Model T - headlights

October 21, 2016
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Ah, gas powered headlights.

The past couple of steps have used the "brass" finish parts that are factory painted in high gloss. While having the brass parts modeled in shiny color is great, sometimes they are not attached to the sprue in the best locations. When you separate them, you can end up with bare plastic showing in spots.

For parts that are supposed to be brass but end up with bare plastic showing, my fix is to paint black accents. Accurate? It's questionable. Does it look better on the model? Definitely. I'll sacrifice complete accuracy for a model that looks more polished and realistic.

The headlights were in brass finish. I painted the inside of the housings silver to add realism and reflective surface. I also added punched metal circles to the backs to make the seam less obvious. I primed them in flat black and painted gloss black. I then glued the housings to the lamp brackets already attached to the chassis in an earlier step. I'm thinking brass jewelry findings can be added to the front to clean up the frame and make for a more convincing lamp, but for now this will work. One of the lenses fogged from the glue, but it's not terrible. We'll just say that it's dusty.

I like the black, though the light body color should make them stand out a bit more than they do right now. Once the glue sets overnight I'll add the gas lines. The kit comes with thin tubing to simulate these.