Liquid glazing, semaphore signals and food colouring.

[JZ]

Just to embark on signal building for Tolmouth. Mostly I will be using MSE parts. When it comes to glazing the arms, I feel that cutting out clear plastic is a right pain in the arse. has anyone used liquid glazing for this task ? And what about colouring it ? I was thinking of using food colouring, or maybe a small amount of acrylic paint.

[28XX]

Food colouring is probably not stable.  Have a look at glass paints in crafty shops which are transparent.  Not sure if they are compatible with liquid glazing, let us know if you find out.

[JZ]

Given up on the food colouring idea and tried acrylic gloss added to liquid glazing. Took a little mixing, but here is the result.

I won't be fitting lights, so will go with the blue/green for the 'off' lens.

[jazz]

I use Glue 'n' Glaze for small windows etc. (Also perfect to glue clear plasticard glazing in place.) I have not tried colouring it though.

 

An old trick is to use coloured clear sweet wrappings (Orange, red and green does look OK) The Glue 'n' Glaze is perfect to glue it in place after making the 'glass' and it's set hard.

[RSLR]

Given up on the food colouring idea and tried acrylic gloss added to liquid glazing. Took a little mixing, but here is the result.

IMGP0169.JPG

I won't be fitting lights, so will go with the blue/green for the 'off' lens.

 

I think I would have probably done what you did, I've mixed Deluxe Glue 'n' Glaze with Tamia acrylics to create window seal effects (DMU head code blinds and so on) which works well mixes most excellent with the stuff, very easy. But not yet used it for signal arm lenses however I should think a similar transparent green or red in the Tamia acrylic range would probably work well.