As soon as I saw in pre-release photos that the windows were clear on this model I knew that
I wanted to make a lit version.

Fortunately, Lego designed it in a way that made it much easier than I hoped.  The body of
the plane is already a hollow space with an acdess hole in the bottom.
There were only 3 parts that had to come out (but still used to elevate the lights)
and I only had to add 3 more parts to house the light for the cockpit.

There is already a hole in the bottom of the plane for it to connect it to the stand.
I replaced the 2x4 plate with some of the extra 1x1 plates so that it would still be stable
on the stand, but could have a channel for the wire to pass out of.

I would have used several single-lamp lights, spaced evenly, to illuminate the inside more
uniformly, but I had more of the dual-lamp elements to spare, plus it required fewer wires.

I considered putting a single-top-lamp on the roof and/or bottom for the red navigation
beacons; but that would require more re-engineering, the blinking would be distracting, 
the lamps would be out of scale, and there wouldn't be a way to light up the wingtip 
and tail beacons.  At least not with Lego elements and wouldn't look tacked-on.

I wouldn't suggest leaving this on for a long time, however.  I don't think there would be
much heat build up, but Lego had discontinued those dual-lamp elements and they're getting
more expensive to replace (not wanting to let them burn out), and if I had used a standard
9V or 6xAA battery box, it would drain them very quickly.


For the plane, itself, I am fairly happy with it.  The nose is ugly, but there really isn't
a better way to design it without altering the scale or creating new elements.  The wings
droop a bit, but less than I thought it would, even with the engines attached.  I'm less impressed
with the design of the engines, since the exhaust-end is more "implied" than physical.
The body is very rigid and it's easy to remove the top to work on the inside.  It uses
stickers, but at this scale there's no way around that, but it still looks good undecorated.
No landing gear, so if it isn't on the stand then it's resting on the engines, which the
wings won't like.  Also on the down side is that the body won't fit back into the box - it
is too long.  So, even though the wings, rudder, engines and stand come off easily (and the
tail to a lesser degree) it will take some disassembly in order to use the original box for
storage.


For this (and the rest of my electrified stationary MOC's) I used a run-of-the-mill 9-volt,
400mA transformer (salvaged from a cordless phone that broke) that I fitted a Lego wire
2x2x2/3 plate to the end of.  Endless 9v supply that is cheaper than batteries and can
take more of a load without getting as hot.


Like it?  I know it's not the most impressive engineering feat, but it achieved the visual
effect I was going for.  Check out my shop on Bricklink:
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=ash_274
and drop me a line if you have comments.

-Ash