Great thread! Keep it going! I need to find me some lights.

lighted Star Wars dio piece
 

From deep inside Echo base comes a map screen that is pretty cool. I taped a piece of map from the atlas and put some foam board over the opening so light wouldn't come through. I darkened some of the lines on the map with a paint pen.

lighted Star Wars dio piece
 

The lighting was done with some LED lightboxes from that halloween light set. I originally had other stuff in set up for the original picture, but they got lit up and ruined the effect. This is a rough recreation but with some clear plastic and a picture you could do just about anythink with it.

I am new to all this and now I am on a tight budget i thought it would be near impossible to do something decent. The stuff shown and described here is priceless.
this is really helpful, Thankyou...

Same here but my hobby is way more expensive than heavy drinking! :D

How I did that Lamprey! shot
 

It wasn't a screen and I dont do any photoshopping. It was all natural baby! Heres the rundown.

I have a pencil box with blue top that I put random stuff in. I think this is the stuff I was using to customize my RHINO.



It has a nice blue top, so I thought it might put a good blue light over the figure, which is how I wanted the shot to look, underwatery, I was thinking a sunken ship with a glass bottom or a big viewing window. I stood it on end and propped it up.



I have a booklight that I use a lot. It is really bright and has it's own bluish tint.



Put the light behind the box and turn off the overhead light. Dont forget to put a figure in front!



Here's how it looks pulled back to see the whole think. The green light on the figure was from using the flashlight app on my Iphone. It is a great accessory, it has red, blue, white and green screens to give some life to my pics.



Overall, a very simple and easy setup, which is good, because I'm pretty lazy and pressed for time.

Brilliant effect!

The Birdhouse How-To
 

I made this set for a contest at goodtogocustoms.com. I knew I needed to go pretty big and pretty detailed. Since I dont have my train layout tables anymore, I had to improvise. I connected the two tables in my garage with large doweling rods, hot glue, and tape. While it wont hold lots of weight, it is perfect for the setup.

The Birdhouse How-To
 

After connecting the tables, I got the computer desk stand up part and laid it down with more hot glue. I have used this big wooden piece for several of my layouts. I suggest you secure one from your local dumpster or place of work. This shot is actually before I pulled the tables apart and connected them with the doweling rods.



After securing the the wooden piece, I laid down the base flooring, which is foamboard pieces. I had to buy some new ones because some of the ones I had were warped. They get all wavy after you spray paint them.



After the base flooring is laid down, I put down the side building that would become the "bunkhouse." It kind of looks like a cinder block, but it is a wooden box that I got from a thrift store. It had metal dividers and the lady at the store said it was "magic trick box." It was painted blue and had really crappy stars and rabbits painted on it. Stone texture spray paint covered it up nicely and goes over the wood grain to make it look just like concrete. I added the Tech Deck stair pieces to access the eventual roof. They are not affixed to allow access to the rooms. The "L" shaped wall in front of it is the drawer holder from an old BBQ grill, spray painted.

This is one of the garage bays. It used to be a toy oven. I got it from a thrift store for 3 dollars. After removing the door and bottom and painting it with stone texture, it looks pretty good for a garage type space. I removed the top and drilled holes to add lights. You can see it in the left of the picture in the previous post.



I held the lights down with tape and then hot glued it all together, so they wouldn't move. I hope they aren't the cheap lights that will all stop working if one bulb goes out. That would really suck.