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Modeling in General
General discussions about modeling topics.
lenses
airwarrior
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New Jersey, United States
Member Since: November 21, 2002
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Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 01:02 PM UTC
how do you make lenses for an armor or soft skinned vehicle?I heard somewhere a drop of white glue works , i tried cutting it from clear plastic like off a toy's box and it didn't work please tell me any suggestions.
Oberst
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Ontario, Canada
Member Since: June 26, 2002
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Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 02:48 PM UTC
Hey Airwarrior,
You can buy excellent lenses from either MV or Greif. Thses lenses are fairly cheap and most hobby/railroad stores will have them.

Take care,

Andrew

Folgore
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Canada
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Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 03:17 PM UTC
I can't seem to find Greif or MV lenses, so I am forced to make my own. Still, I can suggest another product for this. Microscale Kristal Klear is like whote glue, except it seems to have several different properties. You can put some Kristal Klear on a toothpick and drag it across the open headlight (hollow it out if the lense was molded on), literally creating a very thin lense that will dry very clear. Kristal Klear is also a much stronger adhesive than regular white glue and still dries clear, so I use it for gluing clear parts on models as well as fixing men to their bases in dioramas.

Nic
ModlrMike
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Alberta, Canada
Member Since: January 03, 2003
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Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 04:48 PM UTC
You can try this trick. If you have a punch and die set, and one of those clear CD spacers that come on the spindle packs of CD-Rs then you can make your own. It will even have a iridescent sheen like the real lens.

Regards...
Michael


http://www.wesupporttheusa.ca/
blaster76
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Texas, United States
Member Since: September 15, 2002
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Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 09:15 PM UTC
I like the Krystle Klear stuff. Especialy if it can be used to glue down windshields etc. I'll have to check it out. Thanks
AJLaFleche
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Massachusetts, United States
Member Since: May 05, 2002
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Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2003 - 01:00 AM UTC
If you have hollowed out lenses, two part epoxy will work well, too.
mj
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Illinois, United States
Member Since: March 16, 2002
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Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2003 - 02:25 AM UTC
You might also try hollowing out the lense, putting a piece of aluminum foil in the cavity (or just painting silver as an alternative), and filling the remaining space with Future. It dries clear.

Mike

scoccia
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Milano, Italy
Member Since: September 02, 2002
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Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2003 - 08:33 AM UTC
Yesterday I read this this thread and I thought about to do something new for the M47 I'm working on in this days concerning lenses (if you're interested in you can find it's thread following this link https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/9091&page=1 - but lenses will be on something during the week-end).
I'm quite "scratchbuild oriented" so I prefer to do things I need time by time trying to use the few brain left, instead of buying them ready made. So these are the steps:
- get a crappy 3.5" floppy disk and took the metal part out of of it
- with a punch & die set cut a few discs off the above mentioned metal (to match in diameter the hole you've got)
- stick the discs on a piece of masking tape (about 2"x2" or whatever fits your needs)
- paint with your fav base color for the lamp the upper side of the disc
- when the paint is dry apply one drop of clear varnish to match the color
The following pictures show you the final result. I ignore explaination for some of them...



First column up to bottom:
1 & 2: disc -> enamel silver -> Tamiya smoke (gloss)
2 & 3: disc -> enamel silver -> Tamiya Clear (gloss)
Second Column up to bottom:
2 & 3: disc -> enamel olive drab (matt) -> Tamya clear red (gloss) note that these look black but actually they are very dark red
Third and fourth column up to botom (the first tests)
1: disc -> white glue (I'm not that happy due to the air bubbles left)
2: disc -> white glue mixed with Tamya clear red (gloss) - quite good but too "clear"




The two pictures above to give an idea of the thickness of the lens itself
Hope this can be useful/interesting
Ciao
 _GOTOTOP