So, awhile back, a few of you might remember I attempted to light my Falcon up. I cut off the engine exhaust panel, created a mold, and made a diffuser out of hot glue with three LEDs (center teal, outer two blue). But I couldn't really ever come up with a way to get the panel attached back on, so I started looking at other ways to do it.

Pictures of the old system

It looked great just sitting there, but it was really unplayable since the top panel wouldn't stay on, no matter what I did. I even tried building up some green stuff ontop of the glue, but since it moved around, the panel would move and become obviously misaligned.

So it was back to the drawing board. And with the Rebel Transports coming out soon, I needed to finish this project up quickly. I decided I need to build up some green stuff from the base of the Falcon in order to secure the top panel. But this didn't leave enough space for the same hot glue diffuser. As an alternative, I ended up with using a single teal LED and cutting up a milk carton to use as a diffuser material. I glued this on the top panel to help align it which between the green stuff pillars and magnets holding it on securely, it now fits perfectly and it's really hard to tell the difference between it and a stock YT.

Picture with the light off to show how similar it looks to a stock YT

Internal guts. I built up the two pillars out of green stuff, and put the magnets in them. To make sure everything fit properly, I put a bit of celophane on top of it and then put the top panel in place and held it there for like 30min to make sure everything dried at the proper height. I used 2 CR2032 batteries, one of each is on either side of the pillars, and as you see, the LED is in the center.

Top panel. Green stuff and magnets. The back has a milk carton cut out and gently glued in place to act as a diffuser for the LED.

Final product with flash off.

Final product with flash on.

The actual look is somewhere between the flash on and off. For a switch, as you can see in one of the above pictures, I just have two wires that I loop together/apart to turn it on/off. Not the most elegant, but whatever gets the job done, right?

I hope some of you enjoyed looking at this, and possibly get inspired to do the same thing, it really wasn't that difficult once I came up with a working plan on what to do.

That's awesome. Have you thought about painting the underside of the panel black to help keep the light from bleeding through the plastic?

You are my hero.

That's awesome. Have you thought about painting the underside of the panel black to help keep the light from bleeding through the plastic?

I just finished the lighting earlier tonight and discovered that problem, so I'm going to have to do something. Paint's not a bad idea. I was thinking about some thin velvet around the edges to seal firmly to the ship, but that wouldn't help the glow through effect on both the top and bottom. Paint would. There's also a small hole by the front of the ship's mandrils which the light shines though, but you can only see that one in a dark setting.

Definitely does look low in fat

The light-up bit looks cool too.

One other idea, if you're feeling really adventurous... You could use two very thin fiber optic strands to do the 'parking' light in the front/center of each mandible... Muahaha!

I saw an automotive led system I might use at sears.. lol.. you can cut them to fit.. might just work... come 2 to a set.. and .. might be able to use some thim plastic, or light blue flim or something... to cover the back end.. should look cool...

This definitely looks awesome though... nice work

Waaay cool!!

One other idea, if you're feeling really adventurous... You could use two very thin fiber optic strands to do the 'parking' light in the front/center of each mandible... Muahaha!

I'm saving the fiber optics for the transport. I figure I can't really get an LED down into the engine pods, so might as well thread the optics there instead. I can't decide if the transport will be easier or harder. It should be easier because the actual electronics will have space to work since I plan on just splitting the 'port in two, so I should have a ~8in long platform to work on. But it should be harder because the actual lighting area is much smaller, so I have to work with fine detail (small accurate drilling + gluing, followed by tedious threading of the optics).

I feel like it has a better shot at being even more awesome, but will likely end up kinda meh.

That's fantastic. I wish I had half the skill.

Looks awesome, but how do you turn the light on and off?

Looks awesome, but how do you turn the light on and off?

Low tech solution - I break the circuit. If you notice in pic #4, there's two wires just chilling there in the front. Bend them out of the way to turn it off, or wrap them around each other to turn it on.

Great job. I would love to be able to do this, but my skills with soldiering and electronics bits are not so good.

Great job. I would love to be able to do this, but my skills with soldiering and electronics bits are not so good.

I would encourage you and everyone else to try. I'm not skilled at any of this either, but I am learning and getting better. I know a bit about circuits, and therefore I know that if I wanted to do this properly, there would be a resistor in there to drop the voltage from 6 to 5.5 to keep the LED alive longer... But its such a simple thing so I can redo it if need be, and there's very little room for a resistor, so I didn't bother.

There are only 2 solders that need to be done, positive and negative to the LED. Battery cases won't fit through the sides, so you can't solder the wires to the holders, and you shouldn't solder directly to the battery, so I just used electrical tape to ensure contact. Which means there aren't any skill heavy steps involved.

1) Using a hobby knife, repeat several (read dozens) of cuts at a 45 degree angle to remove the engine panel

2) Using a hobby knife, cut off the support pillar in the middle of the engine

3) (Optional) sand everything smooth

4) Use green stuff to make two short pillars on the engine panel. Include magnets in these. Let this fully cure

5) Use green stuff to make two tall pillars in the Falcon, put magnets on the top (make sure they're the right orientation)

6) Top these pillars with Cellophane or some other material to keep it from sticking permanently to the engine panel, then place the engine panel in the proper position. Make sure the magnets are lined up so the panel wants to be approx where you want it to be. Hold in place for 30+ min before removing the panel and letting the green stuff fully cure.

7) Cut out a strip of plastic from a milk bottle. Use a ruler to get it nice and straight on top and bottom.

8) Use your favorite hobby glue to attach one edge of the plastic to the engine panel. Once that cures, move about 1cm down and tach that in place with a dab of hobby glue. Repeat until the entire thing is in position. Let fully cure. Note - for fitting purposes, ensure that there's a bit of an overhang on both sides.

9) Trim the diffuser down using a hobby knife until the engine panel fits and is centered on the Falcon. If it sits a bit too high (mine is) that's okay. And if there's a bit of a gap (1mm) that too is okay, you'll only ever see it if you look directly head on at it (if you look from the bottom the model will block it, if you look from the top, the diffuser will block it).

10) Congratulate yourself, you've done all of the modeling work.

11) Select your preferred color of LED, I liked teal the best since it gives more of the white appearance and actually fades to a darker teal the farther away, but you could also use Blue and get similar results. If I do another one I might use blue to just differentiate the two. Solder the positive and negative wires to the leads.

12) Congratulate yourself, you've done all of the electrical work.

13) Using electrical tape, attach the positive lead to the top of a CR2032 battery (positive side) and the negative lead to the bottom of another CR2032 battery (negative side). At the same time, tape two other cables to the other sides of the batteries.

14) Bend the wires so that everything fits into the Falcon.

15) Attach the two wires together (don't worry about touching them both at the same time, the Voltage and Current is so low that you can't feel anything) to turn the light on

16) Place the engine panel back on

17) Enjoy the awesome engine glow you just made

Total Time: Approx 4 hrs of work over 3 nights (one for cutting (2hrs), one for green stuff (1hr), one for electrical (1hr))

Thanks for the bit of a how-to. I just don't know if I trust myself with a high priced model like the Falcon.