Flashing LED circuit with variable intensity

[katieftw]

I'm going to be Samus from Super Metroid for Halloween, and I would like to make a Charge Beam. All the other circuits for this costume are easy peasy; this one for some reason is stumping me (maybe its because this is the first time I've built a circuit in years?)

I'm thinking of using a rheostat to get the variable brightness effect, but I don't know a lot about flashing LEDs. I'd prefer to have a yellow and white LED in parallel, maybe with white flashing and variable yellow? Maybe? I'm brainstorming for now and I'd love to hear some other ideas on how I could possibly do this.

I'm new here - any excellent posts that already address this? If so I apologize for being redundant.

[blackmask]

umm...this link may help you.... Here is the circuit for a portable electric lamp-cum-LED flasher. It uses a 25W, 230V AC bulb and nine LEDs. When the bulb glows all the LEDs remain ‘off,’ and when the LEDs glow the bulb remains ‘off.’ [url]http://www.elxproject.com/elx/news.php?readmore=178[/url]