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.

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

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

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/

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

If you have hollowed out lenses, two part epoxy will work well, too.

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

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