My Sleigh

Kitman

Full time elf
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
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Munno Para
Hey All,
I was having a discussion in the forums the other night about how I might be able to fix up this sleigh that I bought from overseas.
I was expecting to get a sleigh that was multi coloured, however I ended up with an all white sleigh and a massive bill from customs etc that was almost equal to the cost of the sleigh. Needless to say wasn't happy and couldn't send it back without more cost, so I am stuck with a white sleigh.


I was tossing around the idea of maybe trying to paint the sleigh red or multiple colours, maybe using paint that they use for stained glass, however it's a big area and the pots of paint aren't big (45ml I think). This may work however it will be a big job and I may not get the desired result and may ruin it completely.


It was suggested that I maybe change over all the lights for RGB lights, however the sleigh is covered in an acrylic of some kind and there is now no easy way to get at the lights.


I am looking for some out of the box ideas on what I might be able to do to make this sleigh really pop this year with some nice colour, so if anyone has any ideas feel free to throw them out there.


I have attached some images so you can see what I mean, I hope.
 

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lizardking

IT IS STILL ALL BENS FAULT
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Dec 26, 2014
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Gold Coast
i would just use pixels for colour and try to run them where ever they can be hidden and if need be get some christmas toys to put in the sleigh to hide the wiring
 

Bird

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Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
I have seen this type of product before. There is no way to change the lighting without destroying it. Painting it will ruin it as well (even with glass paint I would think). I would experiment with temporally attached RGB on the inside area of the sleigh to see how it might look. Personally I like the current look but adding a little color might be nice as well. An RGB flood inside might be nice as well.
 

mborg10

Michael Borg
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Dec 28, 2011
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claremont meadows
How about just keep the sleigh as is. Looks delicate but making a platform for it to sit on. You could make it out of Coro or acrylic and put some pixel modules or spot lights in the platform to make he platform change colour.

Or surround it with some Coro presents like talk2coxie made..
 

fasteddy

I have C.L.A.P
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Albion Park NSW
I hope you didnt get the cheap one as this will turn yellow within 1 season from what ive seen with some commercial customers that use these. Unfortunatly there is some real junk out there that cant withstand the outdoors.
But replacing the lights will be a difficult task, so i would look at other ways to light this up, use spot/flood lights or else add additional colour changing lights and still also use the existing lights
 

Kitman

Full time elf
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
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395
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Munno Para
Thank you all for your replies, certainly some good ideas there.


Just a bit more information regarding my sleigh.


I do also like the look of the sleigh, but when it is sitting with 9 reindeer that are also white, it is a lot of white so wanted to try breaking it up, I have some green rope light and red rope light I might use as reins which will help.


Making a platform for it to sit on might not be very easy as I mount this on the roof of my house which is difficult in itself let alone trying to get a platform on the roof also, however I may be able to do something with that. Was going to make some presents to sit in the back, or a big santa sack, not sure how to make a sack though lol


It is pretty delicate just putting it on the roof and taking it down last year I have already broken some of the plastic on the sleigh, not enough to be noticeable but I know over time more bits will break, not looking forward to that.


As for getting the cheap one, well lets just say it wasn't cheap for the actual sleigh cost me way too much anyway and then freight and unexpected customs charges almost doubled the cost. It has actually already been out for 1 season and some of the rope light on the inside is turning a little yellow, however the outside is still clear as the day I got it so I hope it doesn't degrade quickly, however I will still atleast have the metal frame that I can wrap in lights again.


I might use a multicolour string I have laying around just to see how it might look with different lights etc behind it will keep you all updated with how I go.


And if anyone else has more ideas I am open to them
 

Karob

Let there be Light!
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Messages
211
Location
Mawson Lakes, South Australia
Hey

I would try a Red flood light onto the sleigh and see what kind of effect it gives, at least that way you don't damage the structure and you will be able to add some color to it.

I have a green spot light if you want to try something out, I am at Mawson Lakes so not too far to try out.

Rob
 

Kitman

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Oct 25, 2014
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Thank you all for the suggestions. Yes it is a wire frame underneath all of the acrylic wrap. The wire frame is actually flat bar and not round wire. However I am not keen on stripping it right back considering I paid $750 just for the sleigh, without any shipping charges and customs costs etc that I didn't anticipate and wasn't aware I was going to have to pay, so needless to say I want to keep it in tact as long as possible.


Still have to test with some other lights yet.
 

Kitman

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Oct 25, 2014
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Munno Para
I think I may have found my solution to how I can get some colour into this piece without too many issues.


I was trawling the interwebs (As we all do) and I managed to stumble across a form talking about Christmas Lights (funny how that happens) where someone was talking about a product called Metalcast, this peak my interest as it is a transparent paint used for mainly automotive stuff, mainly for adding a different colour to chrome surfaces.


Did some more digging and found a video of the stuff being used on a chrome air filter, and I must say the results looked pretty good, according to this forum (can't remember now what forum) some of the members have used this paint over their white LED lights to change the colour of them and it has worked great.


Did some more searching and managed to find out that Supercheap auto sell this fantastic paint. Went into my local store and picked up a can of this http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Dupli-Color-Metalcast-Aerosol-Paint-Enamel-Red-Anodised-311g.aspx?pid=105536#Recommendations


I have masked up one of the sides of my sleigh (the side that isn't really visible) and given it a once over. Set it aside to dry and now the long wait till tomorrow before I can actually plug in some power and see how it looks.


Will post some pictures once done so you can all see how it has worked. Could be good for people that want to change the colour of their single colour lights. They have multiple different colours so could be a good thing and only $20 a can too.
 

Boomer#6

No magic smoke yet!!
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
77
Location
Goodna Qld
Supercheap also have translucent red lens paint called Nite-shades for re-colouring faded stop lights on cars. It's excellent for re-colouring rope light
image.jpg
 

i13

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Jul 5, 2013
Messages
1,172
This may work fine but I just want to point out that LEDs with coloured covers are pretty much always coloured LEDs to start with. The reason for this is you'll get a noticeable drop in brightness when you filter out all components of the white light except for the colour you want.
 
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