How to light up a sphere?

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Thu Mar 09, 2017 7:08 pm

Last night I started tinkering with a model I have some spare parts for, drilling out the spare parts for the engines to see how it could light up. It's the R9-A Arrowhead from R-Type Final by PLUM. It's not a cheap kit, so I'm glad I happen to have those spare parts to screw around with.

ANYHOW, the ship comes with a big force orb. It is a semi-transparent orangish plastic ball. What type of LED would give a light in nearly every direction? There's an online shop here in Japan that sells these neat little diffuser caps that fit onto the bulb. I was thinking about getting some just to tinker around with because they are so cheap.

Would a butterfly LED be better? Those seem to shine in all directions.

TazMan2000 · Post by **TazMan2000** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 10:31 pm

How about one of these?:

http://www.omailighting.com/product/led ... bulbs.html

TazMan2000

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Thu Mar 09, 2017 10:50 pm

Because the sphere is the size of a ping-pong ball, not a basketball. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Richard Baker · Post by **Richard Baker** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 9:37 am

Why not just go old school and use a Grain of Rice bulb?

Those worked fine for decades before the LEDs took over and they do emit light in every direction.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:30 pm

you can get wide angle LED's, often in larger sizes too. Just do a search for "wide angle LEDs".
You will also want to add some diffusing material like polyfil to the inside.

robiwon · Post by **robiwon** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:55 pm

Those diffuser caps are pretty nifty. The benefits of sanding without the hassle of sanding. Plus they come in different colors to. If you get some let me know what you think, I may order some as well.

brt · Post by **brt** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 4:23 pm

https://www.inventables.com/technologie ... user-films

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 4:28 pm

brt wrote:https://www.inventables.com/technologie ... user-films

You should check out ACRYLITE® Satinice material. https://www.acrylite-shop.com/US/us/cat ... ddajh9ktfj

Mr. Engineer · Post by **Mr. Engineer** » Sun Mar 12, 2017 10:17 am

A friend has shown me the same model years ago but I just cannot remember the size so, you'll need to take my 2 cents with a pinch of salt...

Since the tennis bal... er, sphere is held by four holders, you have some choices but they're all must be shining to the opposite holders, but the front and back would not be lit well:
1. Use two SMD 0805 warm white LEDs, this has no lens so the spread of light is wide but limited distance, or
2. Use flat top LEDs which has wide angle (or bigger hotspots), or
3. How about white LEDs with diffused lens?

Another extreme way would be to solder six SMD LEDs into a small cube and place it in the middle...

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Sun Mar 12, 2017 10:31 pm

Apparently I never finished the message I began typing on here. I asked this same question on the Sci Fi Model Action forum and have had good responses there. Over the weekend I bought some of those tiny SMD/chip LEDs with a 120 degree wide angle of shine. My initial thought was to have a single light source radiating from the center of the ball, but perhaps that might not work. I'll put the parts together and do a dry fit sometime soon.