Hi.
I am building a few N scale industries structure and I have seen some comments suggesting that I should paint the interior of all my structures in black. This is supposed to prevent the structures to glow in the dark if I decide to add lighting later on.
What is your thought on this?
Stéphan
I like Kevin’s idea, “cover the inside walls with Cinefoil to prevent light leaks.”It's black Aluminum foil. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Cinefoil shipped to my house from Adorama is $14.
I already have lots of black paint that is easy to apply..
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
xploringrailroadsI am building a few N scale industries structure and I have seen some comments suggesting that I should paint the interior of all my structures in black. This is supposed to prevent the structures to glow in the dark if I decide to add lighting later on.
I scratchbuild all my N Scale structures now. Before I glue walls and roof, I either put a couple coats of paint on the inside, or I cover them with foil.
Since I put tiny LEDs in them, I use regular shiny aluminum foil, which directs more light out the windows. I leave the roof unglued to the structures, and I can always carefully put more paint on the interior walls after construction if I notice any leaks.
I don't normally put in clear windows. I put wax paper over the inside of the windows, and that gives a diffused light.
The past couple of buildings, I have finished the interiors with lights, people, furniture, etc., with clear windows. I'm not going to do that anymore. It's a lot of work, and once the building is on the layout, N Scale doesn't really show any details unless you get your nose about two inches away.
I really admire some of the builders on this forum for their interior work; it's just not something I want to spend time doing.
These windows are just wax paper, and the roof is removable. Since this was one of my first buildings, since then I have started blacking out certain windows to make it appear like rooms are not lit up:
York1 John
Yes, painting the inside of your structures black will help with light leakage. You can then paint over the black any color you want for variety.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
tstage Yes, painting the inside of your structures black will help with light leakage. You can then paint over the black any color you want for variety. Tom
Ok that's the question I just wanted to ask. I was curious about what to do with the buildings with which we want to show the interior but now I have my answer.
Thanks everybody for your help. I will start painting the interior in black and paint another color on the top for those buildings I want people to see the interior like my gas station.
Dave Nelson
While I genuinely admire those who make lighted structures with interior details, I lost interest in doing so at least four decades ago. On my layout, it's always a sunny day, in late May or early June....no need for lights anywhere but in the ceiling of the layout room.
Wayne
I have finally painted the interior walls of three of my structures with a black primer from Vallejo . I tested with my desk lamp and I don't see through anymore. I still have the rest of the walls to do and at least six more structures to do.
I hope you will let us see the finished product! Maybe you can post them on one of the Weekend Photo Fun page.
York1 I hope you will let us see the finished product! Maybe you can post them on one of the Weekend Photo Fun page.
Yes I will show you the finished product. It may take a few weeks because I have not ordered the paint colors I need yet.
What is the Weekend Photo Fun page exactly?
Weekend Photo Fun:
Starting on Friday, a new thread for the weekend allows modelers to post pictures of their work. It can be something new, or something from the past.
It includes some from master modelers, and it also includes work from beginners and amateurs like me.
It is a very supportive group who will compliment and encourage everyone who posts. It's very nonjudgmental. It's a great thread to view others' work and get ideas.
This site won't allow me to post a shortcut to it.
York1These windows are just wax paper, and the roof is removable.
John, nice job. I have never seen wax paper windows look that convincing.
How did you fasten the wax paper in place?
-Kevin
Living the dream.
York1 Weekend Photo Fun: Starting on Friday, a new thread for the weekend allows modelers to post pictures of their work. It can be something new, or something from the past. It includes some from master modelers, and it also includes work from beginners and amateurs like me. It is a very supportive group who will compliment and encourage everyone who posts. It's very nonjudgmental. It's a great thread to view others' work and get ideas. This site won't allow me to post a shortcut to it.
Ok if I understand, it's not a thread on this forum?
A good job done. I have painted in black some of the interior walls of my structures. I have given three layers of black primer with some touch up at the end. Now, there is absolutely no light that will pass through those buildings ;)
The sad thing is that, now I need to add a few more layers on those inside walls with the color I want them to be. Again, a few other hours of great fun ;)
I also need to paint the other interior walls on the sprues before assembling those buildings. My only mistake was to add, on some models, a fourth wall. Very difficult to paint when the building is almost closed.
And I have a few other kits I have not built yet.
Here is the result for now.
York1This site won't allow me to post a shortcut to it.
Here's a LINK to the current one.
Thanks for the link. I have just posted a picture to show my little progress.
SeeYou190John, nice job. I have never seen wax paper windows look that convincing. How did you fasten the wax paper in place?
I just cut wax paper and glue it on the inside of the window.
For N Scale, it just gives a diffused glow, and it's small enough that you don't really see the paper. I think HO might be too big, and you would be able to see that something is on the window that doesn't look right.
doctorwayne Here's a Link to the current one. Wayne
Here's a Link to the current one.
Wayne, thanks for posting the link. I'm not sure what I did, but I kept getting the bad 403 forbidden message.
York1For N Scale, it just gives a diffused glow, and it's small enough that you don't really see the paper. I think HO might be too big,
That might be. It sure did not look right when I tried it.
York1Wayne, thanks for posting the link. I'm not sure what I did, but I kept getting the bad 403 forbidden message.
Wayne: Is there any chance you could post instructions for inserting and naming a link. The way I was doing it stopped working, and I never figured out how to name a link.
I hope this will be legible - the content below is from my photobucket and will explain my concern:
Because most of my post, above, is actually a picture from photobucket, I can't edit it, but I just wanted to mention that the word LINK could be any other suitable word or phrase, or for that matter, four paragraphs of blather that might put viewers to sleep. The nice part is that the word or phrase appears in blue, denoting it as a working link, which is less confusing than the actual data which makes-up the link, as it sometimes runs on for 3 or 4 lines of gobbletygook.Wayne
Thanks, Wayne. I'll try to remember that.
Trying it out.
Test Link
It worked!
Here is what the syntax looked like:
Thank you Wayne... I am back to posting links again!
Exploring Railroads: Sorry for taking your thread off track.
Rich showed me another way of doing a link like that, but I'll be darned if I can remember. It seemed real easy.
Mike.
My You Tube
That's the only way that I've known how to provide a link with specific wording rather than just the URL, Mike. What I didn't realize was that it would work without the quotation marks around the bracketed URL.
Link to this specific post
Yep, she works!
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I model in HO and I like to print interior walls and other things on my computer, then glue the walls to the inside of a structure and light it up. Here's the inside of the City Classics market with store shelves and some figures.
The walls, shelves and even the floor was printed on the computer. From the outside, the viewer sees a full interior:
This kit has 2 walls of big windows, making it an attractive building for an interior. The light bulb you can see in the first picture is blocked by the hard walls above the windows. The printed walls on cardstock are sufficient to block any light leakage. On this one, I cut open the double doors at the entrance and repositioned the doors in the open position to provide even more visibility.
This house has a pretty detailed printed interior, including some metal furniture items. But, this was a mistake by me. The windows are way to small, even in HO. You can't see anything inside even illuminated.
Finally, a small freight house. Again, I cut open the doors to provide visibilty inside. There's a cinderblock printed interior, and that same wood floor. I had some boxes and trunks left over from an earlier layout.
From the outside, it's more a hint of an interior, but it serves my purpose:
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mister B, that's a nice interior.
Similar to your house, the interiors of my n scale buildings just didn't show up even with the lights on. I had to bend over the layout and get right up to the building to see anything.
I know that if I was a purist, that wouldn't matter -- I would know the interior is there even if I couldn't see it.
However, for the time and effort I put into it, I just kind of wrote it off.
If I ever switch to HO, I will try again. I really love yours, Mel's, and others' interiors of buildings and passenger cars.
Sometimes light leaks at joints in a model.
Preventing Light Leaks
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/tools_techniques_and_reference_materials/f/13/t/165340.aspx
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Learned by experience:
If you have structures close to, but not actually at, the back or side walls of your trainroom, block off any windows on those away-from-the-viewer windows. You don't want any illumination from the building coming from those windows and showing up as window images on the back wall.
Hi everyone.
I learned something yesterday related to the interior wall colors we should paint our structures with.
A N scale seller with lots of experience told me that instead of painting the interior walls with black, I should paint those walls with metallic paint to diffuse the light in the structure.
And you, have you ever tried to paint the interior walls with a metallic color?