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What's your favorite taillight red and orange paints


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I use the Testors paints as well, except I have the enamels.

 

Steve

I think they might make the Turn Signal Amber in acryl, but I use the enamel. I've never seen Testor or Model Master Clear Red in enamel, only the acryl. I used to use their Stop Light Red enamel, but like the Clear Red acryl better.

I've also been known to do red lights with a red Sharpie in some cases, and that's worked great. One good use for that is "darkening" old JoHan taillights.

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I think they might make the Turn Signal Amber in acryl, but I use the enamel. I've never seen Testor or Model Master Clear Red in enamel, only the acryl. I used to use their Stop Light Red enamel, but like the Clear Red acryl better.

I've also been known to do red lights with a red Sharpie in some cases, and that's worked great. One good use for that is "darkening" old JoHan taillights.

Testors does make the Turn Signal Amber in Acryl.  I have some.

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Just like others I use the Tamiya transparent paints in the little glass jars.  But sometimes I feel that I need to spray them on too thick to get the desired darker shades of red or amber.  I have just recently picked up a set of Alclad II transparent paints to try (but haven't yet). They seem to have much denser colors and should go on very thin.  But Alclad II is a "hot" lacquer so I'm afraid it might craze the more delicate clear styrene. I'll be sure to try them on a piece of clear runner before spraying any actual parts.

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And remember, there's amber and then there's amber. Some of it is in the yellow/gold range (like the Testor/MM color) and some of it is of a definite orange tint.

I used to have a bottle of "Turn Signal Orange," which was TSA to which I'd added some red or orange or something. I either used it up or it dried out years ago. Now if I'm doing "yellow amber," I use the Testor/MM TSA over a base of white or yellow. For "orange amber," I'll first paint the lens Testor Orange and then put a thin layer of TSA over that.

Sadly, Tamiya paints aren't available in my area anymore, or I'd be giving more of them a try.

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Model Master Turn Signal Amber and Model Master Clear Red Acryl.

Ditto here, particularly if the taillight, turnsignal and side marker lights are no more than just engravings on the chrome parts (or engraved on the body shell to be foiled).  Reason?  Real taillight lenses, particularly on cars before taillights had any real sort of reflector inside, do not appear bright red, nor transparent.  Stoplight red, applied a bit thickly, most closely resembles taillight lenses that are darkened, no light bulb shining behind them.  It's much the same, for me at least, with amber turnsignals.   Now, on the other hand, IF the taillight and/or turn signal lenses are open behind them, done in translucent plastic--THEN often Tamiya's Clear Red and Clear Yellow come out much more realistic, IMO.

Art

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IMG 0315

Sharpie over BMF!  Note that many tail lights have a chrome border and several color lenses.  Here we used a white paint marker for back up lights and red and orange Sharpies for the lenses.  This works well with multi color lenses that are molded in red. Just wrap it in BMF.

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Orange Sharpie! I'll have to look for one of those. Never thought about that before.

What's everyone's favorite "recipe" for backup lights and clear parking lights that are molded in chrome? I've done them in white, and Aluminum, and my latest experiments have been with Testor White Lightning (white pearl) over flat white primer, which is getting closer but still not what I'm looking for. Any other ideas?

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