Show me your Lights

[whahooo 465]

Hello,

 

as i want to install as much interior in all of my cars, so i want to install LEDs in my cars.

I have a Lancia Killerbody body. There were a lot of lightbuckets, so Lightinstallation was easy.

Not so with the Tamiya 037....  there you have to drill holes to fit LEDs, put in some shadewalls and do al little bit of thinkering.

 

Also in a lunchbox you need to drill holes and build some indicators....

 

 

 

So do you use LED lights?

If you have a Hornet, Grasshopper, Wild One, Fast attack, etc. - do you use round Lamps or square Lamps and how do you mount them?

[MadInventor 3884]

Chopped up a chinese light bar, then carefully drilled and tapped the bar for 2mm screws and attached. Painted the rear lenses with Humbrol clear red. Got an in-line resistor and run the LEDs off the RX lead coming out of the ESC

 

[whahooo 465]

Loojing good.

I had simmilar lights in my Wild One, but they broke...

Also i tend to install square Backlights and put the Frontlights not on the spot where you put it. I tend to put them on the spot where the original Fake lights on the Wild One are.

[Nwc100 462]

Tamiya legends on you tube did an install of lights On the 037 last week!

ive done one with a 12 light setup from eBay which cost about £15 and works well enough!

[VileQuenouille 246]

I have lights in a few of my cars. I always use leds bought in bulk on Amazon or Ebay and solder my own harnesses instead of using stock kits like the Tamiya ones, this way I can run proper wire lengths and it's a lot less bulky overall. I also use small controllers plugged in the 3rd channel, they allow for 2 light groups to run independently and can be remotely turned on/off. For the leds I either buy them in warm white or I paint them transluscent orange because I find the blueish-white ones not so pretty, I think a warm white light matches a scale car or a vintage buggy much better.

For the Lancia I used 3mm leds, this way you only have to drill slightly larger holes in the light buckets, and it all fits nicely behind the high beams.

[burakol 462]

Here's what my lights look on my Dynahead build. 

I bought the light controller from LaneBoys RC but I had to solder all the light and do the wiring myself. The Dynahead did not come with any light buckets whatsoever, so I had to make my own through 3d printing. I used ShoeGoo to attach the printed parts to the body. 

[Nicadraus 6198]

[whahooo 465]

Thanks, i thought so. Square Backlichts look way better on a Wild One!

I wonder how to install Backlights on a Hornet, i don`t want to drill the Lexanshell, i think the end of the Dampers would be a good but odd spot.

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Can anyone point me to lights where the wires come out of the side or bottom and not the back??!

[silvertriple 3557]

I tend to put lights on all my cars...

The Hornet was the easiest to deal with. I replaced the fake lights by Tamiya led buckets at the front, and a metal insert for the led behind

The Turbo Scorpion was front led ready, I just put leds inside when building it. And I added a 3D Printed part at the rear end for the red leds (the part is here: Kyosho Turbo Scorpion Rear led lights holder by silvertriple - Thingiverse)

For the Super Hotshot, I designed front and rear parts. The front part work with led buckets, and is also used to reinforced one of the weak point of the gearbox. Rear part works with red leds. (parts are here : Tamiya Super Hotshot - Lights Holder by silvertriple - Thingiverse)

For the Javelin, same principle (parts are here: Kyosho Optima Javelin Lights Holder by silvertriple - Thingiverse). I'll modify the parts to install them to the Turbo Optima: it doesn't work with the sway bar.

DT03 - only front  is done, I still need to take care of the rear. The part works with led buckets (Tamiya DT03 Front Led buckets holder by silvertriple - Thingiverse)

On the lunchbox, I use a Kamtec lunchbox body shell in lexan. I masked the light glasses when doing the paint, and applied home made buckets using Molotow liquid chrome paint pen and eye lense cases. The led buckets are glued to the bodyshell using hot glue.

Those are the current ones, but I have more project in mind... Time will come to add some content in this post :-D

 

[Ferruz 11702]

I'm very much into having lights on RC models, I find that they really enhance the scale looks -and the fun- by a lot, plus with them you can actually drive at night.

I've installed lights only on two of my cars so far, since it's not really for all models (trying to picture a Manta Ray with a full rack of lights while I type).

I have them on my Hornet and on the Big Boss, the ones on the Hornet were just replaced a couple weeks ago, still amazed by how long the old set was able to last.

[alvinlwh 5894]

SU-01 Aero Avante, aliexpress lighting kit. 

This Suzuki is fully lighted with marker lights, signal lights, brake lights and reverse lights, and switchable headlights using a lighting kit from, yes, aliexpress. The body kit comes with LED holders so the lights will be at the right positions. Unfortunately they will not show up too well in a static picture. 

[whahooo 465]

So i watched the Video of the Lightinstallation in a 037 and i have to say - it is worse than i thought

 

 

 

He seems to be a LOT more into RCs than me, and he didn`t had fun with the installation AND he didn`t even put indicators in the Shell.
He also didn`t stop the light from shining trouh the shell, that would bother me a lot....

I would love to have a full LED Settin with Indicators and Stuff....             But i don`t knof if it is worth it, i would hate the Installation

 

 

 

 

Also i have found a video where a guy puts in some Light into a Grasshopper. He used squre Backlight - i also would put in some Square ones..
AND he puts in the Lights on the lower Dampermount, i think that would look pretty cool. that was also my idea when putting a light into my Hornet.

In a Grasshopper i would have put the LED s into the Shell.

 

 

But it bothers me that he did not had hidden the Cables.

I don`t understand how people that are more into RCs dont care about visible Cables and Lights shining trough plastic and similar stuff.

[SuperChamp82 743]

Interesting thread 

How do you rate Tamiya vs aftermarket LEDs ?

TLU 01 / TLU 02 vs stuff costing a third ?

And Tamiya integrated MFCs - 01 to 03 ?

For me, decent LEDs use so little power these days it’s almost lazy not to add their impact to a decent (non racing) kit ?

And they look truly stunning done properly 👍

[Problemchild 2149]

This is the full shapeways ampro 3D printed lighting set for the lunchbox (rear lights and side markers)

also did the clodbuster - these just fit into the standard light units though 

JJ

[whahooo 465]

I got square Lightbuckets and prefitted them in my Wild One.

I painted them White in the inner, because i didn`t had any silver at home. I think i have to get Chrome Markers.

 

 

What do you think is better, Round or square Taillights??

Round (but looks cheap....)

 

Square, but they aren`t silver inthe inside:

 

With Covers, but i do not know what are they are for:

 

 

 

PS:

 

They are just prefitted, maybe i find a mount to turn the square ons 90 Degrees.

[alvinlwh 5894]

I noticed that with a recently received ESC, while testing it out, the LED is not as bright. Swapping another ESC in, the lights are blinding. It turns out that not all ESC are created equal. 

[J@mes 2326]

Square ones on the back look better than round to me. Are the covers so you can add stickers, like CIBIE etc? 
 

Here’s my Heavy Dump Truck with lights 

 

 

 

[whahooo 465]

They have IBF Stickers with them.

I will get that plastic putty, so i can form a "L" Shape for mounting the Lights horizontal.

[nowinaminute 2815]

[TurnipJF 9192]

My not-a-heavy-dump with lights. 

[silvertriple 3557]

On 10/16/2021 at 11:49 AM, whahooo said:

I got square Lightbuckets and prefitted them in my Wild One.

I painted them White in the inner, because i didn`t had any silver at home. I think i have to get Chrome Markers.

 

 

What do you think is better, Round or square Taillights??

Round (but looks cheap....)

 

Square, but they aren`t silver inthe inside:

 

With Covers, but i do not know what are they are for:

 

 

 

PS:

 

They are just prefitted, maybe i find a mount to turn the square ons 90 Degrees.

I had square light buckets for the rear on the Turbo Scorpion, but I did not really liked it : those square buckets are too big for the scale when mounted on the rear...

I decided to change for simple 5mm leds for the rear of the cars, and it works quite well...

For the rear, while the led attachements were printed in PETG for the Javelin and the Super Hotshot, they are quite exposed. The Javelin led attachement was put to heavy duty on a track with (too) high level ramp, and the part did not survive. worse, leds were gone, and luckily, the lights were off, otherwise it would have been a short circuit. I will reprint those part in TPU to get them more flexible and resistant to damage to avoid this. Rear are generally fine as they are not exposed at all... Ultimately, the possibility of the short circuit is to be taken into account when you run with led lights (specially if you like jumps :-) ): inside the body is fine, where protected by the shocks and roof it is fine as well... but there is requirement to think more about this...

 

[whahooo 465]

So, i installed the Lightbuckets.

They are Black on the Inside, should i paint them Silver?

 

 

The Photos are a comparision between the original Lights and the new ones.

[silvertriple 3557]

If they don't come with a reflector (like the Kyosho ones), i usually paint the interior with Molotow Liquid Chrome paint, and it works much better when lights are on.

[alvinlwh 5894]

Took it out for its first night drive today.