Check for lighting at doll house sites and stores; lots of them around. I was amazed at what I found - even working light switches!
Unfortunately I can only send yuou to Google though; can't find the darned links!
Caution: Getting too realistic and "authentic" can be addicting AND expensive!
Pop
: >>
: >>
: >> My son built a replica of an arena (about 2' x 3'). We wanted to add lights : >> to it and really couldn't find anything small and that would work so I took : >> a strand of Christmas lights and since there were too many, I cut it to get : >> about 20 lights and rewired it. They worked but then the next day they didn't. : >> It looked like many had burnt out. Is it because there were less lights : >> that the power was then too strong? Any ideas if I can get around this or : >> better, does anyone know of any lighting that has small bulbs (kind of for : >> hobbies) that I could use? : >>
: >>
: >I am not sure what an "arena" is, in this context. : >
: >However, if it is not too girly for the purpose, there is a wide range : >of light fixtures and fittings available for dolls' houses. : >
: >You are quite correct about having too few lights will cause premature : >failure of a string of conventional Christmas lights. Each lamp is : >specially designed to short itself out when it fails - reducing the : >string still further and shortening the life of the remaining lamps. But : >meaning that the string will be tolerant to one or two failed lamps. : >Normally there is a special "fuse lamp" that protects what remains when : >the remaining number of working lamps has fallen too low. You may have : >chopped this one out as well - so be glad that your arena didn't turn : >into a recreation of Towering Inferno. : >
: >However, you can get low voltage (sometimes, in the UK anyway, referred : >to as outdoor) Christmas tree light sets. These have a transformer and : >sometimes even an electronic controller to change the lights in purty : >patterns. You can also get LED Christmas lights. Which do much the same : >thing, but the LEDs should last longer. They may be a better bet for : >pruning down to the number of lights that you want. : >
: >Now is a good time to buy. My local shop has a box of 480 LED lamps and : >controller on sale, reduced to 9.99GBP.. Quite a cheap way of buying LEDs.. : >
: >-- : : Last time I was in a hobby shop (which I admit was a long time ago) : they use to sell "pea" lamps for model railroaders. At the time, it : was the smallest light you could get and they were pretty bright too. : : Rather than cut up a Christmas Tree light string, if you have just a : bit of soldering skill I would recommend purchasing individual LED's. : Radio Shack has them fairly cheap. Companies like Jameco Electronics : and MCM Electronics have them for even cheaper. : : You can run them off of standard DC voltages (from a plug in DC power : adapter) like 12 Volts, 9 volts, or 6 volts, but you do need to put a : dropping resistor in series with the LED to keep it from getting too : high a voltage and burning out. : : The value of this resistor is fairly easy to calculate. Maybe someone : here can show you how to do it. : : The advantage of LED's is that they run cool, last for tens of : thousands of hours (if you limit the current properly), come in just : about every color available, use very little current, and are : available in high-brightness versions, if desired. : : Beachcomber : :