Lighting techniques - Torches

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Interesting. I've seen some roleplayers doing something similar with their Dwarven Forge dungeons, so why not for Mordheim?

Please keep us posted as I'm sure it will look fantastic.

That does look SPLENDID. As a Fellow more Modeler/Painter than Gamer I would be most interested in a how-to-article...electricity in an alien subject with moi.  

I'll try to go forward with the tutorial over the weekend. And I promise better pics

That would be TERRIFIC! Thanks!  

OK guys... here we go.

That's what we start with:


A wooden BBQ or kebap stick of 5mm diameter. I recommend to use a beechwood stick except the bamboo ones - you will see in the following pics why.
A 3mm diffuse flickering amber yellow LED, a resistor (56 ohms for use with 3V, 120 ohms for use with 5V power unit) and very thin (0,02 mm²) lacquered copper wire.

The first thing we're gonna do is drill a tiny hole in the wooden stick. I used a 1mm drill first and widened the hole to 1.3mm in a second drilling run.
And that's the reason why I use beechwood instead of bamboo. Bamboo is much more difficult to drill and sand.



Next I cut a length of about 5 cm of that stick and fixed it into the drill chuck of a table drill with the previous drilled hole facing downwards and with this rotating component and my Dremel with the small sanding tool I sanded the round piece into shape to form a handle.


Next I switched to the cutoff-wheel and cut two slits lengthwise into the straight part of my torch. These slits will hold the pins of the LED later.

In this pic I have cut the stick to the final length before I cut the two slits. I think it will be much easier (to handle) if you cut it afterwards instead.

The next step is a bit tricky and hard to photograph.
You next will have to drill two tiny holes from each of the slits into the center hole in the torch. These holes will be used for the wires later.

This drawing should show the holes better than the photograph


I then pull the wires through the holes


Now it's time for soldering.
First we'll have to cut the pins of the LED to a smaller length. If you have a closer look at your LED you will recognize that one pin is slightly longer than the other. The longer one is the +-pole the shorter is - . I recommend that if you cut the pins to leave the + (plus) a tiny bit longer than the - (minus).
You should best not cut the pins shorter than the two notches.


Solder the thin copper wires to the pins. Take care that you don't have contact to the pins with the soldering iron longer than 5 sec. Otherwise it could destroy the LED.

You can then carefully insert the wires and the LED pins into the two previously cut slits.


I have fixed the position of the LED carefully with a tiny drop of super glue and then pushed the LED close onto the wood.


and made a test to see if the LED is working correctly.


To light up the LED, you would need to insert the resistor into the circuit first. But that's something that will be described in part 2 of the tutorial.

BRAVO...an EXCELLENT presentation! Even I could understand the text...of course the photos helped. VERY WELL DONE!  

Glad you like it and glad to hear that you can understand what I did.
It's hard with this tiny thing to take the pics. My little digicam has only limited features for close-up photography and as always.... I only have two hands and would need a third one for the camera

I have worked a bit further on my torches.

As next step I have covered the slits that hold the LED pins with greenstuff



Next comes the most important step: creating the flame
What I use here is heavy transparent arylic gel from the artist supply shop. This gel comes in different styles and stiffness. I use the heaviest and stiffest gel available. One of the available brands is Liquitex which is sold worldwide as far as I know. I use a cheaper own-brand of my artist shop.
As long as the gel has not dried, it is milky white and opaque, but as soon as it dries - which can last a few days, depending on the thickness - it turns transparent.
We don't want a simple transparent colorless flame. Even without the LED turned on the flame should look real and vivid. So I tinted the gel with transparent photo retouching colors. Used an orange yellow and a tiny little drop of red.





Mix gel and color thoroughly - otherwise a little bit marbeled color would create interesting effects.

Now I took the gel on a little coffee-stir stick and dabbed the gel on the tip of my LED.
Keep in mind how the torch will be used later. I will have mine mounted in a iron clamp on a wall.
So the torch is slanted but the flames should go vertical because the hot air goes straight up. To achieve this effect I fixed my torch handle upside down with an alligator clip in the slanted angle.
By fixing the handle upside down you prevent the gel from a probable flowing down the handle. Instead it forms a nice voluminous flame.



The gel will need at least one or two days to dry and become transparent

I will post pics of the final result then

I was wondering how you would do the flame. Genius!

Thank you for the explanation and photos.

Von Kurst wrote:

I was wondering how you would do the flame.  Genius!

Thank you for the explanation and photos.

I agree. GREAT & IMAGINATIVE WORK!  
I've got a shopping list for my next trip into Austin.

The final and working torch:
I think this would look great in any dungeon scene



lousy camera work - I apologize for that

Hi Singollo!
Unfortunately I have now seen your tutorial. Very nicely done. I think even the construction understood. With the electrical components, i still have to take a closer look. Of which I have absolutely no idea.
You can buy the LED in the right size for 28mm?
The torch is really great. But your stones can make you a bit more realistic.... ;o)

Greetings Ingo

IngoisT™ wrote:

Hi Singollo!
The torch is really great. But your stones can make you a bit more realistic.... ;o)

Ingo, you're absolutely right with this. But I have to admit I made the stonewall only to show the torches in front of anything but a plain styrofoam wall. So not much work invested in this background.

I thought so.
Was a joke.
I know the quality of your work.