# Simple lighting of building



## hokie1525 (Jan 13, 2015)

Just finished some of the Walthers Merchant buildings and I'm thinking about lighting them. Big box stores should have some heavy discounts on simple strands of indoor LED Christmas lights next week. Should be simple enough to wire them to a switch and mount to my control area.

I'm not looking to make my interiors fancy. I'm thinking about something over the interior of the windows to diffuse the light. Maybe some yellow cellophane? Any ideas? I thought I read a post somewhere where somebody did something like that but for the life of me I can't find it.

Jeff


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Test your buildings to make sure that interior lights show only
through windows or doors, and don't make the entire structure
glow like it's been nuked. An interesting trick is to block the
light from some windows indicating a vacant room.

I use a combination of Thick black paint, black electricians tape,
and card stock strips. The corners are often 'leaky'. Press tape
into the corner.

The individual Christmas lights come in various voltages. Once
you learn what that is You
can cut them so that X number of them in series = the voltage
of your power supply. If you get the LED ones you'll need a
DC power supply.

Don


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Don's advice is dead on -- the number one issue with lighting structures is making the light show up only where you want it, rather than making your whole building glow.

The only drawback to Xmas lights is the regular spacing on the bulbs usually isn't optimal for our needs.

You can buy light diffusing film (basically cellophane) for your windows. That's certainly one option. Another is to use a piece of Masonite, gatorfoam, foamboard, etc. to mount a PHOTO of an interior space about an inch back from the window. That makes a very convincing illusion of an actual room.


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## Wood (Jun 9, 2015)

There is a vendor on eBay called WeHonest. (Trust me they are). They have a large collection of bulbs and fixtures. Very inexpensive and nice quality. The only hang up is it takes a week or more to receive the products from China. For the price of a discounted set of Xmas lights you can get multiple bulbs. I wire them up to an old DC charger. In use hot glue to attach them to the structure.

To glaze the windows use flat plastic sheets from any box you may have purchased a new product from. Sand with 250 grit paper, cut to size and glue in place.


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## nearboston (Dec 19, 2013)

I just picked up a lot of 10 3-LED strip lights from ebay for $3.99 +$2.75 shipping. Work fine.


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## RonthePirate (Sep 9, 2015)

Just for giggles, I experimented with Scotch tape, the invisible blurry type.
Double it up (Put the sticky sides together) and it makes a blurred window pane.
I used strips like that, held on with more tape on my older passenger cars.

But if they make larger widths, it could easily be adapted to building windows.


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