Christmas lights in HO scale

[pcarrell]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DALCruiser

PCarrell & Greg

Thanks for the positive feedback on my suggestion. I'm in the middle of clearing out a bedroom to be used for my train room so I have not been able to devote time to actual MRR activity. I would like to take the time to try my suggestion, but this clearing activity involves boxing up ALL MY TRAIN STUFFand storing it until the room is ready (probibly months from now). If anyone does try this idea please post your results[:D]

Dave

I know where you're at. I'm packing up to move. It's going to be a while before I move, so in the meantime I'm either going to do a small module to play with, or I'm going to become, dare I say it,......an armchair modeler!!!!!!![:0]

[DALCruiser]

PCarrell & Greg

Thanks for the positive feedback on my suggestion. I'm in the middle of clearing out a bedroom to be used for my train room so I have not been able to devote time to actual MRR activity. I would like to take the time to try my suggestion, but this clearing activity involves boxing up ALL MY TRAIN STUFFand storing it until the room is ready (probibly months from now). If anyone does try this idea please post your results[:D]

Dave

[RoyalOaker]

QUOTE: Originally posted by gvdobler

I have seen some that are pretty small at Michaels craft shop. They don't know HO from anything, but they specialize in crafty things and a friend of mine has decorated his holiday scenes with Dept 56 building and lights from Michaels. Dept 56, I think is even smaller than HO scale.

I agree, I have seen these lights and they look pretty close to the scale size of big old lights people used to use.

[pcarrell]

DalCruiser,

Thats a pretty slick idea!

[Anonymous]

DalCruiser: That sounds like a good ieda. I'm going to try that as soon as I get to the LHS to get some fiber optics. I had never even considered that, but it sounds like it should work! 6-8 per inch would be sufficient I imagine.

Greg

[DALCruiser]

I have not tried this yet, but I believe if you make a very small nic in a fiber optic line it will cause light to "leak" out. Of course, this would give you only one color. I was going to try this along the edge of a couple of building and paint the fiber optic pipe to match the foor edge and nic the lightpipe a regular intervals so white light would leak out. I have had some success with edge lighting 1/8" clear plastic sheet and engraving a pattern into the surface. The edge light bounces down the parallel sides of the plastic and catches the broken surface, deflecting light out the pattern thus lighting the image.

I thing the same principle should apply to the fiber optic light pipe.

Dave

[selector]

In the scale, you could probaly get away with five or six per inch, not the 15-30 that the scale would theoretically demand.

[Anonymous]

I was kind of afraid fiber optics would be the only option. It's gonna take forever to drill all those out. Maybe every building in town won' t have them. I was hoping someone would make a pre-made string, but that doesn't sound like the case here.

Thanks,
Greg

[gvdobler]

I have seen some that are pretty small at Michaels craft shop. They don't know HO from anything, but they specialize in crafty things and a friend of mine has decorated his holiday scenes with Dept 56 building and lights from Michaels. Dept 56, I think is even smaller than HO scale.

[Anonymous]

Since my layout is set the 14-20 Dec 1969 I do need lots of christmas lights. I am hoping technology will catch up to me before I start doing my comercial buildings because I am not looking foward to all that fiber optic running.

James

[pcarrell]

You can heat the tips of the fiber optics and they will form a small "ball" that look s a lot like a bulb, and it difuses the light that way too.

[rrinker]

Fiber optics is probably the best. Even most surface mount LEDs are too big to be scale Christmas lights in HO. Busch even has an HO Christmas tree - but it looks odd because the lights are too big and because of that there are only 7 on the whole tree. Sorta has the effect, but very small fiber optics would give a better effect, I think.

-Randy

[Anonymous]

Does anyone make HO scale Christmas lights? I'd like to add some to the tops of my buildings, but if nobody makes them, I'll have to drill each one and use fiber optics to light them. Any other ideas would be appreciated too.

Greg