All materials I used came from poweredplay.net. I came across this retailer a couple years ago at Adepticon and thought he had a pretty sweet set up. I was sold on the fact that none of these items required soldering or doing fiddly work; it is literally plug'n'play, and that suits me just fine. My dad gave me the effects board as a gift, and it got me started on the path to LEDs.
I knew I needed something awesome to put it in, and I finally decided on a Knight Titan model as the place! I also acquired some extra lights and a mini 9V battery they sell. Overall the price is decent, and when an order was messed up, he readily sent me the right lights free of charge. As well, if any connections break down, such as one of mine did, he will replace the parts for free as well. Great guy!
A quick note though, the website is a bit rough around the edges still as he gets off his feet. The product descriptions aren't full; each set of lights you buy comes with a basic board and light switch, making so all you need to light it up is a battery connector and battery. These are supplied with every effects board you purchase.
Because the effects board only slots three light strings, and I wanted at least four or more, I would need a second battery. I planned on a regular 9V battery and then went ahead and purchased PoweredPlay's mini 9V, since it has a connector already attached. Here is the size comparison between them:
Quite a difference! Still, I made sure that it all fits in the Knight Titan's torso, and it all works well enough. I used 3mm LEDs for all parts except the thermal cannon, in which I used 5mm LEDs because they fit much better. More on that later in the article.
So, on to the converting! Starting with the head, I drilled out each of the eyes with a regular drill, making sure not to carved out the edges. I then held all the bits together and used a little yellow paint down the eye holes to show me what I'd need to remove from the rest of the head to show all the light. As you can see, quite a bit has been carved out! All it takes is patience, a knife, and cutters to expedite the process.
The front needed the widest opening for the bulbs...
While the rear needed to be wider than taller to accommodate the wires themselves.
Once I felt I had it mostly ready, I did some test fits with the lights. Conveniently, one side of the lip for each light was flat, so I worked to make those two edges come together in the head, while the full lip faced outward from the middle. This required more knife work, specifically about in the middle to accommodate said lip. I used a regular exacto blade that had a few millimeters of the tip broken off sometime in the past, giving me a flat tip with which to set against the edge of where I was scraping
up.
Note too, that the piece that normally attaches through the top of the head will have to be altered to fit the lights as well; as this is a simple snip, there's not much to be said about that, other than do it.
Here is how the light looks inside the head:
And now both together, showing them relatively even leveled.
Finally, how it all looks together and lit up.
I declined putting anything over the eyes, such as using window glue to make clear openings. Despite the fact that it'd be clear to a point, I didn't want to diminish the output of the light at all, deciding that a bright glow is preferable to a diffuse one. I did not glue them in, instead relying on the tension of the head parts being glued together, and it works quite nicely.
That complete, I then matched the opening on the panel behind it leading into the torso so that the wires would stay hidden.
In the end in made that opening a little wider too so as to allow the plug through should it ever need replacing.
Moving on to the torso, I opened holes in the arm slots and the engine stacks so that wires and lights would be able to fit through/in:
I then took the engine stacks and, like with the head, held them to the body and determined where to remove plastic that would best allow for light to come through. Here is my result:
I also drilled out each little hole in the shroud, because I'm a nutter like that. The key here is to remove enough plastic so that light is coming from the base, but not filling up the entire stack, as I think that looks ridiculous. Also, you definitely need to be careful around the edges, as you could easily make my mistake and carve a little too much, requiring some repair work once it's glued to the torso. This is what I was looking to do:
What you see here is not the bulbs themselves, but the light reflecting on the bare plastic in the tube and working it's way up. It's subtle, but rather pretty, and when set to a "flicker" with the effects board, looks like internal engine fire light.
After drilling and carving was complete, I test fitted the lights, just like with the head, and made any adjustments as needed. The lights themselves sit right at the opening, with the lip of the bulb flush with the inside edge of the torso. With all the wires and batteries inside the torso as well, I was able to place them all where I needed them and the tension/pressure of wires and space keeps them in place perfectly. I didn't want to glue them for fear of covering up any part of the bulb and reducing the light output.
Working my way along to the thermal cannon arm, I built the upper part as normal, sans the piston that goes into the shoulder. This allows you to use that hole for lights and wires to pass through on the way to the board.
Not wanting to make it complicated, I opted to bring the wires down through the second part of the arm. I drilled and cut open a few parts, allowing me to place the wires without getting in the way of any moving parts.
I then tested the fit, as always, to make sure it actually works. Here is what it looks like:
Down to the gun shroud go the lights. As you can see from this picture, the 3mm LEDs were small, too small for me. I was unsure of how to proceed (see: not wanting to glue lights, above) as I was building, and only had the 3mm at the time. I accidentally ordered the right color but the wrong size yellow lights to go in the gun, but gave them a try anyway. As it turns out, the 5mm lights fill the tube perfectly, and the lip holds the light in place (given enough tension) without any need for glue. Huzzah!
Inside the shroud itself, I sprayed white so as to reflect the most light around and out the hole (all drilled out as well), and painted the holes themselves orange because it felt right, mainly. You don't even see the orange when it's lit up, so it's up to the builder's preference, really.
Here is how the entire setup looks, slapped together:
One thing of note: do any spray painting for lit parts BEFORE you build it and install lights. I sprayed my bits black for a primer and then Leadbelcher as the base metal (see the full painting guide, here), all before gluing them together. This ensures that paint does not get on the lights, which is quite important for brightness!
Altogether, this was a fun build and conversion. The LEDs from PoweredPlay made it a breeze to light up, and with a little thought it came together with minimal effort and maximum results.
I hope this article has given you some ideas for lighting up your own knight titan model, and hope to see you back again!
