they way that the neon lenses glow around the edges, is that because of the button leds, or do they do that with just the VFD lit up

From DarkStorm's front page:

"Although this effect is visible in normal light, it's especially vibrant if your player has Brian Mihulka's backlit button kit installed"

If you want to see what the faces look like in different lightning conditions, please do as recommended on DarkStorm's pages and click here. Those pictures show what it looks like indoors without the backlit buttons.