Solid cast white metal ones that is.

How do you finish windows on solid cast vehicles? white metal or resin.(probably more applicable to N gauge)

Do you paint them, if so what colour, or do you leave them as bare metal? Resin I think would need a grey or silver.

Hollow kit ones you can usually stick some acetate sheet in before assmbly, but the solid ones need a bit of thought.

I would be more inclined to paint them black or very dark grey, followed by a coat of gloss varnish.

While I haven't done any vehicles this way, I did do a Townstreet brick station building (in OO) this way as the windows were cast in solid plaster like the rest of the building. I would deem it a successful treatment. You can see something of the effect in the photo below.




The Harry Potter Knightrider bus was still under construction here, made from two EFE RT/RTL buses.

This is the very reason I don't like using whitemetal vehicles.

So far I'm leaving them bare white metal which doesn't look too bad, I had a suggestion of soft pencil over primer from an N gauge group, yet to try that; as for black,  I'm modelling 1930s & there were a lot of all black cars (any colour you want as longs as it's black!) so I'm reluctant to try that, looks like it's experiment time!

One product that maybe used is Microscale Industries 'Micro Kristal Klear'. I have seen this used in building windows and it dries clear and comes up a treat. See here ; http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/64812-st-james-station/page-4  Scroll down to pics of signal box (2/3 down the page).

Another product is Testors 'Clear Parts Cement & Window Maker' see here ; http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006NDZDU

Cheers, Gary.

Kristal Klear and similar products ore fine if you have a hollow kit, although where possible I would use acetate sheet, if you read the original post, you would see I'm asking abour solid cast N gauge cars and some other vehicles, the windows are just shallow depressions in the casting, maybe less than 1mm deep, not a hollow body with holes for windows that need glazing.

What I'm asking is how do you make white metal look something like glass, and remembering that many 1930s cars were black.

Can you use bare metal foil so that they are reflective?

Hi Mike,
 
I would be inclined to use a dark to mid blue which acts as a reflection of the sky and if you can shade it lighter towards the bottom of the window (I would have no hope as I find HO small enough).
I would then go over that colour with one of the glazing liquids, I use Glue and Glaze which I find great to use as nay spills can be rubbed off when dry. This should give you the right colour and a nice glossy finish.
 
Simon

What I have done in the past (I don't use whitemetal any more) is to use a blade to scrape the 'glass' so that it is silvery bright.

Any attempt to paint it has to be perfect or it looks awful.

[user=1397]Dorsetmike[/user] wrote:

Kristal Klear and similar products ore fine if you have a hollow kit, although where possible I would use acetate sheet, if you read the original post, you would see I'm asking abour solid cast N gauge cars and some other vehicles, the windows are just shallow depressions in the casting, maybe less than 1mm deep, not a hollow body with holes for windows that need glazing.

What I'm asking is how do you make white metal look something like glass, and remembering that many 1930s cars were black.

I should of made myself more clear. You can use this over the surface to act as a clear coat to give that glazed look… By all means paint the surface first, black, silver, blue, whichever, then coat with the above mentioned products.

Cheers, Gary.

I have used Kristal Klear that way myself, Gary, but I prefer a gloss varnish or another Micro product which is rather like a thinner version of Kristal Klear.

I don't find silver or lighter greys convincing colours for windows - look at some of the illustrations in adverts for finished versions of the Graham Avis resin models in N scale where they have used a light to mid-grey colour.

I agree that dark colours would look better - if it is a black car then use a dark grey or dark blue as per Simonmcp's suggestion. I also like his idea of shading it from darker to lighter blue but you would have to experiment a bit with that to get a consistent finish.