Hawker Hurricane North Africa with lights

Bit of fibre-optic cable, some diffused LEDs, taped up bits of the plastic tubing from Humbrol paint brushes to try to help fit it all inside the fuselage with as little leakage as poss. The little bag contains rubber caps for earrings that my wife donated to me, hoping to glue them into where the landing lights are. Just need to get some resistors of the right size now and start soldering.  

My inspiration for the scheme. I know these are Hurricane IIs and the kit is a Ib, but I'm not going for historical accuracy here, just trying to have fun. Will be using the decals in the kit, which are from the Battle of Britain period, so accuracy is out of the window anyway... 

I've realised already that doing the lights and doing PE details at the same time is a non starter, so I will leave the PE for another time, perhaps for a night fighter version... 

Looking at doing different ways of doing this; one large led with fibre-optic cable, smaller individual leds, a combination. I have ordered some micro coloured leds for the nav lights so I need to wait for those and see if they will fit before I continue... 

Micro LEDs fit great but are very bright - I need to work out the voltages and solder in some resistors etc, but I need to plan all that as I'm not an expert. I was hoping to use a 300mah 3.7v lithium polymer battery, as that will (just about) fit into the base of the old Airfix stand I want to use, but I may need to use a bigger battery... We'll see. 

These LEDs are so bright! 

After some umm-ing and ah-ing, I decided to just cut out the little sections for the nav lights and use masking tape to hold the LEDs in place; I can paint the tape if I want to, but when the lights are on no one would see it really anyway 

More tidying prior to soldering in some resistors - not 100% convinced they are needed, but still... 

Fortunately everything seems to fit OK. I will need to drill a couple of holes in the underside of the fuselage to get the power in, but that's only because I've limited myself by using a basic stand as the base. I wanted to enforce limits in order to try to be more inventive and not stress about striving for perfection I will never attain anyway... 

Still more progress - I _think_ everything will fit in the base, and I decided to drill exit holes in the rear of the wing instead of the fuselage underside. I have connected the battery to the charging circuit, but then my cheap soldering iron failed, so there will be an enforced hiatus while I source a replacement... 

New soldering iron obtained, decisions made, glue applied, testing everything still works! Once glue set I will give this a dod of primer and start painting. In the meantime I need to try to fit the battery, the charging circuit and an on/off switch in the base... 

More progress - the end is now in sight! 

The more or less finished article. I had to make a big compromise on the position of the battery in the base, which meant I couldn't put the charging circuit where I wanted to, so when it comes time to charge it, it'll have to be put on its side and the cable inserted carefully... Otherwise I am quite happy with it. If I was building one for someone else, or if I do it again, I would make a dedicated base for it, as these stands don't have the room for all the bits really. 

Here it is with the lights on. I messed up the paintwork when I put the matt varnish on, I don't think I mixed the can properly, so it looks a bit white and frosted, which I am very disappointed with, but that's my own fault. I will try to fix it later, but I've had enough for now! 

More or less recovered from the varnish disaster, it's not as good as it was, but hopefully lesson learned! Overall I am pleased with it and I think I learned a lot, but I need to start applying the lessons from the mistakes I make.. Thanks for the positive comments!