Jon I use 14 volt bulbs and run them at12 volts, often depending on the effect I want daisy chain them in, is series the right word, where each bulbs in the string gets less than the total supplied volts?
Have you tried High Light ink pens directly on the bulb/diode? to get the warmer color?
Edit for;
No, I do not run them all night long, usually just 2-4 hours at a time. For those kind of hours I suggest sticking with the LED’s
No, but I’ve heard of that technique. I have a few buildings and a sign that had bulbs that have long since died. I’ll give that a try if I ever get to fixing them!
And yes, bulbs is series will be dimmer and last longer.
These are pricey but nice. I used them on my railtruck, where I only needed three: 2 headlights and a taillight. They work extremely well, come in multiple voltage versions, and you can get a “warm white” if you prefer. And they come in extremely tiny versions.
The headlights here are a “warm white”:
I second Jim’s suggestion. I have used Evan Designs lights for a couple of years, $2.25 each for cool or warm white. They take calls and will point you to the proper voltage for what you are using for power. And if you get the nano small square lights, the warning about powering them with a 9v battery is very important, ask how I know… poof,smoke released!
Jim, I agree about Evans Design. I have used them several times in the past with very good results. Last time was like you I did a bash of a couple of Bachmann Rail Trucks and used them for the headlights.
You can buy prewired SMD LED ( that’s the same ones sold above) off eBay/Amazon etc for a lot cheaper and solder on your own resister or a transistor (C something rather I can’t remember at the moment) that allows for any voltage.
0603 SMD and is small (.06 x .03) enough to use for detail lights but not so small that you can’t see it.
I have used orange and yellow sharpies with a little brown rubbed in and it works well on the clear bulbs. I scuffed up the bulb with like 220 sandpaper first before coloring. If you don’t like the color just have some alcohol and a towel ready and wipe it off.
Also if using the 3mm or 5mm rounded top bulbs you can also grind down the top flat and it changes the light projection a bit.
We’ve been discussing LED’s verses bulbs recently, on this current project I used both, the LED’s for interior lighting and the bulbs in the exterior fixtures.
I was recently gifted this beautiful depot building along with a lot of other stuff, as it was 1:20 scale I immediately started turning it into the Fields Landing depot.
The building is 1/4 inch Acrylic with siding laminated on and there are a lot of windows. The interior was an empty shell and with all those windows it just begged for interior lighting so I cobbled up basic interior stage.
For the interior lighting I used LED’s in home made fixtures and attached mounting bars to the existing bracing. I used plugs so the roof can still be easily removed from the structure.
The basic materials for the exterior light fixtures; 1/8th copper tubing, pop rivets, Styrene tube, finish washers and upholstery buttons, although I ended up not using the washers.
The finished job in the next installment.
The depot is all finished and went out to it’s future location for a photo op.
I ran the roof assembly through the table saw and removed 2 and 3/4 inches of overhang from both sides because the original overhang was only 5 scale feet above the freight dock floor and also now the windows show up much better.
Oh, and while I was waiting for paint and glue to dry I built this little maintenance shed from an old Aristo car I had picked up for the trucks.
When you mount your buildings to 2x4 or 2x2 strips do you then screw down the wood to the rest of the bench? Or just let it sit on top?
Trying to figure out a way to mount my feed mill and make it strong as part of the bench work but also flexible enough that if one day if I have to remove it I could ( trying to make snap together subsections)
Craig,
Most of my buildings range from pretty heavy to dam heavy so they just sit on their foundations.
Some of the smaller (lighter) buildings have internal blocks attached to the foundation so the building cant slide around.
My biggest building (the main sawmill) is built in 4 sections for ease of placement and any needed future handling.
I figure my buildings will be pretty darn heavy enough but just was curious. I don’t plan on bringing them in and out.
Guess we end up moving at some point maybe it will be time to abandon large scale and go back indoors as long as we have a basement. 
Here is the little house with it’s new roof and other repairs made, it will sit next to the refurbished church in Fields Landing.
Speaking of Churches, I have never had one on my railroad before then suddenly 2 show up from different sources.
The first is this beauty, solid cement board and needing some minor repair. I stripped off the old rotted Cedar shingles and replaced them with 15# building felt cut to shingles. I had to cut a large enough hole in the bottom to access the windows for re-gluing, thankfully they were all still there. Imagine the fun when I discovered that the bottom was 2 layers of 1/2 inch cement board but we gotter dun and fixed the windows and installed lighting.
It is now ready to plant in the new town of Fields Landing come Spring. I didn’t want to repaint the structure so left the chipped paint as is.
The second church building was a little more of a problem and a real basket case. First I really don’t need 2 church buildings in this small town so what do I do with it, I hate to throw anything away 
Here is the building after having all the old Silicon scraped out of the joints and being re-assembled, not looking to bad. It seems to be an old Pola building but the doors and windows scale very well in 1:20. I broke out all the small window mullions as half of them were missing anyway but the overall finish on the outside is in pretty good shape.
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Like I said, don’t need two churches but the building really doesn’t convert to some other structure easily. So why not use it like it is and change it to an eating establishment, the Chapel Cafe ? I built a new base and added a lean-to structure for the kitchen area around the back side.
I think it will make a great addition to the town and the Historical Society should approve.
Neat repurpose! Personally, I would have gone for a different denomination, setting up the possibility for dueling signboards during the All Church League Softball season!
That is the best 9 years I’ve spent reading this morning.
Rick what plywood do you use on the roof and what do you use to treat it ? If it is in the post already I can search for it. Just tell me it’s in there an I will backtrack
Thanks Bill, glad you enjoyed it. You may want to take a look here as well.
Pete, I just use 1/4 inch underlayment for the walls and roof of a structure like this. They are treated on the cut edges with Tight Bond 3 and sealed inside with clear Polyurethane as a moisture barrier before paint. The 1/2 inch ply base is given 2 coats of sealer after treating the edges with TB3.
Remember buildings like this do not stay out over the Winter, they are just built to withstand an occasional Spring shower 
Just about have this finished up. a little work on the roof of the addition and some signs and details and its good enough.
Should have the bench clear in time for this years MIK
