LED lights for painting ?

frederic · Post by **frederic** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:23 am

Hi guys,

With the cold weather coming I'm no more able to paint under daylight in my veranda

So I would like to know if anybody use LED lights for painting his miniatures ?
As they don't generate heat, the paints won't dry.
But as they are not cheap, I would be pleased if someone could advice me which LED power to use.
I expect to have one light on each side to avoid shadows, but don't know the power to use a 1.4 Watt (7 €) or 3.8 Watt (24 € and 5 inchs diameter).

Thanks.

Redpossum · Post by **Redpossum** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:03 pm

Fred,

Whichever you choose, you might want to shop around the dollar stores before you pay a premium price like that. I know you're in the UK, but here in the USA those high-intensity LED "spotlights" are available at Big Lots for the dollar-equivalent of 3-4 quid.

24 pounds sterling just sounds a wee bit profligate

And, hell, if you find them cheap, get the bright ones!

The other option you might want to consider is a CFL, or compact flourescent. They are almost as cool as an LED, and you can get spotlight-style configurations. There's a company called Lights of America that makes a model R40-2948, which is a flat spiral of fluor tube with a built-in reflector. Big Lots again, at the dollar-equivalent (figuring $1.60 to the pound) of 3 and a half pounds. This sucker takes about 3 minutes to get up to full brightness, but it is bright when it gets going all the way, and only pulls 30 watts of power.

I know full well all this US-made stuff is 120V and useless on UK mains, but my point is just that there should be a UK equivalent, for those of you who use funny plugs and dangerously lethal power

philqw78 · Post by **philqw78** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:58 pm

funny plugs and dangerously lethal power

I wired myself to the mains in Croatia.

Wasn't fun but I'm still here.

Redpossum · Post by **Redpossum** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:13 pm

philqw78 wrote:
funny plugs and dangerously lethal power
I wired myself to the mains in Croatia. Wasn't fun but I'm still here.

Phil, we use 220 here in the US for industrial applications, just not in the home. I have been jolted with 220 triple-phase, (never EVER trust a drunk), and you're right, it wasn't fun. I was up on a pallet rack at the time, and wound up down on the shop floor, with no memory of the transition.

Besides, Phil, you're a gamer. We can't be killed with electricity; we were all born to hang.

Oh, and if you're under 50, the joke about funny plugs was probably lost. Many decades ago, before the EU got things all standardised, an American traveling in Europe used to need a whole assortment of adapters to fit all the weird outlets. Seriously, my mom had a kit of 6 or 7 little adapters!

philqw78 · Post by **philqw78** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:01 am

an American traveling in Europe

I'm not European I'm British and we still have perfectly normal plugs,............... unlike the rest of the world.

Possibly why the Croatian national grid had a go at me.