I have a ‘newbie’ question regarding realistic lighting and interior details for a building I am kit-bashing. It’s based on a long-time dream of mine to open a Pub called “Fagan Maguires” [^]. I’m looking for interior ‘stuff’… long bar that I can detail with oak and brass rail, stools, booths, maybe a pool table… and am also looking for interior lighting ideas.
Does anyone make simulated neon beer signs?
How about outdoor lighting? This has a dooray on the corner of the building (set at a 45 degree angle) so there is a small triangle above the door where I could place a directional light, lighting the stoop…
I have also heard of the microsturctures signage and have written them about custom jobs (like the sign I have envisioned for this pub).
For custom signage you might want to look into this, you can create your own signs from their kits. I notice you wrote them, I have one of their signs on my layout , it’s
I don’t know about lighted beer signs but the best bet would be to go to the walther’s catalog and see if there is anything that will work for you…or…you can build your own…fiberoptics and a light wheel could work…take a beer sign , drill holes in it insert the fiber optics and run them to a rotating color wheel should work…chuck
as far as the interior look at the walthers catalog hard copy for scale scenics or other detail manufacturers.
i have an old copy of rsailroad model crafdtsman where she did a surplus interior article and did a hotel bar, sorry i dont have that handy butn try a index of magazines search located at the top of the page.
Expensive…but little by little these lighted sign kits can really bring a layout to life. I’d like to have at least one gas station with a lighted sign and a lighted billboard on top of a building.
I already bought a flourescent light kit from this company. I plan on using it for my locomotive repair shop’s interior.
I carry Chris’s billboards (they’re even more impressive in real life) and the Citgo sign generates that response quite frequently - even down here in Georgia. [:D]
rkasparek: Grab his experimeter’s kit. If you can do simple graphics, you should be able to do what you want on your home computer.
Before the advent of these miniature electric signs, people used Black Lights and Black Light Paint (I’m not sure if that’s the technical name or not) to simulate Neon Signs. Google, Black Lights, and see what you come up with. I believe I have seen very small ones at a train show; combine one with some drawings using stencils and freehand and you might come up with some credidible Beer Signs
I’ll add to what others have said about the Miller Engineering signs. I’ve got 5 or 6 of them and they are fanatastic.
For interior lights I have a few suggestions. One is to use the Miller EL experimenters kit. This produces a soft greenish glow just light a watch background or a flat panel nightlight. The advantage to using this is you can cut the sheet to the size you and it provides a nice even light. Another option would be to use surfacemount white LEDs. These a very tiny but produce a large amount of white. You’ll probably need a few to light the entire interior. Downside is that they are small and hard to solder to
Miniatronics does make a neon beer sign. I have one of their other signs and they’re not nearly as neat as Miller
For a light above the doorway checkout the Walther Cornerstone building mounted lights. They come 3 to a pack for $10.
For interior details - the bar could be made from styrene, use brass rod for the railing with the DA liftbolts, the stools and booths are more difficult, check the super detail section in the Walthers catalog. Someone makes/made a pool table, maybe SS Ltd.
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