RAF Searchlight
and here is the same disk, only with a strip of paper wrapped round it. The paper is glued with UHU or something similar between the strips, and is wrapped round about 4 or 5 times. Put no glue on the part of the paper which touches the battery! A little bit of UHU at the top secures the plastic disk. It would be better to use thick black paper, if you can find any...
First we find some mains copper wire (from a skip?). Thickish, about 1/16" wide.
Put it on a flat surface and hit it with a hammer. It will magically turn into a flat strip. If it doesn't, hit it harder...
Here is the plastic disk balanced on the top of an AA battery...
This shows you the horseshoe shape you should get.
Next, find a thickish bit of plastic from the kitchen waste, and cut a 1/2" diameter disk from it...
To make a reflector, mould a little dome of kitchen foil over a small round ball. I had a hammer....
And the searchlight body is completed with a disk of balsa in the back.
Meanwhile, the horseshoe-shaped wire is soldered into the nearest brass bolt-head....
The component parts. A couple of re-inforcing strips of paper have been put round the searchlight. Try not to get too much glue everywhere, you will only have to pick it off later...
How wide do you want your searchlight? I guessed that 1/2" was about right for the Crash Tender, and an AA battery is about that.
So put the wire in a vice and bend it around the battery, keeping the flat strip vertical.
And here is the basic searchlight. Ok, I'll wrap the paper strips better next time! Spray paint and glue the light into the saddle mount, then make a hole and bolt it onto the Crash Tender roof.
