Tips & tricks 8 :Making headlights

Hello fellow modelers.

In this little SBS I’ll show you how to make realistic headlights for your armored vehicles.

The materials you’ll need are:
Drill bits
A Nutella wrapper
Clear styrene
A punch and die set or a leather puncher (or anything that can cut disks)
Your trusty hobby knife
Any glue that dries clear (PVA or Testors windows making glue are good choices)

Ok, lets begin...

First step is to drill the models headlight. It doesn’t have to be a very deep hole; a 1/8 of an inch is enough. Measure the diameter of the lens of the headlight and use a drill bit slightly smaller in diameter to drill the lamp. The idea is to leave a ledge for the lens to rest on.


Next, using the leather puncher cut a disk from the Nutella wrapper slightly larger than the hole you just drilled. Now with your hobby knife make a cut in the disk from the center to the edge. It doesn’t have to be the exact center of the circle but the closer the better.


Insert the disk into the hole you drilled in the headlamp and gently push it all the way back. The cut in the disk will cause it to form a cone just like the real headlights. Here is an example.


Ok we are almost finished; the only thing remaining is to cut the lens for the light. For this you can either use your punch and die set or the leather puncher (I used the later) but try to use the closest size available to the diameter of the headlight.


Here is the lens.


Now put a little glue in the ledge and place the lens in the lamp. Wait for it to dry and there you have it, a realistic looking headlight for your favorite AFV.


For the bulb itself you can use any round transparent object you have at hand as long as it's the right size, or you can stretch some clear sprue to the desired width and cut little pieces from there.

Now, in case you are wondering how are you going to paint the lamp without damaging the lens I suggest placing a drop of liquid masking in the lens right before you paint or drill the lamp and leave the rest for after you paint.

Hope it is useful to you.
Ruben

Nice article, post more ideals like this.
Panzer

Hey, Driver !!!!

How do you do ???

Great forum with great people !!!

regards, from Brazil !!!

Thats a great tip. Thanks