How do I make a lens?

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone would know how to make headlight covers. More specifically, the covers are for an Airfix Aston Martin DB5; the set that came with the kit is...shall we say unfortunate looking...haha...actually they're horrible...not even totally transparent, completely distorted... anyways... any advice would be much appreciated...I've been contemplating substituting the part with something else...but nothing's come to mind...so maybe I should make something? with krystal klear? the clear plastic depressions in which pills are typically held in medicine packages? thanks in advance!! I should mention that the scale is 1/24th and that I've never made anything from scratch before...

1-Borrow lenses from another kit or
2-Copy lenses with silicon or
3-Check this link:http://www.korkutvarol.com/dolmus6.html or
4-Buy a Dyusha kit.

Regards

Walid

Sakatsu make lens sets as do Renaissance, have a look on somewhere like mediamix.com.sg to see what they have available size wise.

Another thing I have done is take the 'wiggly eyes' that you can get at craft stores and sanded off the backing to get just the clear 'dome' section. Prepped right they make a pretty convincing clear lens and can be painted with clear colors for brake light and the like.

Lens or cover? For lens, you can buy Modeler's lens set. For the cover, you can use vacuum-forming or heat & smash method. Either way, you'll need to make a pattern , heat a clear vinyl sheet, and smash it on the mold manually or by a vacuum-forming machine.

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone would know how to make headlight covers. More specifically, the covers are for an Airfix Aston Martin DB5; the set that came with the kit is...shall we say unfortunate looking...haha...actually they're horrible...not even totally transparent, completely distorted... anyways... any advice would be much appreciated...I've been contemplating substituting the part with something else...but nothing's come to mind...so maybe I should make something? with krystal klear? the clear plastic depressions in which pills are typically held in medicine packages? thanks in advance!! I should mention that the scale is 1/24th and that I've never made anything from scratch before...


If you need a full lens:

you need:
- modelling clay (like children use),
- modelling clay hardening on air.
- resin "by inclusion" (use for making some translucide diorama in glasses for example...)

process:

- I put a small ball of (children) modelling clay in the light hole to get a "positive print" (right word?);
- then I use the modelling clay hardening on air, in which I put the first print to get a negative print of it;
- finally I fill the negative print made of modelling clay hardening on air with resin "by inclusion".
- once unmolded you get a perfect light lens which will fit your light hole.

NOTE:
mold the lens in resin by inclusion with front part deep in the mold, so if you need some sanding or clearing one unmolded you won't damage the external part of the lens.
you can paint the back of the lens in aluminium.

Hope this is clear and correct english enough to be well understand ! :biggrin:

Bye
Phil

man i think one picture will help you a lot describe your problem clearer.actully i dont know what exactly your problem is,but i guess you're talking about the cover since you said it's not totally transparent,i dont think airfix would give you a set of transparent lens,maybe only some chrome parts.sorry if i'm wrong.so why not try sanding them first?if you got some bad molded plastic parts i think you may try to do some sanding to correct them first instead of scratch building or looking for substitution immediately.so does the transparent parts.you can glue it on the body with some reseparable adhesive like some kind of latex,that's not difficult i think.and then you can do some sanding to correct them.when you finished correcting the shape you can polish the transparent parts to bring it transparent again,or even better.

Wow thanks for all the great input, everyone!

To clarify, I meant the cover. I had thought about sanding too, but unfortunately, aside from all the molding imperfections, the clear parts also appear to have a yellow tint and may be a little smaller than what I require as they stand.

Also, in regards to the resin method, as the included covers are slightly too small, could use the included parts to form the mold? Would resin produce a clear enough cover?

I'm also curious about the heat/smash method... how is this accomplished exactly, can I use the included part as the mold? is this method basically softening up some clear vinyl over an electric stove range (for example) and pressing it onto my mold? Do I have to pretreat the mold (with mold release?) or do any other kind of preparation?

Thanks for all the help again and thanks in advance as well!

Also, in regards to the resin method, as the included covers are slightly too small, could use the included parts to form the mold? Would resin produce a clear enough cover?


Well, inclusion resin method is better for a biggger part than a simple cover, especially with round covers...
But inclusion resin is normally thick (I mean not very fluid) enough to be applied in a relatively curved mold.
but if the part is too narrow I'm not sure it would be the best solution.
resin by inclusion method is most adapted to replace the whole lightpod or fill a light hole.
For a simple cover I'm not sure it's the best solution...
It has to be tried.
For the last question, I suppose that the most narrow the part is, the clearest it is...
It's right that this solution will never replace a perfect light cover or a rodhoid one (as you may get with heat & smash method)...
once more it has to be tried, I have personaly allways used the resin method to replace or make complete lightpod (as some kit have factitious or very bad lightpods) and the heat & smash method for a small part or a light cover (with some difficulties have I to admit).

Hope this will help and serve
Phil

Cool, thanks for the input, I appreciate it.

Does anyone know if there's a heat and smash tutorial on the forums? I did a search on heat and smash and didn't really find anything, although there was one on vacuum forming...thanks!

Hi Lewis,

I made my lens covers for a Ferrari 250 GTO recently. My method seems to be similar to the abovementioned 'smash & something' procedure.

I'm using blister packs of normal things as material. If you really need new and smooth raw material, you can by transparent acetate. As I'm from Germany i can only recommend sources over here. Please tell me if you need support here.

Then I'm using the original part as some sort of stamp - the clear blister pack material will be heated (can be don in your kitchen oven, but beware of your wife!) until it begins to soften, the 'stamp' of the original part is then apllied to the soft clear material.

This takes some practise, but if you keep using the waste material it will at least be very cheap.

The new part cools down very quickly and can be cut to exact fit, afterwards.

I Hope this description helps - you find some pictures to illustrate this in a German modeling forum: http://www.modellboard.de/thread.php?postid=224740#post224740

Plese let me know if I can help, see you
Paul

Paul, danke schoën! (my limited German...) I agree wholehearted with your views regarding Ferraris, ahahah. Your 250 GTO is absolutely amazing! I love the silver, it looks, in my opinion, more beautiful than the red. The covers are also incredibly well done and I will definitely try your technique. Just one quick question, what temperature should I set my oven to and will a blow dryer suffice? Thanks again for the help, Paul, I appreciate it!

Hi Lewis,

the blow dryer will not produce enough heat. Ideally you may use a hot-air gun (I bought one after beeing cought twice using the kitchen oven). The temperature finally depnds on the material - try to set the thermostat to 150° (C) but watch the material until it softens.

Then be quick (and cautious - use a glove please), remove the softened bliste and apply the stamp. That's it.

Regards, Paul

Sorry, I've been out of town; thanks for the advice Paul! I'll try in the oven first (hopefully I won't get caught).

Would anyone know or have a suggestion as to how I could fabricate the frame of the lens cover?

Thanks!