Slime Lights

[K-nadian]

Hey everybody,

Im pretty new to the hobby and I'm currently completing a 1/72 Academy CF-18. Been at it for a while because I keep stopping to learn more tips and tricks from this forum to apply to my build. I thought I'd contribute a little idea of my own I had (probably widely used by you pro's, but I just havent heard of it yet). I have a few sheets of glow in the dark stickers of stars and planets that my parents stuck on my celing when I was younger... not too long ago I discoved the sheets and thought it'd be a nice touch to make some slime lights for my bug that would look beautifully authentic in the dark rather than the boring decal lights that come with my kit. Im sure you can pick up these glow in the dark sheets at the dollar store... maybe toys r us. Im not at that stage of my build yet, but perhaps when I get there i'll post a couple pics.

Again, not too sure if this is widely used already as I havent been around too long, but instead of buying fluorescent decals (as I've seen in other threads) to accomplish the same task, why not try some glow in the dark stickers?

K-nadian

[Fly-n-hi]

This is how mine turned out:

[dallascaprice]

WOW, that's great!

I could only find the very thick Stars and Moons on the walls of my kids bedroom ;)

Another "gotta have" item for my comeback to the world of modelling. Great tip, thanks!

[richter111]

Most impressive!

[datahiker]

I bought some higher quality glow-in-the-dark paint. I've found that it shines much longer and brighter than decals and the cheap hobby glow-in-the-dark paint found at craft stores. The downside is that it's thick and requires many thinned layers. I had to experiment using different thinners and found some of them made the paint grainy.

I got mine here. The high-end stuff is here.

I'll try to post some pics later.

[blunce]

[Fly-n-hi]

I've got a few more. I called this the 'Fly-n-hi effect" because I thought I was the only person who did it...not to sound cocky. I should mention that this is the glow in the dark paint and not the stickers. The first pic was a Hasegawa 1/48 F/A-18F.

Here's a blurry pic of my Hasegawa 1/48 F-14A:

...Monogram 1/48 AV-8B:

...Academy 1/48 F-15E:

and a Hasegawa 1/48 F/A-18C:

Building an F-22 that will get the Fly-n-hi effect tomorrow.

[B-17 guy]

Hmmmmm. Makes me want to try something like this for just regular nav lights. I wonder if I can get the paint in differant colors?

[2qwik4u]

Some of the CAM decals sheets have slime lights printed in glow-in-the dark paint too, although they don't look as good as what I see here. Granted, the ones that I have are in 1/72nd scale. Here is my F-14 I built recently with CAM decals:

[datahiker]

My pics, from a 1/35 Blackhawk:

(It's only been "charged" with fluorescent light for about 20 minutes - daylight works much better.)

And yes B-17 guy, the paint comes in different colors and can also be mixed, although it may not glow as brightly.

[phasephantomphixer]

Another good material I use is the self adhesive strips they sell in the Camping section of stores.

I have found varying thicknesses over the years too. I will cut out a strip slightly larger than the

glow area and apply it to the kit, then mask the strip to the size that will glow so when I remove

the masking, it will have the raised "painted" portion like the real deal. For wingtip lights, etc.

place the colored lens over the glow material and it will change the color as it glows through it.

[Fly-n-hi]

I just finished this Academy 1/48 F-22 today. Here she is with the glow-in-the-dark paint slimelights:

[K-nadian]

Wow... great shots Fly-n-Hi, had never actually seen he effect on a finished model. Looks beautiful! I have an F-15 ready to go when my hornet is done, looks like it worked out well on yours too. Brilliant photos everyone, thanks for contributing!

[phantom]

How does it look under full lighting conditions? Dark looks great.

[Fly-n-hi]

How does it look under full lighting conditions? Dark looks great.

You really can't see them glow under normal lighting. Then again, you can't see the real ones in daylight either. But they do match the color of the real slime lights almost exactly.

I can't tell you how many times I've walked by them at night and shined my light on them. Sure, its a little cheesy, but they look so convincing in the dark and in low light.

Edited June 23, 2011 by Fly-n-hi

[chuck540z3]

Although these lights look very cool in the dark, I would caution that many slime lights on models look way too intense and therefore unrealistic at scale. From a distance of, say, 50 feet from the real deal, you can hardly tell the true color of many formation lights, which appear to be faded yellow. Only up close at 8 feet can you see the greenish color properly.

This of course is an over-generalization and there are many exceptions, but you get the point. Any pics of this paint in bright light?

[Fly-n-hi]

Although these lights look very cool in the dark, I would caution that many slime lights on models look way too intense and therefore unrealistic at scale. From a distance of, say, 50 feet from the real deal, you can hardly tell the true color of many formation lights, which appear to be faded yellow. Only up close at 8 feet can you see the greenish color properly.

This of course is an over-generalization and there are many exceptions, but you get the point. Any pics of this paint in bright light?

The glow-in-the-dark paint that I use glows greenish but it appears yellowish under normal lighting. Like I said above it is almost an exact match of the color you see on the real lights (Trust me, I looked a many reference pics to see how they should look). Plus, you can weather it down with a wash or with pastels.

Not to sound like a jerk, honestly, but if it had an ecto plasm green color to it do you really think I'd put it on my builds? Heck no! If anything I'd say that the decals looked more unrealistic. They're a bright yellow color! The GITD paint has a built in faded look to it when it dries, too. Here's how it looks on the F-22 in bright light:

[chuck540z3]

Not to sound like a jerk, honestly, but if it had an ecto plasm green color to it do you really think I'd put it on my builds? Heck no! If anything I'd say that the decals looked more unrealistic. They're a bright yellow color! The GITD paint has a built in faded look to it when it dries, too. Here's how it looks on the F-22 in bright light:

I wasn't referring to your work at all. I was referring to many builds you see in the gallery which, as you pointed out, are likely decals.

BTW, I really like your F-22. It looks like a super paint job and those slime lights look great to me.

Chuck

[Darren Roberts]

I'm thinking I might order some of this paint to put on the Steel Beach vinyl slime lights. They are almost a perfect color for "new" slime lights. I know paint adheres to the intake covers, so it should adhere to the slime lights. That might be a great plus for sales.

[Fly-n-hi]

I wasn't referring to your work at all. I was referring to many builds you see in the gallery which, as you pointed out, are likely decals.

BTW, I really like your F-22. It looks like a super paint job and those slime lights look great to me.

Chuck

It's cool. I know that you weren't criticizing me. I was just pointing out that if the paint looked really bad I wouldn't use it. Having the glowing effect is cool but if the colors were incorrect it wouldn't be worth it. Heck, even if it didn't glow I still think this paint looks better than the decals! Once you see it in person you get a way better idea of what the color really is.

[Scott R Wilson]

For what it's worth, the real electroluminescent formation lights that ya'll call "slime lights" don't glow unless they have electrical power applied. On the light control panel in the front cockpit righthand console there was also a warning not to turn them on in daylight next to the switch controlling them in the F-4Cs and Es I worked on . I never found out for sure why, but I gather turning them on in daylight would somehow damage or burn them out. Just some trivia for you guys.

Scott Wilson