Bandai 1/144 Millennium Falcon - lighting

[Raven Morpheus]

Hey all

I'm considering starting on my Bandai 1/144 Millennium Falcon (instead of my 1/1000 Enterprise Refit, the Falcon seems an easier prospect), but I don't want to start it until I have a lighting kit made up. I would buy one but I feel it would be cheaper doing it myself and just buying the LEDs/resistors.

What I would like is anything that is lit in flight to be lit. So I'm thinking the following should be lit -

The engines (obviously)
The front lights (using fibre optic strand)
The cockpit - some general ambient light, nothing specific
The top/bottom glass sections - again some ambient lighting
Perhaps the docking rings either side with the 4 red lights (again I'm thinking I can use fibre optics here and just use some clear glue and paint it with Tamiya clear red).

Are there any other lights in-flight that I've missed on the above list?

I want to use an internal battery source, 2x CR2032 batteries, which will fit in a holder (I have a couple for 2x CR2032 batteries with a switch on them) in the bay that Bandai have conveniently made for such a purpose. So that's a 6v power source iirc.



I think this is what I need in terms of LEDs -

4 x white LEDs for engines
1 warm white LED for the ambient light in the cockpit
2x warm white LEDs for the top/bottom glass sections
1 x white LED for the front lights and the docking rings either side(with fibre optic strands attached)

Could I run the cockpit and top/bottom glass sections off a single LED using fibre optic strands? How would I then diffuse the light?

I can solder, but I don't know how to wire all this up, what size LEDs to use (particularly for the engines - I'd like to fit them into the 4 parts Bandai give you), or what resistors to use, especially as I'd like some of the lights to be more subtle than others, the cockpit and top/bottom glass areas ambient lighting for example.

Please could someone help me out with a wiring diagram and any other tips on doing this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Broilermaker]

I would think there'd be nav lights

 

[Raven Morpheus]

OK, I don't seem to be able to find any references for those in flight. I don't recall seeing them in the films either in the space sequences (but then I suppose one could argue that about the ambient light I want in the cockpit and gun turret wells). Obviously I can include them if I can find references. More worried about how to go about wiring it up, what size LEDs to use and what resistors to use...

 

[Pcoz]

I bought my stuff from these guys....I didn't price out doing it myself though, so I don't know how much cheaper it would be. They have a pretty nice selection. http://shop.fiberopticproducts.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=135_157

 

[3Dsf]

Bit of a late follow-up, but I've put this page together which tries to document the external lighting of the Empire Falcon:

https://sites.google.com/site/millenniumfalconnotes/the-lighting

But if you're after an in-flight Falcon, most of that wouldn't apply to you. The only time the external ventral (underside) lights were shown lit on a moving Falcon was during a takeoff scene in TFA. The two red lights at the bottom of the docking ring wouldn't be lit. And the headlights were shown lit in some scenes but not others - mostly when the Falcon was flying through an interior.

 

[3Dsf]

Also, a couple companies sell premade kits that let you use the 3mm internal mounting points that Bandai provide for LEDs. Check carefully before you buy - some "kits" I've seen have turned out to be a loose bag of bits that you could have bought yourself on eBay! Also, don't buy the official Bandai lighting kit as it's expensive and really lame, with only two LEDs.

Also also a simple Google image search reveals a ton of people who have lit this model using a variety of different techniques!

bandai falcon lighting

 

[Robiwon]

Good luck on lighting your Falcon. You can go as little or as far as you want. I went a little overboard and lit a lot, including fibers in the cockpit back wall and dashboard. I used a blue aquarium light bar for my engines and pre-wired and resistored LEDs from China. A good tip I would like to offer is to make a simple line drawing of the ship and draw in where you're going to place your LEDs, wiring, battery and switch. It helps to lay it all out first before starting the actual build.

 

[Jaitea]

Are you going to build the kit as TFA?.....there were no white headlights in the movie,....in the OT, headlights were only used so the pilots could see where they were going,.....ESB: The asteroid cave/Space slug & ROTJ: Death Star tunnel,.....the chase through the wrecked Star Destroyer scene in TFA had no headlights on though

In TFA,...red running lights are seen on the Falcon in almost every space scene,.....some are hard to tell.....Hyperspace flyby's,....so much motion blur,...but I'd say the red lights are official now

The white underside access lights have been added from the full size set also,....better continuity

J