tail lights

[Vampira]

What are you all using to scratch red tail light lenses?

[stitchdup]

smashed up 1/1 tail lights, 90s cars have the thickest plastic but more recent cars tend to be smooth plastic without dimples.

[Vampira]

26 minutes ago, stitchdup said:

smashed up 1/1 tail lights, 90s cars have the thickest plastic but more recent cars tend to be smooth plastic without dimples.

Thats a hell of an idea. Thanks

[NOBLNG]

Yep. You can find amber ones for front turn signals too.

[peteski]

You can also use clear plastic, then once the taillight is shaped paint it with one of the transparent red hobby paints. Like we have to do when kit's taillights are molded in clear plastic.

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 3/27/2024 at 3:35 PM, Vampira said:

What are you all using to scratch red tail light lenses?

Red toothbrush handles, clear red acrylic sheet and rod, red sprue...

sheet:    https://www.ebay.com/itm/223129528702

square rod:        https://www.ebay.com/itm/293306513107

round rod:     https://www.ebay.com/itm/291595083823

Edited April 3 by Ace-Garageguy

[Vampira]

Awesome Thanks. never thought of the toothbrush either,

[bobss396]

We had a make-and-take event at our shows for the little kids. That one year it was snap-kit Monte Carlos. I gathered up the leftover red sprue material and still have a bunch of it. 

I hold it by hand mostly, leave the piece long and shape the tail light using sanding sticks. I go as far as to polish the pieces 100%. Then I razor saw off the finished lens. Hint: If you need 2, make up 3 or 4... on a '49 Ford they are quite small. 

The old '37 Chevy kits came with a red grille section that was curved. I fashioned one of these into '49 Mercury lenses.

[slusher]

Red tabs from file cabnet folders in the school supplies section gives you red and amber. Cuts with scissors.  Also good stuff in the jewelry making section at hobby lobby..

[bobss396]

When I got into the club around 1998, the old guys talked about using red toothbrush handles. I have looked for them now and then with no luck. The search goes on.

[stitchdup]

47 minutes ago, bobss396 said:

When I got into the club around 1998, the old guys talked about using red toothbrush handles. I have looked for them now and then with no luck. The search goes on.

look for the cheap sets, dollar/pound store multi packs usually have various colours

[stavanzer]

The Red Toothbrush Handle trick dates way back into the 1950's-60's. It was a hint in the Fisher Body Craftmans Guild contest handbook for building 1/12 scale "Dream Cars".

More about the Fisher guild here.

https://www.motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2021/remembering-the-fisher-body-craftsman-s-guild

 

https://fisherguild.com/photo-gallery/index.php

 

 

Edited March 29 by stavanzer

[Rattlecan Dan]

I have used colored plastic cocktail stirs in the past. 

[Richard Bartrop]

For small lenses, shavings of clear red sprue dissolved in liquid cement, in a heavy foil mould.  Here's what I used to make Studebaker taillights for a custom '36 Ford.

[4knflyin]

I was, and still may, post a Tips thread on this: UV resin over painted or magic marker colored foil. In this example, it's Tamiya Clear Red, X-27. The 1:20 scale model was positioned to catch the sunlight (on a F1 rain light), but it's not an unfair representation, lol. Okay, maybe a little unfair.

The corrugation is in the part mold, I just used a fingernail to press the foil to follow the lines.

Edited April 2 by 4knflyin

[Can-Con]

Good luck finding a clear red toothbrush. I haven't seen one in over 20 years. 

BUT, go to wall mart and get one of these, should be enough clear red plastic for all the tail light you'd ever want to make.

[peteski]

17 hours ago, 4knflyin said:

I was, and still may, post a Tips thread on this: UV resin over painted or magic marker colored foil. In this example, it's Tamiya Clear Red, X-27. The 1:20 scale model was positioned to catch the sunlight (on a F1 rain light), but it's not an unfair representation, lol. Okay, maybe a little unfair.

The corrugation is in the part mold, I just used a fingernail to press the foil to follow the lines.

That is a good and easy method fro when the lens is thin and flat.  But it will not work for many taillights on passenger cars where the lens sticks out away from the body.

 

 

[4knflyin]

2 hours ago, peteski said:

That is a good and easy method fro when the lens is thin and flat.  But it will not work for many taillights on passenger cars where the lens sticks out away from the body.

Glad you brought it up since I hadn't thought of that... because I don't build models with protrusions like that. lol. Actually it will work. The coloring can be on the outside and work just as well. No noticeable difference. None, save a loss of sheen.

Shaping of the resin can be done with a mold or a combo of filing, sanding, and polishing. Polishing can be eliminated by sanding to 12000 grit. It's very flexible and hard as a rock (a true oxymoron). I've even used this method on a store-bought, five or six piece, snap together, airliner model for the ID and nav lights (small red/green lights on wingtips), which are akin to what you're talking about.

When coloring on the outside, I still use foil for its reflectivity. The pics I included weren't the final product. So that the layer of resin could easily be identified, I didn't use pics with the edges colored. For the final product, I used a red Sharpie on its edges... and also on its face in pin-point sized spots to correct the base layer where it didn't get colored, or where the coloring got dislodged during the curing process.

Another important thing I'll mention concerns optics. If rounded, it's a convex lens, so in cases less severe than you described (not protruding to such an extreme), you would need to be at well over a 45° angle before you would notice that the coloring is only underneath the lens.

But again, red Sharpie (and green, for that matter) works extremely well. The only disadvantage to using them on the outside, besides the obvious that it can be removed, is that it dulls the glass-like appearance of the finely polished resin. However, in the case of car lenses, you don't want them to be glass-like... except maybe for those cars made before plastic was invented.

The following were all done without shaping or polishing, and colored with a Sharpie (you can see the foil underneath the blobs of resin if you look closely):

 

Edited April 2 by 4knflyin

[peteski]

Marcus, I was specifically responding to your method which uses colored reflector with clean resin lens.  But as you mentioned, the surface of a clear resin lens can be colored with some transparent color paint or ink.

Like you mentioned, Sharpies dry to a dull finish. That is why I use transparent paint from Tamiya.  It dries to a glossy finish.

[4knflyin]

20 minutes ago, peteski said:

... Like you mentioned, Sharpies dry to a dull finish. That is why I use transparent paint from Tamiya.  It dries to a glossy finish.

Agreed, clear paint is shinier. But on the outside, it still dulls the appearance.

Important for anybody considering the UV resin method, Sharpies dull the surface from a glass-like sheen, but they're still pretty shiny... just look at the pics of the airliner. Give it test, I think you'll find it useful in some of your craftwork. 

 

Edited April 2 by 4knflyin

[peteski]

Not to start an argument, but Tamiya clear red applied over a clear resin casting will be at least as glossy as your rotary beacon.

[oldcarfan]

I often use Sharpies to color clear light lenses. They come in red, yellow, and orange. The red ones are obvious, but the orange ones look amber when used for turn signals. The yellow ones work pretty well for fog lights.

[4knflyin]

8 minutes ago, peteski said:

Not to start an argument, but Tamiya clear red applied over a clear resin casting will be at least as glossy as your rotary beacon.

We are both arguing our points, and there's wrong with that. I don't take it as belligerent. I think in the case of this quote of yours, you read my post too quickly. I agreed with you:

34 minutes ago, 4knflyin said:

Agreed, clear paint is shinier. But on the outside, it still dulls the appearance. ...

Piece.

[peteski]

If one uses resin to make truly realistic looking colored lenses, the resin itself can be colored with color tints. I use SmoothOn brand 2-part crystal clear resin and I also  use their tints.  You add tiny bit of the tint to the resin and the entire resin (not just the surface, or the reflector) has the correct color.  The tint does not affect the smoothness of the surface.

[Ace-Garageguy]

23 hours ago, Can-Con said:

Good luck finding a clear red toothbrush. I haven't seen one in over 20 years. 

They still make 'em, though they're not as ubiquitous as they used to be.

  

EDIT: Members who suggested dollar stores for these, or other handles from Walmart, etc. have good ideas, but when you can buy high-quality transparent red acrylic plastic sheet- and rod-stock in small quantities, why anyone would still want to mess with consumer-goods handles of some unknown material eludes me.

Edited April 3 by Ace-Garageguy