@luvindemtrains posted:Dustin,
You are really going to town on your layout, no pun intended. The extra details and interior in the buildings are surely making your layout standout. We all know it's those little details that make a layout so realistic. I like what you did with the flat-iron building. I am working on mines but only added one floor. Never thought to add another. Your pics just motivated me to go back to the work bench with it. Can you share/show how you did your lighting for the building? This is what I need to do to complete mines and I'm at a stump.
Please keep this good work coming our way.
Dave
Dave,
Thanks for the compliment! I'd actually started building the flatiron when I realized part-way through that I really wanted a fifth floor - so I stopped what I was doing, ordered one from Andre, and worked on other projects while I waited for it to show up.
Unfortunately, I don't have any interior pics of the flatiron building's wiring, but can provide an overview of how I did it. First, interior lighting is all done with warm white LED strips. I did one strip above the 5th floor (i.e. attached to the underside of the roof, illuminating below) and one strip between the 2nd and 3rd floor (installed using an extra piece of wood for support, illuminating below). Here is the brand lighting strips and connectors I use (Hitlights), along with a typical complete "rig" for lighting part of a building:
Note that I just cut the LED connector/extension in half to get TWO connectors that terminate in a wire. I like to use the connectors (versus soldering it together) because its easy & makes a nice strong mechanical, insulated connection. The strips themselves are self adhesive, but I also like to Goop them in place at the ends for good measure.
The exterior lights on the flatiron (and most of my buildings) are from a seller in China on ebay (we_honest) - they are fantastic and well priced for what you get. I run almost everything at 12V on layout, so make it a point to ensure that lights and accessories are 12V compatible (though I do also have 4.5V and 14V strings for non-custom pieces)
The bottom floor is the only one that is super detailed and actually has a "floor" - its made out of foamboard with printed and other details glued in place. Floors 2-5 of the building have the cardstock vertical walls only, set between the front and back windows (in what looks like a crooked "T" if you're looking in through the roof. (Vertical walls only, of course, to allow light to pass through to floors below.) You'll notice that I also strategically located longer window blinds, AC units, and blacked-out windows, and cats in the windows, to strategically hide seams in the walls and wires.
Hope that helps!
-Dustin
