Home made clear lenses

By Bob Walls

When I first got back into the hobby I was constantly amazed by all the advances that had been made
during my 20+ year hiatus from the hobby. One item, admittedly rather small, amazed me. Clear lenses.
I was used to kits that come with solid headlights or spotlights. What I saw was that many modelers
were using MV lenses on older kits which did not come with clear lenses. I learned that these were
railroad modeling parts called MV lenses and you could buy them in many sizes. Drill out your light and
put in one of these and you had 1000% better looking headlights or spotlight. I remembered back to my
“good old days”. Back in the 1980’s since no tank kits came with clear headlight lenses so I had learned a
trick to make my own clear lenses and the trick still works nicely today. Here are the steps.

1. I leave the headlights on the spure. This makes them easier to work with. I hollow out the
headlight housing removing the front of the headlight. Photo A shows where I have marked the
center of each headlight using a #11 Xacto blade. Photo B shows my pilot hole using a small drill
bit in a hand vise. Photo C shows a larger hole by using slightly larger drill bits. I increase the bit
size to enlarge the hole so the kit solid lens is gone. I only go into front of the plastic and NOT to
the back. You can drill out the back if you are too heavy handed with this.
2. Once I have the front of the headlight lens drilled out I use a curved Xacto blade to “round out”
the inside of the headlight housing and even out the hole.
3. I place my parts on a glob of masking tape to hold them and then paint them in the base color of
the model. When dry, I add the silver reflector part inside the light.
4. Every modeler needs two part fast dry epoxy. My go to are bottles of Devcon 5 Minute which I
picked up at Lowes in their glue section. Make sure they are clear. Mine have one colored bottle
(on the right) but the glue inside is crystal clear.
5. Stir the epoxy up making sure to do it slowly and so not to make any bubbles.
6. You now have 5 minutes to do the next step.
7. Using a toothpick dip the tip into the epoxy. No need for a lot. Place the tip of the toothpick into
the hole you made in the headlight and let the epoxy stick to the plastic. Add a little until you
have filled the hole. Use a clean toothpick to remove epoxy if you get too much in. Let these
now cure.
Once they have set you can glue your headlights onto the model. I then cover the new lenses with a
small piece of Tamiya tape to protect the newly formed headlight lens. That way you can still paint the
model or weather it and not have to worry about getting any paint or unwanted grime on those nice
clear lenses.

Here is a photo of the lenses installed on one of my Stuarts. Oh, may be wondering why I did not do this
to the dual head light on the right, the one with the arrow. That’s simple. It is not a headlight. It is a
siren. Tanks don’t have horns.

If you wonder, the Devcon Epoxy does not yellow with time. I have models 30 years old with clear
lenses! Other clear 5 minute epoxy may work fine, but in the long run these large bottles of Devcon will
last you 5 years or more. Eventually it will start to goop up and it is time to buy new bottles.