I did colored led's in the fellowship inserts, and a color changer in palantir.

20-most-hilarious-movie-poster-remakes.jpg

Stick one in the ring flasher

Slippery slope here, vader1979. In general, LED'ing typically isn't a "only a couple areas" type of thing. After doing a few, you'll likely want to finish the job. It's not a bad thing, though. LEDs, when tastefully done look great, particularly in Sterns.

I really like the Cointaker 2-LED cool white and warm white for GI. I rarely use colors for GI. Warm and cool whites will complement the existing artwork without saturating it. Warms are good for yellows, oranges, and reds. Cools are good for whites, blues, and greens. The 2-LEDs do a decent job of spreading the light without being overpowering. Frosted LEDs do better for spreading light, but are a little weaker.

Order a handful of 2-LEDs and frosted from Cointaker, then take it from there. Have fun and good luck!

EDIT: I don't have a LOTR, but here's a recent Iron Man that I did. I did some blue and red in the GI where appropriate, but it's mostly whites.

rlj8R.jpg

There is no tasteful way to change the color of the GI lighting in LOTR.

i have always had a strict 'black-tie required' when playing any LE models in my home policy.

adds class!

-jon - reciprocal nyc

IMG_0136.jpg

Ding ding ding. We have a winner.

I did color bulbs under the fellowship characters and a few bolds or color condoms on GI for mood like red in mordor and green near hobbiton.

The only LED is a color changer for Palantir.

GI color changes can work in other pins, but LOTR is an overwhelmingly red game. Red + other colors just doesn't work, IMO.

I'm a huge led fan, but IMHO LOTR is one game that just looks wrong with led's.
I've yet to see one with led's that looks good. Maybe all warm white bulbs and a color changer
for Palantir???

Yes

The right LEDs are fantastic in LOTR guys...you can do a nice job on LOTR but you have to take your time. Non ghosting LED's under the inserts and use the same color. NO LEDs under the clear inserts. Warm white retros for the GI, but not in any of them where the player can see the bulb directly. Leave standard incandecent in those so the player does not get any glare in their eyes.

If you wanna start slow start with colored LEDs under your green inserts and warm retro under the slings. Just keep moving up from there.

I only have a few LEDs in any of the inserts (color flasher in Palantir and Mode start), because the fading effects are very prominent on this game and they are ruined with LEDs.

But I do have a lot of LEDs in the GI. I agree with others, a lot of different colors on LOTR will not look good. I have a lot of orange LEDs in the top portion of the PF. It gives a kind of fiery glow, which perfectly compliments the theme in my opinion. I have one green super bright in the far left of the backboard shining down on the PotD. I have a mix of orange and white in the rest of the backboard.

Currently have some warm white and cool white LEDs under the slings, but I'm not happy with the look, so I'm going to have to figure something else out...possibly just going back to incandescents there.

I have all amber incandescents behind the mode Ring on the backboard.

If I were to go LEDs, I was looking a the premium non ghosting from CT. But was curious on frosted, regular or 2-led versions... Which? And warm whites or pure whites under the white inserts? People say warm looks good with yellows, oranges and reds.... And LOTR has a ton of that, but I do like the contrast and pop a pure white gives you...

Part of my decision is to try and save some stress nd heat on the power driver board. Is that really a valid concern for going led over incandescent on LOTR from 2003?

bump as I want to buy in the next hour! Thanks

In general, LEDs are too harsh for LoTR. Colored incandescent is the way to go, with a few LED highlights (dead guys, wraiths, palantir):

IMG_0035-1.JPG IMG_0040-1.jpg

Replace the black post sleeves with the orange Cliffy sleeves and that will give you all the touch of matching/tasteful color that you need.

http://www.passionforpinball.com/colorpost2/LOTR_Cliffy_02.JPG

Led's - IMO I would say only on the spotlights and under the palantir insert and globe. Maybe the mode start, but thats it. LOTR is definately NOT an led type game and I have no problems with leds in general.

Okay, just ordered colored incandescent from PBL. I kind of like the idea of putting some blues in the GI down around the flipper lanes and leaving slingshots green. I'll have to mess around a see how it looks.

It's all a matter of taste and opinion.

The green lights you have under the slings looks out of place to me.

Yeah, I finally succumbed to LED madness and fully converted almost all of my games...but not LOTR. I've thought about *maybe* doing some warm whites in the GI but honestly I think I'd just be wasting money/time. I started to do my other games cuz they just looked "weird" and "old" when I got AC/DC Prem and X-Men LE. However, LOTR still looks great with its stock bulbs...the golden glow absolutely works with the theme, art, and ramps...and as Rob said, the fading FX are much better with incandescent. I LED'd my TSPP, which is a fellow Whitestar game, and a trade-off was the smooth fades....however, the striking colors and brightness gained on TSPP made it a worthwhile trade-off IMO. Dunno if LOTR would feel like a worthwhile trade-off.

Yes, of course its my opinion. IMO, everything I post is my opinion. IMO, I shouldn't have to specifically say IMO in order for you to know its my opinion. And the green rocks... IMO of course.

thinking of using frosted white under most in mine, want the game to be brighter...and a color changer in the palantir....love this thread and perfect timeing....also found a sweet layout of IM almost like mine...Now someone needs to post about LEDs in a TSPP...

In just about every thread on here when LEDs and LOTR comes up, people recommend you stick with incandescent about 4. So that's what I'm doing. I just picked up a LOTR and I'm taking out all the frosted CT LEDs (they ghost pretty bad, which is why I wanted to change) and going with colored incandescent.

LOTR has an organic look that uses incandescent fade in the light show, so colored incandescents would be fine but LEDs just don't work, except for one spot: behind the crystal ball.

With every mod you make, you have to ask yourself: am I improving on what the artist and designer created, and am I really a better judge of "taste" than they were?

I don't think colored GI works in any game. If it did, we'd see a lot more pins coming from the factory that way.

I had led's in my RCT and JP. I picked up a LOTR LE last week and thought about led's, but I think I'm sticking to standard bulbs as it looks good as is. Post pics when you install the few you got as I am curious how it will look. The only led I'm doing for sure is the eye flasher from pinball life when they are back in stock. - Barry

No LED's in this shot.

LOTR_Legolas_Shot.JPG

Moar please

My LOTR came with LEDs. What fading effect am I missing without the incadescents? I'm happy with the way the game looks now but feel like I am missing something. Never should have read this thread.

lol

In case you haven't noticed, all new Sterns since AC/DC come with colored GI!

Is that just the LEs, or the Pros too? I was hoping the Pros would continue to use standard 44/555 bulbs.

Here you go. There are no LEDs in this shot...

LOTR_Center_Ramp.JPG

There are a lot of fading light shows in the game. The bulbs smoothly transition on/off. With LEDs, it's a bit of a choppy transition.