After building several model structures I feel like I would like to find a better window glazing material. In particular, it should not easily haze due to fumes from commonly used adhesives. Also, my ideal material would be relatively rigid so that it naturally lays flat against the window sill without curling up on a corner. Being easy to cut would also be nice, but not a hard requirement. I would be willing to use a small bandsaw or table saw if necessary.
I have found sources for plexiglass in 1/32 and 1/16 thickness. Has anyone tried that before for this purpose? What Other options are there that might be superior to the thin acetate sheets that come with most kits?
Keith
K. HoltAfter building several model structures I feel like I would like to find a better window glazing material. In particular, it should not easily haze due to fumes from commonly used adhesives.
Thanks for the info. I had never heard of canopy cement. I found something similar called Watch crystal cement at MicroMark. Since I needed to order a couple other things from them anyway I went ahead and ordered some. I don't know how this compares to Zap 560 canopy glue I found at Tower Hobbies. I may give both a try.
Also, I found a clear plastic called Vivak at MicroMark. It sounds interesting so I bought a couple sheets of it as well. No idea if this is going in the right direction until I see it first hand.
I use the heavy plastic packaging material that a lot of things come in. Like electronics, batteries, and also some of those little plastic containers that small screws & washers come in that you buy at Home Depot. There's all kinds of stuff that comes packaged with it. That's all I ever use, and I never seem to run out of it
Sam
I use those clear plastic boxes that pastry comes in. It cuts with ordinary scissors, glues in place with plain old styrene cement, and the price is right.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
If you want the look of glass without the problem of hazing from glue, you can get real glass sheets:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/514-N70038
This can be cut with a scriber. It gives a very prototypical reflection because it is much smoother than any acrylic. Cost could be an issue for big structures but if you limit the use of glass to the foreground buildings and use acrylic for stuff further back the suggestion of real glass will be carried to the background structures. In other words, if you have real glass in the foreground, most people won't notice that the background buildings don't have as clear glazing.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Nothing looks like glass except glass.
Not negotiable. It's all about the reflection. Styrene does not reflect correctly, the stuff you fill in with a tooth pick from the edges to the center does not reflect correctly.
Got It?
Glass.
Hobby town and and other mass hobby places keep microscope slides and covers.
Microscope slides are about two inches long by seven eighth inches and about one sixty fourth thick. It cannot be cut with a roller glass cutter but it will work with a carbide machinist scribe available from General Tools at most big boxes.
You are right about distillates leaving clouding. Testors (although I have not personally tried it) has a non clouding glue for mounting glass. My guess is that it is nothing more than white glue that it thinned down. It might be water base contact cement also..... I really don't know.
I use Wathers / Hobsco Goo. I apply it with a small amount of glue on a long needle point.
Clean the glass thoroughly and then never handle it with your fingers. Only a tweezers.
Microscope slides are only a few thousandths thick and will lay very well inside the openings of Grandt Line and Tichy window castings. They also cut well with a carbide scribe.
If you are building for AP judging this is a must.
see ya
Bob
I've also found that microscope slide "cover slips" work very well. They are smaller and thinner than microscope slides but they can be held in place with just a spot of white glue. However, like Bob mentioned, these too cannot be easily cut, but since they are smaller I usually don't have to worry about cutting them to size.
Wayne
Modeling HO Freelance Logging Railroad.
Now I'm really glad I posted this. I never would of thought to use real glass. How funny... Now I am definitely going to go this route. This has to be the answer I was looking for.
Thanks for all the replies.
I have scratchbuilt several commercial buildings with large storefront glazing areas and was also struggling to find a good material for glazing. I can't stand using clear styrene as it seems to scratch by just looking at it cross-eyed! Get a spot on it and you can't clean it off without creating a large spot of hazed styrene. Plus, the edges of the canopy cement and/or clear parts cements can still be seen if it bleeds into the visible glazing area, even though it dries completely clear.
What I finally found that works very well is clear plastic report covers from an office supply store. Since these clear covers must be handled by anyone reading the report, they are quite scratch resistant and easy to clean without damage or hazing. Though fairly flexible, this material will lie flat against the modeling surface with little effort and is still rigid enough to model large windows without bowing or curling. I also found that the best glue to use is Woodlands Scenics Accent Cement. Apply the Accent Cement to the rear of the window frame, let it dry, then align the glazing and press into place. No glue bleed and no glazing creep while waiting for the glue to set up. Best of all, if you accidentally misalign the glazing, you can remove it, clean off any glue residue and re-apply without adding more glue to the window frame.
Hornblower
I use Micro-scale Krystal-Klear.
Dennis Blank Jr.
CEO,COO,CFO,CMO,Bossman,Slavedriver,Engineer,Trackforeman,Grunt. Birdsboro & Reading Railroad
When I use glazing it's usually cut from the clear plastic the stuff you buy at the stores is packaged in. It's plentiful and I'm not paying extra to pick it up from a hobby supplier.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Acetate yellows with age and can curl, too, and I no longer use it. I like clear styrene, available from Evergreen in various thicknesses. It can be glued with solvent cement, which won't cause fogging if you keep it off the visible portion of the "glass". Other options for cementing it in place on non-styrene models include contact cement and Weldbond. Do not use ca, as the fumes often cause fogging, and may do so on other materials, too, including real glass. The clear plastic "glass" which is included in many plastic kits is quite thick and not as clear as sheet styrene or real glass. It is, however, sized to match the window castings in the kit and it is styrene, making assembly easy. If I were scratchbuilding contest-quality models, I'd probably use real glass, but for my purposes, sheet styrene is good enough.
hornblowerI can't stand using clear styrene as it seems to scratch by just looking at it cross-eyed!
What I finally found that works very well is clear plastic report covers from an office supply store. Since these clear covers must be handled by anyone reading the report, they are quite scratch resistant and easy to clean without damage or hazing.
While an interesting idea, I have some report covers from actual reports from, say, 10 years ago. They look a little scratched and dull - however, this could be due to the materials the report cover was made of at the time (e.g. - cheapo). Do you know what your report cover material is, hornblower?
As recommended in very strong terms by an earlier poster, I use real glass slide covers, which are small squares of exceptionally thin glass about the size of a postage stamp. In fact it is rather easy to accidentally have two or even three of the squares when you think you only have one, that is how thin they are. They do not cut easily -- they tend to crack with any pressure at all -- but with care can be broken into usable pieces for tight fits. Just be careful with your fingers and with picking up the tiny shards (I wrap tape around a finger tip and dab around the area).
By the way, these small slide covers also do a great job of modeling a broken window: just as real glass reflects light in its own way that plastic cannot replicate, real broken glass has a realistic look that thus far I have never been able to replicate with plastic. And the slide covers are prototype thickness to boot.
For very large windows I simply have the edges of the square meet at a window muntin or sash rail
One thing about real glass is that it does show fingerprints rather clearly and as luck would have it this is something you do not notice until of course you have glued it in place. Best to use cotton gloves when handling them and if you do see a finger print in an awkward place, a tiny bit of windex on one of those mini-swab type thingees does the trick pretty well.
Dave Nelson
I use the thin clear sheets that come with DPM and other kits. I always install them with Canopy Cement, and I make sure to pull off any excess with a toothpick as it stiffens up.
Look at some of the window glazing sheets from City Classics. They have window shades and Venetian blinds on them. I used them for the upper stories of this structure. The big store windows are the thick sheets that came with the kit.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
My experience with any sorts of thin plastic sheeting is that it tends to "fish eye" over time. That is... become rounded due to tension caused by shrinkage near the glue points. This creates an unrealistic reflection.
Large store front windows in the real world will show back the viewer when looked into. Models should do the same and the viewer, although not expecting it in a model, will recognize it when it happens in modeling.
This is the stuff that make good modeling great and memorable.
K. Holt Now I'm really glad I posted this. I never would of thought to use real glass. How funny... Now I am definitely going to go this route. This has to be the answer I was looking for. Thanks for all the replies. Keith
One of old the "old timer's" in my club used to model cracked glass in structures, etc, with the use of the glass microscope slides. Once glue had set he would carefully nick the edge of the glass and apply pressure to gain the effect of the crack he wanted. You can also pick out pieces of the glass to show holes through the shattered or cracked glass.I had tried it and it does take a bit of experience and trial and error to get the desired results.
For most of my needs, the Evergreen clear works good enough.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
chuton01,
I got the report cover materials when I was working at a former employer's office. He being into O gauge himself, he didn't mind me taking a few of the cover sheets to use in my modeling projects. I wish I could remember the product brand and number but I no longer have access to the supply source (he's retired and his office is closed now). However, these covers were a little heavier than say, a school report cover, as these were designed to be punched in a machine and bound with a plastic comb (similar to a sprial winding). I would imagine these cover sheets, or a similar product would be fairly easy to locate at Office Max or Office Depot.