Layout In A Box – Demo Micro Layout Project (part 16) Fitting & Installing The AX055-OO 3D Printed Working LED Wall Mounted Floodlights

We’ll start by fitting three of the floodlights to the 1930’s low relief factory building. This is best done prior to installing the building on to the layout. Drill a hole big enough to take the two wires from one of the flood lights

Next feed the two wires through the hole from the front side of the building.

On the end of the red wire, solder one of the supplied resistors on to the red wire. If you are unsure about soldering you can use chocblock connectors instead. You’ll need to extend the wires from the flood light to make them long enough to reach the transformer. You can do this by using our hook wire available on our website or source your own wire else where. If using a a power supply higher than 3V you must use the supplied resistors, other wise you’ll risk blowing the flood light!!

Next cut a piece of heat shrink wrap & slide it up the wire so that it covers the resistor & bare wires either side of the resistor.

Using the soldering iron held very close to the heat shrink (or use a heat gun or hair drier), heat the heat shrink so that it shrinks & wraps the resistor & bare wires. As seen in the photo right.

For the other two flood lights for the factory, the above procedure for drilling the holes, feeding the wire through, soldering a resistor to each red wire was carried out. The ends of the three red wires from each floodlight were then soldered together as shown right.

The three black negative wires from the flood lights, like the red wires, are all joined & soldered together as shown in the photo right.

Next the wires were then tempoarily connected to a 12v power supply to test the flood lights. In the photo right can be seen the flood lights powered up for testing. Having passed testing, it’s time to fix the lights into place.

Next the wires were then tempoarily connected to a 12v power supply to test the flood lights. In the photo right can be seen the flood lights powered up for testing. Having passed testing, it’s time to fix the lights into place.

Now apply super phatic glue or similar to the rear side of the flood light as shown in the photo right.

Pull the wire  back through the hole so that pulls the flood light against the wall. Hole the flood light against the wall for a minute or so whilst the glue sets. Make sure the flood light is sitting level. Repeat for the remaining two flood lights on the building. 

Additional Lighting Item

Before we move on, we decided to add an additional working light item in the form of a Ford transit with working DRL’s & rear lights. A small hole was made in the bottom of the factory front (arrowed & circled in the photo right). The two wires from the van were then soldered to the flood light wires as shown right. So red positive wire to red positive wires, black negative wire to the black negative wires.

Two holes big enough for the wires were then drilled through the backscene boards as shown on the right, these are for the two wires from the power feed to the fllod lights & van lights. You can however you can drill the holes in the baseboard top board if you so wish instead.

The wires from the power supply are then cut to length & the ends stripped & tinned. Next the two wires are soldered to the wires from the floodlights & van lights. So as before red wire to red wire (Positive) & black wire to black wire (Negative). Again cut some heat shrink to length to cover the bare wires & soldered joint. Slide the heat shrink up over the soldered joint & apply heat from a soldering iron or hairdrier to shrink the heat shrink wrap into place. The photo right shows the positive wire after having the heat shrink fitted & the black wire a waiting the heat shrink.

Next feed the wires through the holes drilled in the backscene boards & connect up to a 12v power supply. Then switch on & enjoy the lit scene.

The two thin wires that supply the lighting on the van have been carefully hidden with coarse/fine grass turf to represent weeds. The van positioned in such away that thw two thin wires can’t bee seen. The two photos right shown this section of the layout after the lights & van have been fitted, along with some other scenic items such as pallets etc.

In the next part we look at adding more lighting to the layout.

Happy modelling.