A recent commission was for a garden lighthouse. It had to be tall, and light up automatically when dark. This is the result, it is made from (mostly) 3mm ply which I hand sawed and assembled in my shed. It was first designed using a 3D modelling application, and then each piece converted to a 2D design so that some of the smaller parts could be laser cut (e.g. the windows and door). The roof is made from 3mm ply and then covered in copper foil. With time it should age nicely and turn green. The whole thing stands at just over 1m tall.
The lighthouse contains a very simple circuit to control the light (a single led inside the top part), a photoresistor and a solar cell to recharge the three AA batteries inside. The solar cell and photoresistor can be seen below, and on the far right you can just about see the little circuit board:
The whole thing took about 3 days to construct, then another few days to paint. I used exterior gloss for the white bits (after having first primed the wood) and then I sprayed the red with acrylic enamel.
If you would like one (similar or new design), then please contact me for details. Keep in mind they take a while to construct!