I have started working on AMT’s Ecto-1A kit and am converting it to the Ecto-1, but I’ve hit a snag: the lightbars on the Ecto-1A are clear whereas the Ecto-1 lightbars are blue. Is there a way to tint or stain them so that they will stay transparent but take on a blue shade?
You could paint them with Tamiya clear blue, or tent some future floor polish with food coloring and give the light bars a dip.
I’d recommend Mr. Color Clear Blue of Alclad II Transparent Blue. Both spray on very well.
No offense to Watchman but I’d avoid using the tinted Future. The problem is that it will pool in the corners of the clear parts leaving darker areas in those corners. Plus, I’ve never seen really good results with tinted Future.
I use magic markers to tint clear plastic. The inks seem to be dye based rather than pigment.
If it’s sprayed on carefully? I’ve used Tamiya clears & future to tone down the colour & standard Tamiya acrylics with future to get specific colours & never had a problem…
Thanks everybody!
It might be ok if you spray it but the original advise was to dip it. But if you’re going to use Tamiya paint why not use their own thinner?
NP, Fly-n-hi. I’ve never tried it myself, but have seen other people use the technique.
Because you can mix either Tamiya clears or standard acrylics with Future to whatever ratio you like to get the desired tone & it remains usable without altering the performance. If Tamiya thinner alone is used & depending on the desired final colour, it’s quite easy to get to the point where the paint contains so much thinners that it’s not very friendly to use.
The future isn’t to thin the paint as such, it to tone down / weaken the colour.
I’ve had good luck spraying wet coats of Tamiya. I did it with the clear green on the upper glass on a Huey, in 35th scale, which is quite large and the results were great. Though I will say there is a fine line between getting a wet enough coat to look even and smooth, and getting a coat so wet it will run and pool. You need to take it right to the edge of pooling. Thin it with a bit of windex. Worked GREAT.
I don’t know about that. I’ve sprayed Tamiya clears that were thinned down something like 1:4 or 1:5 (basically thinner with some clear color in it) and they sprayed on fine. The only catch is that you absolutely must take it slowly and spray on thin coats.