Good Source For Ccfl's For Lighting Up Stuff?

[David Hingtgen]

Not sure quite which forum to put this in, but since CCFL's are popular among case modders, I figure this is it (being the quasi-gaming forum). Anyways, I'm looking at some CCFL's for lighting up model starships, since my preferred EL sheeting supplier is no more and no other brand will do.

However, too many CCFL kits have too much extra stuff, or big inverters, or excess mounts/covers at the ends of the tubes, etc.

Basically, I want to get just the tube itself (with leads) and an inverter, and nothing more, as every millimeter counts in installation space. (As in, packed inside the 0.5 inch wide warp nacelles of a plastic model kit) I've only found one place that sells "raw" tubes so far, but they only have white, and I want "spaceship engine blue". There's plenty of cheap CCFL and LED kits in the auto aisle of Wal-Mart etc, but I don't want to disassemble them for parts, especially without having detailed specs. Also, I'd like a 7.5 to 8 inch tube, whereas I can generally only find 6 and 9 inch. And 4.5 inch tubes or so. Almost every length seems to exist, but actually finding them for sale is hard.

Or, if anyone knows of rather easily disassembled brands (or with the least excess stuff attached to the tube itself) available at Autozone etc, that'd be helpful.

PS--rapid light-up to full brightness is highly preferred, some brands seem to take a while.