Paul, again I'm so sorry regarding my provided information.
I get angry everytime I try to answer a question in a forum where not much information about the problem is posted and in this case I'm not any better... 
I want to use a PCB to have my LEDs in a fixed position but I haven't designed it yet.
Yeah you got it! All the LEDs in every cluster are hooked up parallel in order to have them illuminating at the same amount of brightness.
And on top of this the LED-clusters within every full light bar is hooked up parallel too.
Again - YES! The pattern the LEDs should fade should be identical in every single of the bars. But I want to try to have the pattern at different delays on every full 12-LED-light bar. So the first one starts lets say at when the switch is turned on, the second one maybe half a second later and so on.
I'm so thankful for your information for the NPN! 