Creating Old-Style Model Street Lights with Martin Tärnrot

Modeler Martin Tärnrot will demonstrate his technique for making model street lights in the old style with wooden poles. The material required is 2.5 mm PVC tubing, 0.7 mm brass tubing, SMD type LED lights with copper wires, and the lamp housing.

To start, Martin gives the tubing some surface structure using a coarse sanding paper. He sands downwards along the tubing to create a wood-like surface structure. He then spray paints it brown with a light misting of matte black. Once dry, he cuts the pole to length, 105 mm each, and drills a 0.7 mm hole in the base of the pole for the brass tubing. The brass tubing is cut to 50 mm lengths and the lamp diffuser is cut from the PVC tubing in 1.5 mm lengths.

The first step in assembling the model street lights is feeding the copper wire through the lamp housing and painting the inside of the lamp housing with white acrylic paint. This doubles as an electrical insulator. Then he feeds the wires through the brass tubing. He glues the LED and the diffuser in place and feeds the wire through the PVC tubing.

For finishing touches, Martin paints the lamp housing and the rod with white, black, and a bit of brown paint for a warm grayish tone. He then cuts the mold lead off and files it down with a motor grinder. The metal cap on top of the wooden pole is made from dried dots of scenic glue painted with the same warm gray color. To install the model street lights, he drills a 2.5 mm hole in the layout, feeds the wires through, and sets the poles in place with fast-set glue.

For more on enhancing your scenes with model train lighting like creating nighttime model railroad lighting, visit the Model Railroad Academy archives.