New Zvezda Star Destroyer Model kit
- Thread starter Richard Baker
- Start date
Poakwoods
Active Member
It's not all that difficult... For white led, power supply of 12v, resistance is 470 Ohm. For power supply of of 9v, resistance is 330 Ohm.
On line you can find lots of led resistor calculators, like http://ledcalc.com
I was initially scared too, but now I light almost all of my models. And it's fun!
On line you can find lots of led resistor calculators, like http://ledcalc.com
I was initially scared too, but now I light almost all of my models. And it's fun!
I can recommend these guys:
http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/ledlights1.html
Their leds come prewired wired with resistors.
Good source! Thanks for that!
I love modeltrainsoftware for a quick LED that I may need. They have great service and ship fast. I have ordered from them many times.
However, if your lighting a large model like this SD, you can't do better than getting LEDs in bulk off eBay. A single white 5mm LED pre-wired with a resistor from ModelTrain will cost you $2.25 plus shipping. If you type in "50 pre wired 5mm LED" into eBay you will see that you can 50, of the exact same thing (in your choice of voltage) for around $8-$9, many with free shipping! You can also get 3mm, and all the popular SMT LEDs, clear and colored, pre-wired for pennies on the dollar.
However, if your lighting a large model like this SD, you can't do better than getting LEDs in bulk off eBay. A single white 5mm LED pre-wired with a resistor from ModelTrain will cost you $2.25 plus shipping. If you type in "50 pre wired 5mm LED" into eBay you will see that you can 50, of the exact same thing (in your choice of voltage) for around $8-$9, many with free shipping! You can also get 3mm, and all the popular SMT LEDs, clear and colored, pre-wired for pennies on the dollar.
These are what I used for my Salzo Galactica. I powered it with a 9v 1amp cell phone charger. Hooked all the negatives together, all the positives together and ran two wires to the power supply. After WonderFest I left the ship plugged in for almost 6 months straight burning bright with nary a blown LED.
soulsaman
Active Member
So LEDs can burn out over time? Don't tell me you have to open up the model once it's been finished! That would suck!
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Lifetime of a modern LED is measured in the 10s of thousands of hours.
Best way to do it , nice, easy parallel circuit. If one LED happened to fail (unlikely), no effect on the others. Easy to set up, too.
Timmythekid
Sr Member
Not to belabour this point, but that search brings up, like almost every similar search I've tried, what looks like LEDs, wired to long-ish leads, but without resistors, and listed as ready for 9v-12v DC. My rudimentary understanding of wiring LEDs was that they would require resistors to be added into the circuit as well. I've got a ton I picked up, but it's just one of those things I've been eyeing sidelong suspiciously and avoiding. The other question I've got about those pre-wired, is, if they're listed as DC, could a parallel circuit of them be run off of an internal 9V, or a battery back of 8 AAs? I'm guessing that running them parallel is probably going to seriously reduce the battery life, but if it's like, say...a cluster of 5-10 for the main hull lighting and three for the main engines, how bad would it be? I just like the idea of a self-contained system, and of NOT having to chop the model up to add a mounting point for wiring. :unsure
Last edited:
Timmythekid
Sr Member
Yeah, that's not the issue – in my case,I'm just loathe to cut into the model to create a mounting point for the wiring,so I WANT a battery pack in order to keep everything internal.
We can't post links to live auctions that are not ours. There are a lot of dealers. You just need to find one that also solders the resistors on for you. They are out there.
That's the caveat for running lights on a battery. You restrict yourself to how many LEDs your battery can drive versus for how long versus how many batteries you need to cram into a model. That's why I always go for a plug in power supply. Like I mentioned, I've turned to using cheap cell phone chargers. They come in many ranges from 5v, 9v and 12v. I stick to 9v chargers, why? I have no clue. I have nearly 50 LEDs in my 3 foot Galactica all running on one 9v cell phone charger as a power supply. I shudder to think how many batteries it would take to run that for just 24 hours and maintain the brightness without dimming. Plus replacing batteries all the time can be expensive. I let it run for almost 6 months straight in my living room. I wonder how many batteries I would have gone thru!
Edit- But you would have to cut into the model to change batteries. Timmy, I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other. I just find in my own experience that a wall plug is much easier to set up.
That's the caveat for running lights on a battery. You restrict yourself to how many LEDs your battery can drive versus for how long versus how many batteries you need to cram into a model. That's why I always go for a plug in power supply. Like I mentioned, I've turned to using cheap cell phone chargers. They come in many ranges from 5v, 9v and 12v. I stick to 9v chargers, why? I have no clue. I have nearly 50 LEDs in my 3 foot Galactica all running on one 9v cell phone charger as a power supply. I shudder to think how many batteries it would take to run that for just 24 hours and maintain the brightness without dimming. Plus replacing batteries all the time can be expensive. I let it run for almost 6 months straight in my living room. I wonder how many batteries I would have gone thru!
Edit- But you would have to cut into the model to change batteries. Timmy, I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other. I just find in my own experience that a wall plug is much easier to set up.
Timmy, sending you a PM with a link to the seller I use. He has 100 percent feedback for over twenty two thousand sales. The link I'm sending is the exact same one I bought and am using in several models, the Salzo Galactica, Bandai Falcon, Moebius Batmobile, etc.
ggriffaw
Sr Member
Any suggestions for website or Youtube searches to learn more about model lighting for those of us that have never done it? Unfortunately, searching for model lighting returns results for several other things that are totally different than this.
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So last night I did a rough dry fit of the Zvezda Star Destroyer. I am now almost certain it is tooled from the crashed Star Destroyer model in Force Awakens. The proportions match exactly to my eye. It does not, however, match the Empire Strikes Back Star Destroyer because the superstructure is too short and the bridge is 10% too large. So, it is screen accurate if you count the Force Awakens star destroyer as a class variant, I guess. The reality is that the ILM CG modeler probably didn't match the 8ft ESB model reference as close as he should have.
Not sure if that is the one but, I think it is a model based on a digital model based on the 8 footer created for Empire.
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