I had a whole lot of IHC Signal target faces, since I make my own signals, instead of spending a fortune to but signals, so I put the excess target faces to some good use to make N-Scale or even suitable for HO scale billboard or flood lights.

 

Simply cut the target face to  a 1/4" square (HO) or 0.2" square (N) preserving the hood of the target, because this is what creates the appeal.

 

Bend the LED on a 3/16" or 1/4" mandrel to a 45 degree curve or a bend to suit your specific application. Glue the target face onto the LED with hot melt glue, so it also packs into the spaces around the LED as a filler, so as to create a square or rectangular bulk head.

 

If using IHC brand of target faces, the hole is smaller than 3mm, so it may need to be enlarged to have the LED pop out, if you want to show the bulb or for flush applications just glue the LED and fill in the gap with the holt melt glue.

 

I do not recommend using cyno since it will destroy the face of the LED and make it opaque (unless you want a opaque lens for your lamp). Any color of LED can be used based on preference and application.

 

Solder the resistor and hook up wire. Optionally add a reverse polarity protection diode in series with the resistor and connect to a power source.

 

In my photo, I attempted to mount this on the Z-Scale billboard to test for size, but as you can see it is out of scale for Z, but quite passable for N and HO scales.

 

Materials:

LED 1.8mm (N) or 3mm (HO), bright or warm white

IHC HO signal target faces

Resistor 1K/0.25W

Diode IN4148 (optional to protect against polarity reversal)

Solid strand hook up wire 30 AWG, Red and Black

Black acrylic paint