Miniature lamp bulbs for modelling

[Guest]

I want to light parts of a model setup, for example the inside of a building. I have had a look on the Internet and there are some "grain" (or "grain of wheat") bulbs, for instance, tiny filament bulbs fed by a battery, used as an internal light.

Also, (another application) I have seen tiny bulbs coloured red and green used for ships' or planes' navigation lights, small enough to build into the model at 1/72 scale.

Anyone any ideas? What? Where to buy? etc.

Thanks

[Guest]

Hi Stevekir, you will find Maplin sell led's in various sizes, In the past I have installed sub miniature nav lights on my scratch build ships. Maplin also sell the wire and resistors that may be required. If you have a local HobbyCraft or RS they sell grain of wheat lamps, HobbyCraft can be expensive. Hope this helps.

Jim

[rickoshea52]

Hi Steve, grain of wheat lights and bulbs are used by railway modellers for all manner of applications. I have used the Hornby lighting products for my OO gauge layout with good results. Some companies also sell lights as finished products like streetlights, belisha beacons etc. Veissmann, Brawa and Faller all do a wide range of lights and bulbs. One thing to note with lights in buildings is that you will have to make some kind of internal segregation to prevent the light shining throughout the whole building and perhaps paint the interior faces of exterior walls black or line them with black card to prevent light bleeding through.

[Guest]

Thanks. I have ordered some subminiature bulbs from Maplin.

I had a model rail setup in the 1970s. Things have changed since then!