I'm just back from the first attempts to solder the first LED... without success. For you being able to see what we are talking about, here are two pictures of one LED:
The first shows it in the tape, on the second picture it is put onto Tamiya tape. The longest side is exactly 1mm, the pins are the silver rectangles on each side.
I tried to assemble it to the wires for about 1 1/2 hours now without success. Almost everytime when I got one wire on and tried to solder the other one in place, the first one came off again. About 4 times I had both in place, but after connecting the other ends to the plugboard one wire came loose. The connecting surface is just too small to withstand any mechanical forces.
However, with one wire soldered and the other helt in place with a clamp, I managed to at least connect it to the battery once to see how it looks like when turned on. Here is a picture with a paper helt to its backside (paper in touch with the LED):
The first impression is that you should not directly look into the LED, it is so very bright! I guess the look on the surface would be ok, but if I don't find a way to connect it properly, I will have to come back to the lighting-from-behind-method... Sadly... So if anyone has an idea how to fix it, please tell me!
BlueJay: I will at least put together the subassemblies before I do the paintjob. I want to make as few touch-ups as possible. But it all depends on the lighting.
Thorsten