Nice work, Looks Great.
Look’s great Kevin. What did you use for the neon signage ? Pics of how you did it ?
Now that’s kewl!
Kevin, it’s nice to see this one done - and it looks great. Love the lighting.
What they all said ^^^^^ there… 
Looks good Kevin and with the lights looks Neto…
Thanks for the kind words everyone.
Dave- I don’t have any “work in progress” pics of the neon sign, but I will post a close up shot and an explanation a bit later.
-Kevin.
Those lights really make the model, I love the interior details, I know first hand sometimes you can go broke detailing these things. Who’s the lighting from???
Andy Clarke said:
What they all said ^^^^^ there…
Just tell him dad!
The build kick’s ass and you wanna see a menu! They may not serve haystacks but smile and 20% in gratitude towards your server would be nice!
Looks GREAT(ok I have a small Art Deco fetish as well)
Rooster- Thanks. I, too, have a thing for art deco.
Vic- You’re right- detailing can get expensive. I took the cheapy way out. Other than the coffee pot and the Bachmann passenger car seats, everything else was made from scrap box junk. Twist my arm and I’ll bore you with the details…… Oh, and the lights were done by some guy with way too much time on his hands! I promised Hollywood Napkin Builder Dave that I would post a close up shot (soon) of how I did the neon. As soon as I get brave enough to go out into the cold, I’ll go out to the shop and get a picture or two. Stay tuned…
-Kevin.
Very nice Kevin! The night shot is fantastic. This is going to look super out on your RR. Looking forward to the lighting details.
Thanks, Jon. Lighting details coming soon…….
-Kevin.
Neon sign details:
I really should have taken some “work in progress” pics, but this project sat for so long that I eventually just kinda ‘went for it’ one day and didn’t really think too much about keeping a detailed log of my progress. I’ll do my best to make some sense of it all now…
The sign is constructed of clear pexiglass. It is made with a “sandwich” concept- 2 thin pieces of plexiglass for the front and back and then some thicker pieces sandwiched in between on the ends and at the top of the sign. This allows an open space in the center of the sign (behind the letters) to install the LED lights. Hopefully, this picture will illustrate this:
Before glueing the plexiglass parts together, I painted the inside of the front piece with a special translucent green spray paint. The paint is meant for frosting glass (probably to imitate stained glass). NOTE: The directions on the can CLEARLY state that this paint is NOT for use on PLASTIC. Boy, do I feel rebellious. On the front side of the sign I applied vinyl stick on letters (L O L L Y ’ S etc… you get the picture) as a paint mask. Then, I sprayed on the white color coat. After it dried, I pealed off the vinyl letter mask.
Next, I took some plastic letters- the kind that you normally see on a marquee or letter board at a restaurant- painted them and glued them over the green outlined letters. So it looks like this…
The letters have a convenient little tab on the back for pushing them into a letter board. Coincidently, that tab also works great for raising the letters off of the sign surface (I trimmed the tab a bit).
I installed some LEDs inside the open space in the sign and…… POOF!!! Instant neon.
-Kevin.
Now that is innovative…If I had a need for a neon sign, I’d use your method…Nice!
That is great, Thanks Kevin.
Great technique. Might even work for outside; I’ll have to keep that in mind.
I sure do like the look.
Excellent technique. It may even have a real-world application - I love playing with LED modules at work, Gonna try this full scale.
Thank you Kevin. That technique looks simple and easy enough. And it comes out looking like the real thing. I might get a movie house yet.
John, when I worked at the sign shop we did things like that full scale with led and neon.
For neon tubes I wonder if you could use a fiber optic wire? I don’t know if the sides give off enough light though. Excellent job on the diner by the way. Once I get working on my town I’m gonna have a diner as well.
Terry
I just came across this thread.
Dude,excellent looking Diner and I really like the way you made the sign!