Navigation Lights Made Easy

[sequoiaranger]

All aircraft, including combat military aircraft, have them. There is a red light to "port", a green light to "starboard", and a white light in the rear in various configurations. Usually there is a single red and green light are on each wing's very tip, in the "corner" slightly forward of center, but sometimes there is a light above AND below instead. The white light is usually at the extreme rear tip of the aircraft.

If you ever look at real aircraft, the nav lights come in many "flavors"--some have a clear cover, but the bulb itself is the appropriate color. Some have an appropriately-colored tinted plastic covering instead. I like the look of the latter, myself, and have done it two ways.

I have experimented with chopping a wedge out of the wingtip, and putting a chunk of solid, tinted plastic in its place, then conforming the chunk to the wing shape, sanding smooth, and gloss-coating the final "light". Lots of work, if you ask me.

My most recent way of doing nav lights is using gloss paints to make the "light". Any "gloss white" will do for the tail-light, and just a nice glop of paint on the brush will do it, making a shiny, white "bubble" when it dries.  For the red and green lights I especially recommend Testors "Jade Green" and "Ruby Red" gloss metallic paints. The "metallic" part doesn't show up on such a small glop of paint, but seems to give a nice "depth" to it. Of course, the gloss paint shines, especially nice in contrast to most flat-finished aircraft. I have an example below:

[Captain Canada]

What a novel idea...using paint to make nav lights !



I'll have to try the metallic approach.

Cheers !

[The Rat]

When the model has a large clear piece for the light what I've done in the past is drill a weeny hole where the bulb would be (in my universe) and fill it with paint of the appropriate colour. Alternatively I have made a small nick in the inside corner with a knife or file and then applied the paint. Of course a real modeler would research to determine if the real aircraft had clear covers/tinted bulbs or clear bulbs/tinted covers, but that was never my strong point. 

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Back in the day when I was building model cars and beginning the transition to model aircraft and armor I learned that my metallic paints were also a great source for the red, green, and blue lights and the color was more glass-like after it dried than many of the standard gloss colors.  The trick was to use the paint without shaking or stirring up the contents so that the metallic portion of the paint is settled to the bottom of the container.  Once it gets mixed up it is not going to work. 

[Allan]

Ranger,
Soes that mean you mask off the area on the wing for the light and apply paint there, and then remove the tape?Do you gloss coat afterwards?
Allan in Canberra

[sequoiaranger]

>Ranger,Soes that mean you mask off the area on the wing for the light and apply paint there, and then remove the tape? Do you gloss coat afterwards?<

[edited 7:47 am] Easier than all that--just get a healthy glob of GLOSS paint (hopefully one of the metallics mentioned in the original post) on a BRUSH (probably no smaller than a "0" or "00") and apply to a self-defined nav light area. ALLOW the paint to glob, as it makes a rounded appearance (and will settle down a bit when the carrier evaporates). I "draw" the brush along the boundaries of the nav light, then come back and "dab" a generous portion of paint inside the lines I have made. The drawn lines make a "stop line" so that the additional paint balls up from surface tension at the boundary. Make sure to eliminate brush marks within the nav light area (usually done with enough paint and a dabbing technique rather than "drawing" the brush along the surface). The boundary of the painted area above and below the wing must meet up for proper effect. Leave it alone to dry thoroughly and don't sand or file nearby that might allow stray particles to settle upon and mar the glossy finish.

The effect will be a glassy, tinted bulge that closely approximates real navigation lights.

[Brian da Basher]

That's one very realistic looking nav light, SR! Thanks for sharing the technique which I'm sure many will find useful.

Brian da Basher