That's a good idea, and I'll probably end up doing that. It'll be a slight squeeze, but nothing too bad.
Blinkenlights! As I said on the discord, it's just one mesh for all the 32 lights, with a detail texture set to Scale and using the Step UV mapping, to go through a sheet with the brightnesses for the lamps. 8 different patterns, so 4 lights per pattern.
They look quite good actually in game, too!