Hello guys,
In my work with Alclad metalizing, a modeler indicated that he wants to Alclad his HO passenger cars and wants to know how the Easy Peasy light system would look in them. Catch is…like me, he wants to tint his windows green.
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I use Alclad’s Armoured Glass, but I think Tamiya makes a similar tint. From the photos I’ve seen, Easy Peasy boards use green LED lights.
Becoming curious, I searched for and brought up a couple of YouTube clips. I must say the lighting looks good on this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCNA3S0zHUU
My concern is that the combination of green LED lights and green tinted windows might make the lighting appear too green when viewed through the windows.
So, for those of you that have installed these units in your passenger cars, what is your opinion on your car’s appearance with the lighting on?
AntonioFP45, based on a suggestion from this forum (thanks again), this past weekend, I just installed an EasyPeasy Lighting Bar in one of my older ConCor 85’ Streamlined Amtrack Passenger Cars. I also have a few older Rivarossi cars with traditional original lighting (metal wheels and hookups). In comparing the color of these, the EasyPeasy lighting definiely has a green tinge as compared to the original lighting in my Rivarossi cars which are traditional white lights. The EasyPeasy light looks really good, but definitely has a green tinge - not overwhelming, but noticeable, I like the effect. I do not know much about the Alclad glass, but if it is tinted green, would think the combination of the EasyPeasy Green tinge with a tinted Alclad green glass would result in a truly deeper green lighting effect. If you have other cars with older traditional white lights, would think the difference will be very pronounced. From what I can tell looking at the glass photo in your initial post - if it were me, and were going to use EasyPaesy lighting, I would retain / use untinted glass - just my opinion. I think this would give a tinted effect, not be overwhelming. Like many other replies, it also depends on what effect you are trying to achieve.
Rapido also has a ‘shorty’ version of the lights, for narrower applications, which can also be cut down for actual short cars like the Overtons (instructions from Rapido upon request).
These put out a white/yellowish tint.
SySout10
Thank you very much. I was hoping that the greenish hue was extremely pale, but from what you’re saying, it is quite noticeable. As you can see in the photo I posted above, the tint is noticeable as well.
I understand Rapido’s intent in that HO and N scale passenger cars from most manufacturers come with clear glazing. Many prototype cars had either the green, smoke, or blue tint with green being the most common from the WWII era thru early Amtrak. To capture that green tint appearance, Rapido used green LEDs.
But within the past several years, more passenger car modelers (myself included) have been tinting their windows with easy-to-use airbrushable tints from Alclad and Tamiya. Greens and Gray-smoke tints are available and for Santa Fe modelers, Alclad has a blue transparent tint that’s similar to the one used on some of SF’s equipment.
I’ve decided to go ahead and buy one Easy Peasy unit and try it anyway. Being a tinkerer, I’ve even thought about removing the cover and if it’s possible paint touching the LED lights with a blue-white paint mix as I’m interested in imitating florescent lighting (which is what so many prototype SS cars used). But I’ll see what the unit looks like. If it’s a bear to disassemble, I’ll install it in a car in which I’ll not tint the windows.
BigPianoGuy,
Thank you. I looked at the light you indicated on Rapido’s website.
http://www.rapidotrains.com/light_