Installing Navigation & Running Lights on the 1/87 Scale Carrier Princess | Boomer Diorama # 294

This episode is getting close to the final build of the HO Scale Carrier Princess for the HO Scale layout - River Road. I cover some tips on lighting a miniature model with user friendly LED light kits. The final episode on the Carrier Princess will follow this one on the usual Sunday feature release.
DISCLAIMER: I pay for all the products and materials I use in this video content, unless otherwise stated. I do not receive any affiliate sponsorship, fees, funds, support, or gifts from company products, and/or any other companies, (unless otherwise stated). I only endorse products for the benefit of the community and my own personal use, apart from any indicated sponsor.

[@patrickfilion3681]

First ! 🎉

[@boomerdiorama]

O.K. 👍Thank you for supporting the channel the way you do! Cheers ~ Boomer. 😉😁

[@What_If_We_Tried]

Your prototypical modeling is absolutely mesmerizing, but more importantly is that you choose to share your techniques, and ideas with the rest of the community. Your work is very much appreciated Boomer.

[@boomerdiorama]

Cheers. It's always a work in progress. ;-)

[@ainsleyperry5192]

Boomer, this episode to day showed that the Princess has more lights than I've got in my house. Looking good. Cheers, Chris Perry.

[@boomerdiorama]

Lol . . . probably cost as much to run them as well. ;-)

[@mikecroper8422]

Lovely to be following this journey.... looks great.

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you!

[@aldimore]

The finished product looks so real. Your camera work and prototyping skills are so perfect.

[@boomerdiorama]

The Model Railroad Hobby is an incredibly exciting learning curve for anyone who attempts to build one in any size or style. Thanks for sharing! Cheers ~ Boomer.👍😁

[@FarlandHowe]

Red’s right comin’ at ya. ;-). A good video trick when you want video of slow moving trains is to run the train faster than you want it to be running in the final video and then slow the video when you edit it 30% or more. It gives the cars mass when they move or even sway. The ship is awe inspiring. cheers, Rob

[@boomerdiorama]

I appreciate the kind words, Rob. Cheers!

[@doc8579]

Amazing job. I’m 57 and still learning patients.

[@boomerdiorama]

Thanks, I think it’s a life long learning curve, don’t you? 😊

[@jamesp7762]

I really like how realistic the clutter on the left of the exit from the ferry looks too! (But those 15 first seconds are still just a bit more AMAZING!)

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you. I hope I can find more time, as things grow, to dedicate more time to photography as well. Cheers.😁

[@_steffinwolf_]

These get better and better. Don’t know how or why, but you put forth some incredible content on the regular. I might never build anything near what you’ve done, but still enjoy the knowledge that you imparted. Cheers X 100!!!

[@boomerdiorama]

I appreciate the kind words. Cheers!

[@ministerspencer3751]

Sacrifice…God bless you Boomer, I know we all appreciate your labor and I know you know it’s not in vain 🙏🏾💪🏾

[@boomerdiorama]

I appreciate that!

[@thecnwmondovilinepaulscota7304]

Such a gorgeous realistic model of the Carrier Princess. The lighting is the frosting on the cake! Can't wait to hear the airhorn when it pulls up to the dock.

[@boomerdiorama]

You will hear it next Sunday! 😉😊😁

[@mainely8007]

AMAZING! This blows me away and inspires. Thank you for showing us step by step, for being a good artist and teacher.

[@boomerdiorama]

O.K. Thank you and you are very welcome! 😁

[@randytaylor1258]

Beats the bad old days of grain of wheat and grain of rice bulbs which are so hot. Shep Paine used them I his shadow box dioramas but he had to use brass sleeves as shades -- LEDs are so superior and efficient, producing light instead of heat.

[@boomerdiorama]

@@randytaylor1258 Yes indeed. LED's are awesome. I can also remember the melted Athearn locomotive light bezels before the LED revolution.😉

[@RonsTrainsNThings]

Port is red like port wine. I heard that in middle school water safety course and never forgot.

[@boomerdiorama]

A good thing to remember for the Tug. ;-)

[@_steffinwolf_]

Good one! I’ve got a small fan in a bathroom, to clear out shower fog, and never manage to turn power dial in proper direction. Until I told myself “Right on” and “Left off” - and it worked. Whatever gives you that little hint to remember something, run with it.

[@vincenthuying98]

Dear Boomer, awesome is the word! Ever since you showed the Evans led’s I put them on my ‘hard drive.’ Love their assortment, different styles and solutions. On the bridge rectifier, yes indeed, after the rectification folks need to be careful with the lamp leads. Marking of course works, but also cutting the 2 wires askew, a long piece and a short piece, that will be another convenient way to keep the right wire pairs together. Beautiful how you made those different light bezels. Will look stunning when in operation sequence! Cheerio

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you Vincent! Cheers.

[@traindev1]

Love the videos man, always a treat to see somebody modeling the old SRY

[@boomerdiorama]

Cheers, it's great to share the hobby. 😁

[@Bunyip_Studios]

Boomer, I'm amazed every time I see this model, to think that it was once just card stock and assorted tubes, it's a work of art! Love the opening shot! Really looking forward to what comes after the Princess is complete, but not in a rush to se it finished! 😃 When you cut the wires, stagger the cut so the one wire is longer than the other, the +ve for example, so it will be long on the bulb and short coming from the rectifier. Should save some LED's from getting cooked.

[@boomerdiorama]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the tips! Cheers.

[@jamesp7762]

The opening 15 seconds is AMAZING! Now I am going back to watch the rest of it.😊😊😊😊

[@boomerdiorama]

Lol . . . O.K. . . . Please enjoy. 😁

[@ronduz1281]

👍👍👍WOW as usual, your work is incredible

[@scotchbudmeister9018]

Love the lighting. It really is the 4th dimension! For port and starboard I use the more letters/less letters memory aid. Port/left/red and starboard/right/green 🙂

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you for sharing that helpful tip! Cheers. 😁

[@jonpowell-ov3yh]

Looking great! Adding lights to a model makes a HUGE difference. My last project involved my first experience of driving fiber optics from low voltage LEDs in order to have formation lights at proper scale. Turned out to be much easier than I'd anticipated. Gotta be willing to "try"; the worst that can happen is you fail (for now) and learn (for next try)!

[@boomerdiorama]

You are right, fiber optics take a project to the next level.

[@MyFingerLakesRailwayLayout]

Very illuminating video💡But seriously - very impressive and informative. Thanks man!

[@boomerdiorama]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

[@conrailfan6277]

Nice work Boomer!! I've been watching Lou Dalmaso at Aztec Dummy and Phil at Sprue Verse build the Enterprise D and what they do with lighting transfers over to Model Railroading!!! Lighting on the layout just adds to the fun of running trains!!! Keep up the great videos, I'm looking forward to the next section for sure!!!!

[@boomerdiorama]

Appreciate you stopping by and sharing your thoughts on the lighting!

[@NPLakeSuperiorDivision]

Absolutely stunning as usual!

[@boomerdiorama]

Thanks. It's nice that it is a functional component on the layout. ;-)

[@JeffRichBLET129]

When I was training other engineers, they'd ask me what it's been like. I'd tell them I've spent 30 plus years backing up in the dark. Point being my work was primarily in the wee hours. When I conceived my layout I was determined that it reflect what I experienced running trains at night so it will be lit by these little lights appropriately applied. Thank goodness for the WS system and your tips are well noted . Thanks again Brother!

[@boomerdiorama]

Lights are awesome on the model railroad scene. Especially when you can control the "ambient" room lighting as well. They do have a small learning curve but easily achieved if you think things through and find a solution. Once you get them up and running they add a whole new experience to the layout as you described. Cheers and thanks for taking the time to share your (real world) experience as well. 👍😁

[@keithdenner9441]

Awesome lighting Boomer!

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@tas7997]

I really enjoy your vids Master builder! 👍🌴

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you for supporting channel! 😁

[@Alex-cw3rz]

The thumbnail looks like real! So impressed

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you! It's a challenge to shoot in low light without getting "Grainy" Cheers. ;-)

[@bobhastings6464]

Hey Boomer Thanks for the little tutorial there! I suck at lighting. Good info Cheers Bob

[@CraigBelcher-wg1fn]

I’m laughing boomer because I built a little fishing vessel for my wharf scene and when I was putting the navigation lights I had painted on the wheelhouse I kept repeating that same thing to myself lol ! Now wait until you light the Tug mast you have to find out what light arrangement you need depending on pushing or pulling a barge lol .Looks incredible !

[@Bunyip_Studios]

"there's some Red Port Left in the bottle" that's how I was taught to remember it

[@boomerdiorama]

That is cool. Thanks for sharing!

[@bluefj-wc3vz]

Good grief. I'm surprised you didn't need an electrical permit for that job 😂🤘 Awesome end result.

[@boomerdiorama]

You're right, it's a lot of work for something so small! 😀

[@huliediggs20]

Very impressive tutorial Sir Obi Wan!!! LOL

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you! 😊

[@randytaylor1258]

"Port wine is red." That's all you need to remember. 🍷

[@lesliezammit3456]

Yes. Or as I remembered it, there is a little red port LEFT in the bottle.

[@boomerdiorama]

Sounds great! ;-)

[@boomerdiorama]

O.K. SOunds great! Thank you!

[@jesselomas8626]

If you are not sure on lighting get two pairs of flip-flops, one red and one green. If you then throw away the right hand of the red pair and the left one of the green pair then you'll be good.... Ideal for the marine engineering and weapons electrical branches of both the merchies and they warfighters. Seriously, an awesome tutorial once more! TY Boomer!!

[@boomerdiorama]

O.K. . . . thanks for the tips!

[@PolLight3000]

Lighting up a model is always a lot of fun!😁👍🏻 Good cable routing is actually always one of the biggest problems. In this model you have a lot of space, even if the windows allow a lot of view inside, where visible cables would actually be annoying. But I like your DIY cable duct.😎👌🏻 I've been lighting mainly H0 vehicles since 2002 and have some experiences, so I recently drilled through the center tunnel of the interior of an H0 Audi A4 Safty Car and used it as a cable duct😊 (well, I solder my LEDs myself and usually use 0.1 mm enameled CU wire, so that works, but this is "well hidden"🤭 in my 6 minutes video, most people skip this part😒). To be honest, the only thing I don't like about your lighting here are the two 1.8 mm LEDs in the spotlights, the lenses stick out too far and it doesn't look quite as nice. Perhaps they could have been inserted deeper into the spotlight housing if the square part of the LEDs had been filed a little round, that works well with these kind of LEDs (e.g. you can file 3 mm LEDs almost to the size of an SMD 1206 LED, that's no problem , I did this years ago with blinking LEDs; got the tip from a friend). Using SMD 0603 LEDs would also have worked, they are available with quite the same brightness, and even with lenses for an even better light beam. But well, you'd have to solder them yourself, they're just not available from Evan Designs... By the way, it's a shame that we don't have Evan Designs products sold in Germany, they have some really nice things that I really could use (police siren sound module, Wig-Wag module...), something that no one else produces. Unfortunately, ordering in the USA is too expensive for me... Anyway, your ship and the lighting looks awesome, absolutely great work!👍🏻🤩👏🏻

[@boomerdiorama]

Thanks for sharing! Cheers.

[@herrkiwi3110]

Personally I use a laptop power supply, 19v DC rated at 5amp to power lighting, simple cheap but effective. 15v are available as well but less common. Lighting really makes a difference it can be time consuming to fit/hide but when the lights go down..... boy does it look cool.

[@boomerdiorama]

Sounds great! Thanks for sharing!

[@herrkiwi3110]

@@boomerdiorama I bow down before your greatness sir, the Carrier Princess is truly amazing. Thank you for creating this channel.

[@mariomader8850]

LEDs are like a transistor and the positive and negative current must be absolutely correct or they will burn out if the polarity is incorrect. There are numerous U-tube sites or books on how to determine which wire goes where. The LEDs would have had a long and a short leg if bought raw or one can look for the flag inside.

[@boomerdiorama]

O.K. Respectfully, I get what you say, but these ones by (Evans Design) are prewired with the rectifier so they don't have a short and long leg on the connecting wire. If you modify them to thread a small hole from one end you have to cut and re-solder them. Cheers.😁

[@clivebriggs4984]

Another way to remember what side is what colour, a little red port left in the bottle !

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@ADPeguero]

OMG. I had to count the number of letters in "LEFT" hahahaha.

[@boomerdiorama]

;-)

[@brucec954]

Not sure exactly what you were doing when you burned out 3 LED's, but in general, you can wire LED's in the reverse direction and the only thing that happens is they don't light. However, if you wire up an LED in the "on / forward" direction and you don't have a current limiting resistor, you can burn them out.

[@boomerdiorama]

I appreciate you pointing that out.

[@michaeldjoven80]

Little word - little word - little word; Red - Left - Port! Mike.

[@boomerdiorama]

Yes! Thank you. ;-)

[@MikesProjectsandHobbiesMC]

Port wine is red. 😊

[@boomerdiorama]

Than you! Cheers . . . ;-)

[@Johnny_Guitar]

Awesome hobby work brother! I feel like I'm on Annacis Island at the industrial areas by the water watchin' your superb layout! Can you tell me about the Seaspan decals and where you got them or printed them?

[@MartinGillespie-rd8tk]

Compare any Evans light with any Woodland led light and tell me whats different. Cut away the Evans bridge rectifier thingy and wire your Evans led directly to the Woodland Hub ,when it doesn't work just switch your connections to correct the Polarity and now you can operate 3x more Evans Led's using the Woodland Lighting Hub. The Evans rectifier thingy consumes alot of juice you don't need it ever again

[@cllines604]

hi can you mtell me what the X means on the tamiya I know FX is flat but the X I have smells like oil paint