rankodd Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Hi! I'm about to embark on the path of creating a variety of n-scale lighting accessories - including streetlights, traffic lights, and railroad signals. I've just about got everything sorted, except for how to make lenses for the lights - like the glass bit of the street light, or to round off an SMD LED so it looks more like a signal lamp. It doesn't have to be completely transparent - I think a bit of diffusion is a good thing, as the LEDs tend to put out way too much light in a scale situation. Does anyone have suggestions for good material? I'm mostly thinking about epoxy, which would be horribly messy, or even white glue... Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Rankodd, ive noodled on this some as well. one thought has been to see if tamia makes a clear version of their thick translucent paints. i was going to experiment with nice thick clear acrylic nail polish, there are some meant to go on thick to build up a thick clear coat fast. might be a lot easier than trying to shape your own materials at 1mm x 2mm or less for a streetlight lens! cheers jeff Link to comment
marknewton Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Or you could look at the range of model lenses made by MV Products. Their smallest is 1.17mm in diameter. Cheers, Mark. Link to comment
Tenorikuma Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Some types of cyanoacrylate glue become solid, clear plastic once set. Link to comment
Martijn Meerts Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 I know that for the Faller Car system cars that get lights and such added to them, they tend to use epoxy. Seems to work quite well, and looks good. Link to comment
CaptOblivious Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 the website ngineering.com (cool place!) sells this stuff called Gallery Glass that's supposed to be really good for making lenses. Anyone else ever use it, 'cause I'm thinking about getting some myself… http://www.ngineering.com/helpful.htm Link to comment
rankodd Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 the website ngineering.com (cool place!) sells this stuff called Gallery Glass that's supposed to be really good for making lenses. Anyone else ever use it, 'cause I'm thinking about getting some myself… http://www.ngineering.com/helpful.htm That's perfect! Exactly what I was looking for! Even better, they don't sell it. It apparently isn't a special product, and can be acquired at major craft stores - specifically mentioned is Micheals, a store of which I have 2 of within driving distance! Michaels even has a 25% off coupon this week. Bonus! Aaaaand, gallery glass isn't showing in Michaels website. An internal link from another product (a howto video) goes to a 404. Alas, I may have to order it from Plaid directly: http://www.plaidcraftexpress.com/product/Gallery+Glass+Window+Color+2+oz+1.aspx Interestingly enough, their product locator says that Wall Mart AND Micheals carry it. I'll have to do some exploring. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 DOH!!! i had found that a while back at ngineering and was meaning to take a look for it at michaels (its a bit further than the ac moore so i dont frequent it as much) and completely forgot about it! yes this looks to be the perfect stuff and perfect for another little idea im fiddling with that requires some clear to be added to something already clear... have that 25% off right here as well! thanks captain for poking those neurons! jeff ps do poke around at ngineering, some fantastic stuff there thats hard to get elsewhere, reasonable prices and very nice folks. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 ok turns out michaels has a good selection of the small tubes. i picked up a bottle of clear. the red did not look like a good red for tail lights/reflectors. it is acrylic base so it might work to tint with a touch of red. also while at ac moore i grabbed a small bottle of a thick, clear lacquer to play with and at the dollar store a bottle of clear nail polish. i have some thick ac glue as well. time to play! another thought was gel medium. you can get really thick stuff that dries translucent and holds shape. they also have this with small glass beads in them (not sure how small) that give a little sparkle, might give that faceted lens look on streetlights... only issue is a small bottle of these is like $10, but you can get with your half off coupon at acmoore! cheers jeff Link to comment
CaptOblivious Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 Not the right color red? Could you say more? Because that's why I want the stuff :D Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 sorry, there was sort of a pinkish red and a more sort of sickly red. not the reds you usually see for tail lights, reflectors, etc. on that note i did pick up a bottle of bright red (pretty good reflector red) nail polish at the dollar store that has a some glitter in it (very fine) to see if tiny dots of it will look the right color and the tiny bit of glitter give it that faceted look and stand out better. while you really dont notice tail lights on cars at any distance, ive noticed that the lighter colored cars where the tail lights stand out more on the architectural cars actually look like there is more detail than the darker cars where the red paint they use pretty much disappears when you look at it from a foot or more away. one of those model things where fudging it might make them look more detailed. another thing i think will be to put some light colored paper inside the cars as the black bottom makes all the windows look tinted even thought they are clear! ill dot some on my architectural cars to give them a test and report back. cheers jeff Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 ok i just set up a test of a street lamp type lens on the end of a tooth pick. stuff smells just like a glass of scotch! pretty much the consistancy of white glue. takes 8hrs to dry. looks like there may be a couple of reds that would be good for reflectors and tail lights, but those were not at our michaels http://www.plaidonline.com/productDetail.asp?itemID=16008 cheers jeff Link to comment
marknewton Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 But does it taste like scotch? Cheers, Mark. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 phd in biochemistry/molecular biology, i know better. whipped up all sorts of stuff in the lab that would have some great smells. but I knew what was in it... that being said it has non toxic on the label! at $2.50 for two oz cheaper than scotch! pretty thick and gooey though so would not go down fast! back on the lenses i just grabbed a piece of cardboard here on the worktable to try another paint and noticed i had mixed 5 minute epoxy on it before. the dried epoxy does make a very nice hard clear lens like material. this is all interesting to me as i have a load of tiny tiny smd leds and i was thinking of trying to glue my leads onto them with conductive paint then coat the whole thing with something clear like superglue, acrylic, epoxy to seal it all up as the joint would be pretty weak. even soldering to these tiny guys is pretty small solder joint. cheers jeff 1 Link to comment
rankodd Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 Just got back from my Michaels. I'll tell you - it's a rip off in Canada. $12 for the 8oz bottles, $5 for the 2oz! The ngineering guys said that the "ruby red" colour worked for lenses, reflectors, etc, and that was what they used for their example pic. Was that one of the colours at yours? I hope it works - I got one of the 8oz bottles :( Unfortunately, It'll be a day or two before I can play with it. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 ouch! the 2oz was about $2.50 and the 8oz think like $7.50 nope ruby red was not one of the reds. they only had maybe 60% of the rack stocked. but also these may dry a different color than it looks like in the bottle! i think you will find the 2oz bottle will go a long long way as you just need a drop for a lens. its slowly drying, still kind of milky and im wondering if its sposta have that look to it as stained glass. for clear stuff the epoxy might give a better clear glass look. but street light lenses kind of look milky in the daylight usually and many actually whitish. they do have a number of whites as well. looks to be drying pretty hard. cheers jeff Link to comment
rankodd Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 The only one that's supposed to be a milky colour is the snow white. Apparently all the other colours dry perfectly clear. Their example pic shows amber and "ruby red" reflectors, and a silver thats a metal disc with crystal clear on it. The colours they specified to match signals are Kelly Green, Amber, and Ruby Red. I picked up those three plus crystal clear and snow white. They also had the Testors glue for clear styrene and making small windows/dials. Link to comment
rankodd Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 i think you will find the 2oz bottle will go a long long way as you just need a drop for a lens. I sometimes forget what scale I'm working in :) For example, I order a few hundred little Chinese-made people to put in buildings and for the chopping of legs, etc. The box they came in was so tiny that, before I opened it, I couldn't possibly believe it could hold the 600 figures AND the 250 LEDs. I thought that they'd gone and forgotten half the order :P How did the tests go? Did it dry clear? Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 yep quite clear. good enough to see something is there, but clear enough that you just see what ever color is under it. i was able to make a modern looking street lamp lens on the end of a toothpick. i just cut a small chunk out of half the end of a tootpick, sort of what it would be like if you used tubing and then cut a chunk out of the end of the tubing halfway thru the tubing for an opening below and a sheild of the top for where to put the smd led (how the grain of wheat street lamps are done). then i put a drop of the gallery glass in the cut out area and teased with a tooth pick and teased it into shape. it looks to have shrunk about maybe up to 25% from the wet shape. looks pretty clear, the yellow i think you see in the photos is both from the white balance on the camera (i have natural light, cfls in the room and a natural light florescent desk lamp so freaks out the camera some with the resulting spectrum) and the yellow/brown being reflected back from the tooth pick color underneath. cheers jeff Link to comment
marknewton Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 phd in biochemistry/molecular biology, i know better. Go on, you know you want to! Cheers, Mark. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 phd in biochemistry/molecular biology, i know better. Go on, you know you want to! Cheers, Mark. no little voice in the back of my head has always kept me from getting in too deep! always saved me when i was a kid when a few of my delinquent friends would start something and i would just know the time to exit stage left before the cops came into the picture! besides i have to have something to show for the 5 years of grad school! i did learn how to make quite good scuzzo gin in grad school! jeff Link to comment
bill937ca Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Langley's in the UK has jeweled lenses. http://www.langley-models.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Jewels__vehicle_lights_signals_traffic_lights_etc__99.html Link to comment
rankodd Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 If that page weren't from the UK, "Jewels" would sound like a bad language translation. Wish they had a picture. OTOH, from Jeff's pics, it looks like the Gallery Glass is going to work just fine! :) Link to comment
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