LED Conversions - Light That Sucker Up

I came across this good walk through a while ago on a wargaming website for lighting up vehicles with LED (Light Emiting Diodes) and might give it a whirl -

Welcome to installment one of the LED conversion articles. In this article, I'll guide you through installing LEDs into the headlights of a Predator or Rhino.

Materials:
-Brain
-Two LEDs; colour doesn't matter
-Wire; insulated copper preferred
-9V battery and battery clasp
-47 OHM Resistor -REQUIRED
-Soldering iron and solder (easy way); Krazy Glue (very hard way)
-Drill and misc. drill bits -Small switch - NOT REQUIRED but BIG HELP
-Large sombrero

Step One : Drilling/Preparation OK. The first thing you need to do is remove the vent panel/thing that supports the turret. I hope you haven't glued it on yet...if you have, get it off somehow. Just be careful. I had the same problem. Once that panel is removed, it's time for drilling. Other than that panel, the tank should be fully assembled. Choose a drill bit that is about larger than the LED you are using, and drill straight through the headlights. It should poke through the tank's hull.

Next, drill through the top with a smaller drill bit. Size does not have to be accurate, but it should be just large enough for the two leads on the LED to fit.

Step 2 : Inserting LEDs This has to be done a specific way; Notice that the LEDs have two differently sized leads - a long and a short one. Forget them. Look instead inside the LED. You will notice that one of the leads ends in a "flag." This lead is negative. Curl the leads upwards, so that they form a semicircle. Make sure you are curling them the same way. Now, with the negative lead on the left side, (of the front of the tank), gingerly insert into the headlight casing, and ease the leads through the hole on the top. Do the same thing for both LEDs. If you wish, put a small dab of Krazy Glue on top of the hole. DON'T let the leads touch!

Step 3 : Battery Clasp and Battery This step needs to be done in a specific way. Drill two holes into the corners of the vent plate that you have removed, and thread the battery clasp wires through them. The BLACK wire is negative, and should be on the right (of the front of the tank). Once you have it threaded in, Krazy Glue the ends of the wires to the top of the hull, and glue the vent panel back on. DO NOT glue the exposed wire to the hull!

Step 4 : Soldering it all Together Now, pull out the soldering iron and the solder. If you don't know how to use them, practice heating up the end of the solder onto something unflammable, and melting it into a blob. Take the resistor, and solder one end of it to the black wire of the battery clasp. Cut it down if needed. Solder the other end of the resistor to the first LED, on the NEGATIVE lead. This should be on the right, as I told you to do. (You didn't! You foo'! *rips out your chest hair*) Once this is soldered on, spread a little bit of solder onto the tank to hold the wires down.

In case you're wondering, I put glue from a hot glue gun over the switch back, to make it more appealing.

Step 5 : Getting the Battery In Connect the battery to the clasp, and gently insert it backwards.
This can be replaced when it dies. If done right, you should now have a beautiful, lit-up LED-ready predator/rhino!

Just a tip I bought some LEDs from Dick Smiths and the guy there reckoned I wouldn't need a resistor using a 9 volt battery. So I tried it and it flashed like a roman candle before blowing. Looks like resistors are necessary. I'll play around with them first before applying it to any model.

Stompa Painting Tip

Recently I painted a Stompa for my LGS. It was already preassembled and primered so I was off to a good start.

The Stompa is a nice shape for painting with lots of broad areas due to it's size. However it's arms and shoulders proved to be the tricky bit. Especially the shoulders with all the crowsnests, hydraulics etc. So my tip is leave the arms and main gun ammo belt off until painted. This makes these areas more accessible especially to any brushwork.

It's definately an airbrush/spraycan job for laying down the basic colours. That's unless you like painting with a house brush.

Running Totals

Why is it that some people who join wargaming chatrooms have to list there armies and a victory tally beside each at the end of each post. Does this make them a better gamer? not necessarily. Does it make them any worth more listening too then someone who doesn't nope!

I just don't see the value in this and it is one of my pet peeves of wargaming chatrooms. Ok I'll get down off my soapbox now lol.

40k Motivational Posters

Other Marine Chapters

Following my previous post about all the Ultramarines I came across this as some other sample chapters. These are all from the Badab War and in time some such as the Astral Claws (Became the Red Corsairs) fell to the powers of Chaos. Though there's nothing wrong with a pre heresy or pre fall to darkness force. An alternative is creating a chapter of your own so go for it.

March Mayhem

There's plenty happening in locally March. The usual club days, March To War (Club 40k tournie) as well our LGS Fantasy tournament. So there's a wee bit of planning to be done with the main focus the 40k tournie. Although I'm helping out as an organiser I'm playing in it too which makes things interesting. Yep, I'll check all the lists but promise I won't build a mean army based on what I see. Still hopefully my Khornate Corsairs will cause mayhem on the battlefield.

What's on my workbench?. Well funnily enough several unfinished marine squads that are having weapons fitted and then painted. There's 3 units of Chaos Knights waiting to have their chainmail and plate armour painted and washed. There's a half made up box of new plastic Gretchin with a nice looking slaver and squig. A unit of 5 STUGS with radio control tanks for FOW. On top of that I'll be painting a Stompa for my LGS to put on display. This is a pretty nice looking model even though it's still on the sprues in the shop. So in a nutshell lot's of stuff on the go not to mention any repair work that crops up.

FOW Flak Nest

I've just seen this on the Battlefront Miniatures site and think it's rather nice. Nothing like a decent bit of terrain with some nice minis as per normal from the folks at Battlefant.

Hopefully we'll see the Henschel tank buster realised in the not too distant future also.

Up and Coming Guard

There's been much speculation on the new Imperial Guard Codex. There sounds like some pretty nasty stuff even if only half the rumours prove to be true. Firstly is the Valkyrie dropship that I'm sure any Aliens film buff / guard player will want. This flying boxcar packs two lascannons as well as pylon weapons under the wings. Included also are some pretty cool gunners to help out with cover fire. Bad news is if you were intending on byuying a Forgeworld one instead you're out of luck because they're now out of production.

The second confirmed new toy is the Leman Russ Punisher. This sucker can pump out 20 Str 5 shots a turn. Though there still seems to be speculation when this kit will actually be released.

Standard units too have been overhauled with the standard guardsman cost 4 pts each apparently. Stormtroopers pack a 18" Str 3 AP3 Hellgun and it continues.

So May is looking very good for the guard. Let's just hope we don't have to wait 12 months like the Ork players did for the intended second wave of releases. Then again maybe this phased release is a trend by GW.

Ultarmarines or Ultramarines and Ultramarines

Lately there's been a real boom in marine players locally. This is great as they are one of the more forgiving armies to play not to mention have plenty of cool toys. So I can't blame people for playing them.

The thing that I find crazy is the amount that want to choose Ultramarines as their chapter. There's plenty of other great chapters to choose from, Space wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Mentors, Salamanders, Ravenguard, Crimson Fists to name but a few. All have great characters abilites and access to the space marine armoury.

So come on guys be daring and choose something differant other than Papa Marneus and loyal smurfs. Not only will your marines stand out in the crowd of blue you'll have something unique.