Hasegawa "Graduated Windshield Tint" Review

[StevenGuthmiller]

Hi everyone.

I know there have been a couple of guys interested in this product, and I just gave it my first try and thought you might like to know how it went.

 

Basically, these are "dry transfers".

The individual strips need to be cut from the sheet with a sharp Exacto blade and lifted with a tweezers.

Don't try to use these using your fingers.

The adhesive is so strong that it would be nearly impossible to manipulate them with your fingers.

 

The instructions call for spraying the glass with water to facilitate positioning.

Well, as you can imagine, this is difficult as the water has a tendency to bead up on the bare clear plastic.

You just need to do the best that you can.

 

The fact that the vinyl is very thin and the adhesive very strong can make positioning quite difficult, but luckily, it can be lifted and moved multiple times without degrading the adhesive.

Once in place, it's easily burnished down with a Q-tip and trimmed with an Exacto blade

The results are actually very good!

 

I will offer one warning.

I generally like to add a light overall tint to the entire glass with Testors #2949 "Transparent Black Window Tint" before adding the tint across the top of the glass.

This didn't work because repositioning the decal pulled the window tint from the glass.

Then I tried to apply the window tint after the decal.

I had no luck with this technique either as the tint pooled slightly in a thin line at the edge of the decal leaving a dark line at the bottom.

 

I have a couple of more ideas that I will try later to see if things work a little better and will post photos of the finished product when I have perfected it.

But at this point, the product looks very promising.

 

 

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Foxer]

Very interesting, Steve. I like that you can pull it up and reposition.

 

Any pics of how it looks?

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, Foxer said:

Very interesting, Steve. I like that you can pull it up and reposition.

 

Any pics of how it looks?

Well, one of my thoughts was to try using Windex instead of water on the glass to guard against beading.

That didn't work either.

It destroyed the adhesive on the transfer.

 

So, it was back to the basics and just apply it as per the instructions, with water, and it looks quite nice.

 

 

Steve

 

 

[BVC500]

It does! Thanks for the review.

[Yahshu]

Thank you for the review, I just bought some last week & was wondering how to use it. 

[TooOld]

That does look good !  The bottom edge of the transfer is visible but for those without an airbrush this looks like a good alternative .

[StevenGuthmiller]

On 9/5/2019 at 5:51 AM, TooOld said:

That does look good !  The bottom edge of the transfer is visible but for those without an airbrush this looks like a good alternative .

The bottom edge is visible in these close up photos on a white background, but you will never notice it with the naked eye once installed with an interior behind it.

 

 

Steve

[kelson]

I found in my stash some old Detail Master windshield tint decals,they don't look to bad but the Hasegawa ones look much better.

[Anglia105E]

Thanks for posting this article on the Hasegawa Graduated Windshield Tint, Steve...... and it is a product that I would very much like to try out. Back in the late 1970's I used to own a 1968 Pontiac Parisienne  4-door RHD (Canada) but so far I have not been able to find a kit in either 1:24 or 1:25 scale for the 4-door version of this car. The Pontiac Parisienne was pale yellow with a brown vinyl roof and a green graduated windshield tint along the top edge of the screen.

David

[gbt216]

Boy, this sure looks a lot easier than the RIT dye method I've used and have been more frustrated with than not (i.e. clear coating the windshield, then dunking the inverted windshield in a heated mix of RIT dye, gradually pulling it out little by little to create a graduated tint gradient - what a headache, and slow!).

gt

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

7 hours ago, gbt216 said:

Boy, this sure looks a lot easier than the RIT dye method I've used and have been more frustrated with than not (i.e. clear coating the windshield, then dunking the inverted windshield in a heated mix of RIT dye, gradually pulling it out little by little to create a graduated tint gradient - what a headache, and slow!).

gt

 

I wondered how this was done.

 

I was prompted to try the dye method several years ago, but clear coat was never mentioned.

As you can imagine, I had no luck!!

 

 

Steve

[bisc63]

That looks WAY better than I would expect for that attachment method! Cool stuff, but in your pics, at least on my screen it looks a bit bluer than I'd prefer. Is it perhaps more green and less saturated in person? Very curious to try this! Thanks for posting.

[StevenGuthmiller]

27 minutes ago, bisc63 said:

That looks WAY better than I would expect for that attachment method! Cool stuff, but in your pics, at least on my screen it looks a bit bluer than I'd prefer. Is it perhaps more green and less saturated in person? Very curious to try this! Thanks for posting.

It does look a bit stark on a white, (actually more of a dirty yellow and poorly lighted) background, but I did do a little test fitting with the other parts of the model and it appears that it will be less apparent and more subtle when installed on the finished build.

With any luck, I will be able to post some photos of the finished product installed in the model in the not too distant future.

 

 

Steve

Edited September 10, 2019 by StevenGuthmiller