Luminescent paint

[Janry]

The layout I'm building is going to lean heavily to being an after dark theme. Night club, lover's lane, kind of edgy and funky. Anyway, I was thinking the use of luminescent paint and a black light might be interesting. Just use the luminescent paint kind of sparingly to highlight some buildings, road lines, backdrop features, etc.

Does anyone have any advice they can give on using luminescent paint?

 

[Chris Roy]

Model Railroader had a good article on this back in the day; it made it into one of their books as well. Fluorescent paint & UV lighting to simulate a variety of lighting effects, including neon. One product they used (and this was a long time ago, but I'm sure there are new similar products on the market now), was a clear UV reactive paint. It was really cool because you could paint it over signs, windows, and lights on the backdrop buildings, and not see it at all during 'daylight', but it made the backdrop come to life at night.

 

[Janry]

...a clear UV reactive paint. .....

Searching that term, I get hits on some interesting products and information. Thanks for the help. I'm very interested in trying it. However, it seems it is taking forever to get stuff done on the railroad.

 

[Chris Roy]

I just tracked down what book that was in - "Detailing Tips and Techniques (Model Railroading Handbook No. 35)", Bob Hayden & Earl Smallshaw. This is the one book I've managed to lose somehow over the years (maybe I lent it to someone and forgot...), but I just ordered a used copy from Amazon for 4 bucks - can't beat that!

 

[RW&C]

You have to post pictures of this when it's done, from the descriptions this should look amazing.