Weekend Update 7/25/21

[cjm413]

Pretty much finished on a new design Budd Cab Car, but need to go heavier on the weathering to simulate washed sides and dirty roof. I designed the shells and 3D printed them on a Form 3 with chassis donors from the Kato CNW 400 set. I'll have the model(s) at STL RPM if any of y'all are going!

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See thru fans on the roof, and side intake vents
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And a video of the lights installed inside:

Looks like I won't be upgrading my Con-Cor Budd cars...

[Angus Shops]

I’m curious about the theatre gels; is the material thick enough to work as window material on its own, or do you need to ‘back it up’ with some other more robust window material? I admit I might have missed this in earlier posts…

[peteski]

I’m curious about the theatre gels; is the material thick enough to work as window material on its own, or do you need to ‘back it up’ with some other more robust window material? I admit I might have missed this in earlier posts…

I have not used them for some time, but I recall them being about 0.010" thick, so quite sturdy to use for windows.  They are designed to be placed right in front of hot stage lights, so they are also quite heat resistant.  That is why I mentioned that they will work well for flat windows (and probably can't be vacu-formed for domes or other complex curved windows.

[Wutter]

I’m curious about the theatre gels; is the material thick enough to work as window material on its own, or do you need to ‘back it up’ with some other more robust window material? I admit I might have missed this in earlier posts…

I just measured some material I have in front of me, the thickness is 0.0025", so super thin. It is technically usable on its own as a window material, but I usually prefer doing a 0.010" clear styrene on the outside facing side since it is easy to accidentally crinkle or put a fold in the theater gel if you're not careful when handling, whereas the 0.010" styrene is way more resilient.

[nickelplate759]

I just measured some material I have in front of me, the thickness is 0.0025", so super thin. It is technically usable on its own as a window material, but I usually prefer doing a 0.010" clear styrene on the outside facing side since it is easy to accidentally crinkle or put a fold in the theater gel if you're not careful when handling, whereas the 0.010" styrene is way more resilient.

I do the same but with. 005 clear styrene backed by the gels,  and it works well.

[Angus Shops]

Hmmm, thanks for the input. I’ve contemplated using gels before but haven’t pursued it.

One of the very few disappointments with the Rapido Canadian sets is that the windows aren’t tinted. There seem to be two options for fixing this; one is remove the windows and airbrush on some sort of tinting, but frankly this seems more than a little intimidating. Another might be to slip in a strip of gel material on the interior of the window strips, but there doesn’t seem to be much clearance between the back of the windows and the car interior castings, so this might not be a simple as it sounds. And this wouldn’t work in the domes. Oh well, not a big priority on my list of Madeline projects…