Moonlander Village Light Bay Window
Description
A model *Bay Window* for **holiday village displays** (Christmas, Halloween, etc.), for hiding/disguising the distracting light bulb hole and socket in the back of village buildings. These are designed to cover the **Lemax "_Moonlander_" LED** light bulb units. Several trim styles are provided to help match your village building, and optional translucent window panes add **lighting interest** to the back of these buildings. If you've ever set up a model/collectible village for a holiday, you've probably experienced the frustration of trying to hide all the power cords used to run light bulbs in each of the village buildings. If you have a walk-around display, the worst are those buildings with the bulbs (and associated hole and bulb socket) in the back of the building, since viewers can see the backs of many buildings. These are an eyesore in your carefully laid out display! Lemax's "Moonlander" LED lighting system helps, since the white plastic backing at least covers the big hole in the building, but the bracket is still unrealistic and distracting. So, I designed a "box-bay window" unit that mounts on the Moonlander unit, and covers the back with a more realistic "window box" that can be painted to match your village building. **Note:** These bay windows are designed for the Moonlander 4.5VDC cables with the 90 degree barrel plug! Straight plugs will not fit in the bay window. Trim Styles Provided ================ I've provided several trim styles to help match different village building styles. These are shown in the photos above, and are downloadable as separate STL files. The style name is at the end of the file name. Support Bracket / Window Pane Piece ============================= The bay window is made of two pieces, the main bay window (depending on the style described above) and a separate support piece that is glued into the back of the bay window. Both pieces can be printed in the orientation provided in the STL with **no supports** on most printers. The "MoonlanderBay**Support**.stl" file is the separate support piece, and it doubles as the window "panes" of the bay window unit. This file can (optionally) be printed in a translucent filament, if you want to use the incidental "back light" of the LED unit for more interesting lighting on the back of the building. With an FDM printer, the layer lines provide some light diffusing, so details of the Moonlander back end are hidden, but some rather realistic lighting and shadows shine through the window panes. If you do not want light to shine through the windows, you can print the support unit in a solid color. For example, you can print it in yellow filament to look like the painted window panes in many village buildings, and you do not need to paint it separately! To install the support in the window, glue it into the back of the desired bay window piece across the window ports, as shown in one of the photos above. I use a few drops of E6000 adhesive after placing the support/windowpane piece correctly covering the window ports. Paint the window bay **before** gluing in the support (see below). Painting the Bay Window =================== It is best to prime the bay window before painting, with a plastic-compatible spray paint. I use "Rustoleum Painter's Touch® 2X Ultra Cover® Primer Spray Paint" to spray the outside of the bay window, and let dry. Then I use inexpensive acrylic paints from a hobby store to mix colors to match the village building. Complete all painting **before** gluing in the support/windowpane piece. Source CAD Files ============== I created this design in *FreeCAD*, and have provided the source CAD files in this listing (see files with the extension FCStd"). The main file is "MoonlanderBayWindow.FCStd" which is used to generate the STL file "MoonlanderBayWindow_Tudor.stl." Other FCStd files are simple derivatives of this main file. The FCStd files are table driven, which means that most of the critical dimensions are contained in an included spreadsheet. So, for most changes, all you need to do is to change the desired value in the spreadsheet to update the entire design part. If you try this, start with very minor changes, since major changes may distort the entire design and cause the update to fail. The support piece file ("MoonlanderBaySupport.FCStd") is also dependent upon the spreadsheet in the main file "MoonlanderBayWindow.FCStd" - therefore, both these files **must** be in the same computer directory while editing.
Statistics
Likes
0
Downloads
1