A challenge for me to make a keychain of the Ludington North Breaker Lighthouse in Michigan produced this. I made the model by taking measurements from various photos on the web. I live in the UK so have never seen it myself.
While looking for keyrings to incorporate into the model I discovered that keyrings with LED lights could be got from China really really cheaply (£0.30 cheap). Just search for LED keychain and you will find hundreds of places selling the type I used (see picture).
I found that printing in grey PLA then painting the tower white with black highlights produced the best results. If I printed the tower in actual white PLA it was too translucent and the whole tower glowed white instead of the light just going out the top. A bit of the white paint up the hollow inside bit helps channel the light up as well. The top inner cone I painted green as that is the colour of the real light I believe. I tried fitting a green LED but I could not find one bright enough.
I went through about 7 different versions of this model to get the model to grip the keychain just right and the rest of the model to channel the light.
Even if you don't find this light house that interesting, it might give you an idea to use those cheap keychain lights!
Printer:
Flux Delta
Rafts:
No
Supports:
No
Resolution:
0.15
Infill:
20%
