Update 7, Nov 29th
According to the Union Pacific historical photos the tint color used on the dome windows has seems to have changed over the years. I have found different online photos of same exact dome car where the tint appears to be light green, light blue, clear or smoke color. I wanted my City of Los Angeles observation dome car to match the original 1955 photos, so I picked a light aqua green/soft teal color.
Note: If you are trying to match the present-day look of Union Pacific’s excursion cars. You can see in my October 2019 photo below the dome windows currently have a dark smoke tint.
Searching this O-Gauge forum I have found several different methods to tint dome windows but ultimately I needed four things at this point in the project. 1. Needed to create brand new windows. 2. Needed these windows need to be able bend and curve. 3. Needed these windows to have light aqua green or soft teal color. 4. Needed a color transparent enough to allow my guests to look inside and see the detailed passengers.
Finding the exact 1955 Union Pacific tint color was a challenge. Some tints colors were too bright blue, others were too neon green. Some tint colors were disqualified because they were too dark and others were eliminated because they had a mirror/reflective finish. After a week of searching I decided on Solar non-reflective green color tint strips 8” x 6ft with D,I,Y kit from eBay. The reasons were, this tint was thick enough to be used as the window material and had a color was gradient. That meant I could choose the exact level of tint used on the dome windows. Since I wanted my guests to still look inside and see the passengers I picked the lightly tinted section between 1” and 2” on the ruler.
With an airbrush I applied Tru-Color's Harbor Mist Gray #TCP-025 paint to the new dome structure. Then, painted the silver trim around the 12 window frames with a small paint brush. Next, I sprayed with a flat Krylon clear coat.
Once dry, I trimmed the tinted windows to the correct sizes and installed them using canopy glue.
I think this newly built dome structure and its window color are pretty darn close to matching this photo of the real Union Pacific 9004 observation car. http://rrpicturearchives.net/s...ture.aspx?id=4622976
Stay tuned for the next step…
