Taillight upgrade - suggestions needed

[Monty]

I'm building AMT's '65 Galaxie which has solid chrome taillights.  Most people just paint the 4 sections of each taillight red, as seen here, but not me.

I'm going to Dremel those sections out and put a piece of clear red styrene behind it.  

What can I put behind the red plastic to give it a reflective effect?  Seems like BMF isn't as shiny on the adhesive side and I'm not sure if using Molotow will give me the effect I'm looking for (haven't bought any yet).

[Smoke Wagon]

I haven’t tried this, but maybe a piece of aluminum foil with the shiny side pressed against the clear red plastic would be reflective enough to do the trick.

[Fat Brian]

Molotow isn't reflective on the reverse side so I would advise against it. I typically cover the back side of red plastic lenses with bare metal foil, it's the most reflective thing I've found.

[espo]

I would suggest the BMF as I have seen others use it and they seemed pleased with it. Another idea is to use the aluminum foil type used inside of cigarette packaging. One side has a quilted type of finish.  

[Casey]

Maybe a fellow member has a set of the earlier tail lights and separate bezels they'd part with?:

[peteski]

BMF should be shiny enough.  If you ever took a taillight apart you would likely notice that the reflector isn't mirrored (like in headlights) but a satin silver finish. But a flat silver surfac is not ideal. If you really want to make them look realistic you will need to scratchbuild a reflector to imitate one in the 1:1 car, then apply silver finish of your choice.   Then place that reflector behind the red lens.  That will give it the depth and the light will reflect like it does in the 1:1 taillight. Also remember that the lens is not just smooth lens - it has striations which also change the overall reflectivity.

I have made reflectors for head and taillights for this model.  I don't have a photo handy of the back, ut you can see that the surface behind the lens is not just flat.  I actually also installed piece of clear rod painted clear amber for the directionals. This all doesn't not show very well in photos, but in-person it looks very realistic.

 

[Fat Brian]

Another idea is to use Tamiya clear red paint and build up a few layers until you get kind of a lens effect.

[Russell C]

3 hours ago, peteski said:

... If you really want to make them look realistic you will need to scratchbuild a reflector to imitate one in the 1:1 car ...

Ditto. That's what gives any scale light a good reflective effect, an actual parabolic reflector behind the lens. My 911 Turbo illustrates that, where the wide central piece on the 1:1 car has no reflector behind it since it doesn't light up, while each individual light does. So what I did to recreate that was a bit of a chore in such a small space, but still worked out well, was to use adhesive backed chrome mylar sticker material (which is good for mirrors, too) within really tiny rectangle boxes for the backup lights / stop lights. Then I carved out a 'bowl shape' in the body for the turn signals and covered that with Bare Metal Foil that I buffed out to a super shiny chrome appearance with SimiChrome polish.

You'd have to experiment a bit on how to create a reflector behind the lenses you have, but at least it's a bigger area to work with.

[deuces wild]

Pop Tart foil... it's reflective on both sides....

[ChrisBcritter]

Here you go, Monty:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334348604487

Edited March 2, 2022 by ChrisBcritter