OK. Try number 5 based on all I've learned so far.
First, a comparison.
Here is a photo of one of the best brass EP-2s ever made. It is an HO model made by Precision Scale Iron Horse Models. These are the models that inspired me.
Notice how they handled the headlight on this late model Cigar band EP-2 (at least I assume precision Scale did it-- since I've seen a lot of them this way. It is possible they got these discs from Todd at Streamstyle graphics.... or maybe Todd bought all their supply when finished. Either way, it looks like the disc from Streamstyle Graphics).
It has an etched stainless disc. No lenses. And also note that it has no cover glass. In fact, this disc fits in exactly the place of the cover glass.
I'm going to shoot for something more if possible.
Made a good size pool of solder- actually on both sides when tinned. Then placed the cut tube and heated.
This is the underside. Important pic. Notice the divot in the center of the tube. What has happened is that when the liquid solder cools, it contracts and PULLS the 2 mill cover with it. This is counter productive to what I wanted. It will require more filing than I wanted to get that divot out.
In the end, after cleaning it all up, I had actually filed almost all of the 2 mill cover away. So that part of this experiment (letting the solder be the silver cover) did not work.
I cut off the disc and did a better job of hollowing out the back this time.
Here is a comparison between a past try and this one. The old try is on the right- it is too small.
The silver Sharpie idea worked- for the most part. But it was pretty hard to draw "in the lines" and not get it on the fiber optic lenses. So I had to scrape the silver off the lenses---but now they don't look perfectly round. This has not bearing on function, but we were trying to get a good photogenic look in close-ups when the light is off-- and this is not good enough.
BTW- my new disc is 1 mm tall, and about 1.85 mm. Also, the holes are SMALLER. They are now about 20 mil.
Test fitting. It takes a LOT of work to get to this point.
This moment approximates the Precision Scale look in HO. But I was thinking.....
The silver Sharpie needs to go FIRST. With fiber optics installed after. Maybe I could get some real lenses.... but the disc will have to go in DEEPER.
So I shaped the disc some more. The height is cut down to .75 mm and I needed to reduce the diameter (the headlight casting appears narrower the deeper you go). I had to trim the diameter to about 1.75 mm to get it to test fit well.
Since it now fits, I cover the surface with the silver Sharpie. This worked well. Thanks Nscaler711.
Fiber optics installed. This time 20 mil instead of 30 mil.
This time I glued them from the inside.
I then melted the lenses on the back side (carefully so as not to melt the solder!!!).
Then trimmed the front.
I used tweezers to hold this small thing so I could hold a flame near to melt the lenses. I was worried the lenses would be too fat.
I think this is the look we were after.
Actual lenses, AND the cover glass is in place on the outside (even though it is so clear you can't see it easily).
When lit, it looks great. That light leakage at the bottom is not very noticeable to your naked eye. It also shows that this casting is not perfectly round! But even though the photo is not perfect since the camera picks up the stray light, in real life, all you really see are the three headlights. Not as bright as before, but it definitely captures the effect.
This shot is better in that it shows a comparison between the
bright headlights and the relatively dim light leakage. If I publish photos with the lights on, I'll probably photoshop them at that light leakage so that they look more like what you see.
