How to get "warm white" garden solar lamps

Garden solar lamps are available in many sizes and shapes. It so happens, that the cheapest of them look more-or-less like G-scale sized street lamps. They're not really that beautiful but considering their price it would be a sin not to use them on your layout... At least until you can afford something better...

So they're less than $1 per piece and they work pretty well. Unfortunately I could not find them in "warm white" flavour. At first I thought I was fine with "cold white" but once I saw them on the layout I couldn't stand the colour and I knew I had to do something about this.

So let's try to turn the "cold" solar lamps into "warm" ones...

Opening the housing reveals a very simple electrical circuit. The LED we want to exchange is clearly visible. It almost feels like it's meant to be replaced.

Unsoldering the element takes 5 seconds. No special equipment or skills are required.

The "warm" LEDs can be ordered on Ebay or anywhere else. I got a bag of 100 of those for less than $3 with free international shipping from China.

Soldering the new LED takes another 5 seconds. Again - no special skills required, just remember that the polarity matters (test before soldering).

And voilà - the first upgraded solar lamp with "warm white" light is ready. Only four more to go and I can start working on the platform for my train station :)