Tamiya clear red & orange, then tinted them about twelve mode times until they looked pitch black, but they still glowed (dimly at that point) in a greenish yellow tone. With LED's I now buy the appropriate color tone for the purpose & only apply tint for the finished (non-lit) look.
Also, for structures, I like Omni or 180 degree LEDs, they look like a button shape, & cast light in a flood pattern, rather than a focused beam like most 3mm & 5mm common styles. They have a flatter diffuser pan in addition to the stubby lens shape.
Just a couple of thoughts.
How about that clear glaze glass coloring they use for stained glass work. A slightly orange-yellow would probably be right. That seems to be the color of the little lenses they put in the color corrected (soft white) LEDs.
hit 'em with a little yellow ocher oil paint...use artists' oil paint because it's transparent
The St. Francis Consolidated Railroad of the Colorado Rockies
Denver, Colorado
The regular white LEDs you have (blue tint) work well as is for replicating florescent lighting in structures - look great in my diner ! However, If you are wanting the appearance of incandscent lighting, look for the warm white LEDs (you can buy the LED Christmas lights in warm whites as well.
To elininate the bluish tint of regular white LEDs, you need to coat them with an orangish/brown tint. Back before warm whites were available, I used to place a piece of blank 35mm film negative in front of the LED - this was perfect for eliminating the blue tint and giving a more warmer appearance.
A great way for dispersing the light from a spot to a flood using regular style LEDs is to sand the entire surface with some coarse sand-paper. The rough surface diffuses the light evenly and gets rid of that 'pin-point" light.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
I use stain glass paint for plastics.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
I use Polly Scale SCL Hopper Car Beige with a little yellow mixed in. By varying the amount of yellow you can adjust the light to look like older more yellow bulbs or newer whiter incandescents. If you don't like the colour you can remove the paint fairly easily with a cloth and some paint thinner, even after it is dry. I also used just yellow on a few bulbs to simulate bug lights in use on the front porch of a rural grocery store.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I just picked up a set at Wally World - last box of "warm white". Thought I might have a bonus, these came with a wall wart to run them, they don't plug right in, but it's 24VAC at 125ma, not easily used for model railroad purposes. They are the inverted cone type which spread the light nice, should make good building illumination. Closest I suppose to the 'sunny' white style, the Miniatronics YeloGlo I use for headlights are more yellow than these, but these do not have a bluish hue like the bright white types.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks for all the tips. To summarize, it sounds like:
1. The preferred LED is "warm white" and the simplest way to get wide angle, "warm white" LEDs is by purchasing Xmas lights, which should be on sale at this time of year if they can be found. I searched Digikey but I don't have enough information to narrow down the choices. There are on-line sellers of Xmas lights, currently on sale, as well.
2. Modifying the "cool white" LEDs I have will take some sandpaper to rough up the plastic to diffuse the light and painting with various tints.
I will likely use a combination of the above to vary the appearance between and within buildings. I like the idea of saving a few cool white for my diner and factory, to represent banks of fluorescent lights.
Next project will be 555 timer circuits to have some lights turn on and off intermittently. Segway to another thread...
Interesting concept, I cam here this morning to post a question regarding the feasibility of using LED Christmas lights for interior structure lighting and It appears I got my answer. I plan on just extending the wires of each bulb fixture to reach the desired building interior. I never gave thought to the warm yellow color of incandescent lighting though While reading your post a few thoughts came to mind. Perhaps you could either tint the bulbs themselves with a yellow highlighter. A highlighter is opaque so to speak and an LED puts out virtually zero heat so coating the LED itself should not be a problem. A second thought was why not tint the widow glazing rather then the LED bulb it self? Maybe experiment with pieces of colored cellophane covering the interior of the widow glazing to sort of act as a light filter. My only dissatisfaction if you will with interior lighting has always been the light seems to be concentrated like you have this giant light fixture on in the middle of the room so maybe a little defused light may be the answer?
Allegheny2-6-6-6
One draw back to tinting the window instead of the light is that in a detailed interior everything would take on the tint of the window. However, no detail - no problem.