Rushing to finish this for a show this weekend, not managed any "beauty shots" yet but wanted to post what I've got.
I wanted to light this, and originally tried to go the fibre optic route for simplicity but it ended up being just too awkward - too many tight corners for decent sized fibre. So decided to go with the one LED per engine approach. Having recently got some clear resin for my Photon 3D printer, I modelled up a small 'lens' unit that would fit into the engine tube, and also had a small recess in the back for a 0603 SMD LED (on wires) The result was a kind of custom LED body.
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The LEDS were attached to the lenses with clear epoxy, which also had the benefit of securing the wire much better.
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Holes were drilled in the end of each engine for the wires to pass through, and much of the internal snap-fittery that holds all the pieces together was also removed to allow the wires to continue along to the mounting hole in the main body.
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Everything was carefully brought together and clipped in place. I still got away with using no glue and the fit was still tight!
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A new support arm was made from some 3mm styrene tube. Thankfully the LED wires are so hair-like, all 22 still managed to fit down the inside of the tube!
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A custom base was printed on the FDM printer, with room for a 3V battery, on-off switch and the micro-controller that drives each LED with a random flicker effect. I wanted to do a more exotic base, but time was short. Maybe I'll come back to that...
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There's a video of the flicker effect here
I opted to paint all the red detailing rather than use the kit stickers. If ever there was a kit that needed decals! Lots of really really fiddly masking. Aside from a base coat of off white, I just applied a coat of Concrete slop-on, wipe-off Flory wash which picks out the panel lines and details superbly, and then added a bit of black pastel grime around the engines and a few grilles and that was it.
