STEP BY STEP

1

The floodlights come ready-assembled, and each lamp has 21cm of red and black cable, which should be long enough to reach down through the baseboard from most buildings. A set of resistors is also provided.

2

Despite having already assembled this Hornby diesel maintenance depot kit, it was easy to cut away the moulded plastic floodlights, two of which are fitted to each end. The round bases were preserved.

3

Having trimmed the face of the round bases flat, the centre was marked with a pin to act as a guide for a 2mm drill bit. Drill the holes gently with a hand pin vice to avoid damaging the plastic walls and nearby glazing.

4

Carefully thread the ultra-fine cables through the drilled hole and check that the rear of the floodlight sits snugly against the wall or base. If not, remove the lamp and dress the surface of the wall flat with a file.

5

Secure the lamps to the walls with a drop of glue. Epoxy, PVA or cyano glue will suffice – I used the latter, for a fast, secure bond. Check that the lamps are sitting squarely before the glue sets.

6

A few drops of glue will also help the cables to be arranged neatly inside the corners of the walls. When set, the wires can be painted over and any touching up of the exterior paintwork undertaken.

7

Mark carefully the positions where the cables will pass through the baseboard, then drill holes for each pair of wires to pass through. Thread each pair of wires through the holes in the baseboard and lower the building into position.

8

Solder tag strips were employed beneath the baseboard to connect each lamp, with one of the supplied resistors connected to the positive feed. Alternatively, screw terminals would allow the building to be removed more easily.

9

Having soldered all lamp cables and resistors to the solder tags, each positive and negative power cable was then connected to a common twin-terminal screw connector. This, is turn, was linked to the power source.

10

I employed a Gaugemaster 12V DC cased transformer as a power supply. Be sure to connect the positive and negative cables to the correct terminals. Check the lamps work, then fix the building to the baseboard.