Thin Plastic for Windows

[Patĉjo]

Let me preface this with Mr. Oldschooldm has a tremendous thread and tutorial on using a thicker transparent sheet with a design for phenomenal detailed windows.

I'm asking for the poor man's alternative. Does anyone have experience with, ideas on, or tips for using thin cellophane like plastics for windows?
So I have a building with windows and they're that general grey blue cardstock window. I want to see what'll happen if I cut those out and replace them with trash plastic from those plastic cutlery sets and what not. I mostly got into cardboard warriors for the environmentalism and upcycling some trash sounds good to me!

[Vermin King]

Going to have to talk to someone other than me. My experiences 'glazing' windows was less than spectacular

[alloydog]

I have tried using clear plastic from food packaging and those thin document folders from time to time. But because I use fairly thick card for my building walls, the window "glass" has looked, to my eye, either too far in (fixed on the inside of the building) or too far outwards (fixed on the outside of the building). My next attempt will be to glue the clear plastic actually in the window cut-out itself.

Another alternative is to put a piece of clear sticky-tape over the "glazed" area, then fix the window frame over that. That makes the area where the glass would be shinier than the rest of the walls.

[Patĉjo]

Hey man, negative input is welcome; presuming it is not mean spirited, but I do not get that vibe from this forum.

Case in point, Mr. Alloydog has presented me with a hurdle I had not considered myself.
Indeed my idea was to just overlap the inner area with plastic and call it a day. I am not even sure how much of my hinderance would be because of the 'lip' that it would form on one side of the 'glass'. However, that overlap onto the inner walls would be unforgivable. No point putting in windows to see a cool interior, only to have it bested by a glass pane bolted 10cm around every edge of the window frame

Time to prototype little windows and see if its worth the effort. I am thinking from inner to outer: Cardstock 1, with a frame texture on it; Cardstock 2, blank with the edges colored to hide the white; Plastic; Cardstock 3, blank-edged; Cardstock 4, textured. Perhaps an additional layer-pair between 2 and 3 to give it more oomph. Results to follow...

[Vermin King]

My best results were on a vehicle with plastic sandwiched between the body and an inner cardstock frame, but like alloydog, it just seemed inset too much

[cherno]

I used the thin plastic sheets you use for overhead projectors. I printed the window crossbars and frames onto them and then inserted them between the foamcore and printed cardstock I used for my WorldWorks buildings.

[alloydog]

Sept 25, 2020 5:09:26 GMT -9 cherno said:

I used the thin plastic sheets you use for overhead projectors. I printed the window crossbars and frames onto them and then inserted them between the foamcore and printed cardstock I used for my WorldWorks buildings.

Laaaaadies and gentlemen! Girls and boys! We haaaaave a winner!

[oldschooldm]

Isn't that where we started? Acetate? That's not cheap.

Another thing to try would be two thicknesses of clear tape, stuck glue sides together. Creates a bubly shinier texture.

[Vermin King]

Sept 25, 2020 5:23:57 GMT -9 alloydog said:

Sept 25, 2020 5:09:26 GMT -9 cherno said:

I used the thin plastic sheets you use for overhead projectors. I printed the window crossbars and frames onto them and then inserted them between the foamcore and printed cardstock I used for my WorldWorks buildings.

Laaaaadies and gentlemen! Girls and boys! We haaaaave a winner!

For buildings, yes, but for vehicles, not so well. Maybe it would work okay on some vehicles, but not others. I did have an idea sparked by this conversation, though. Modern automobiles have glass that is almost flush with the body panels. If I had done my original method and cut out a to-fit window and edge-glued it against the other panel, but inside the frame, it could work. Not sure when I will have time to try the idea, but I think it would work

[Vermin King]

Sept 25, 2020 5:41:37 GMT -9 oldschooldm said:

Isn't that where we started? Acetate? That's not cheap.

Another thing to try would be two thicknesses of clear tape, stuck glue sides together. Creates a bubly shinier texture.

Can you use a roller to get rid of some of the bubbly-ness? Having cats, I would probably have a 'fuzzier' shinier texture

[Patĉjo]

Alrighty, so I got something together but my haste fails to do it justice.

Mr. Cherno does indeed have a remarkable idea that looks fantastic. The ability to print directly onto it is also a huge boon. Frankly making buildings out of foamcore hasn't actually occurred to me yet, but between foam and cardstock does seem like a good idea.

As for my experiment, I would say in totality that I like it better than normal windows...but am not sure its worth the effort. Lining up the inner and outer two cardstocks was quite difficult and you can see my short comings in the images below. The white you see around the frame is the back of the opposite frame. That could be overcome by completely blacking out the backs, I suppose. Also blacklining the edges gives it a stylistic look that pops it out of the rest of the piece. Maybe attaching stock wood texture to the bare edges rather than black marker?





The piece is Mr. Graffam's Hovel which is fantastic, and has allowed me to gain my footing in the hobby (though obviously I have a long way up to go, yet). The plastic I used here was just cereal bag, so I am happy to see that reused.

[cherno]

Sept 25, 2020 5:41:37 GMT -9 oldschooldm said:

Isn't that where we started? Acetate? That's not cheap.

Not sure if you refer to the overhead projector sheets, but if so, I am not sure I understand... These come in pack of 20 or thereabout and are not that expensive... After all, these are basic office supplies

For more rigid purposes, maybe the plastic from miniature blister packs is a good material?

On a side note, a regular inkjet printer can also print onto fabric; I used this to print some sails for Lego pirate ships. I just put a piece of fabric (off-white linen or whatever) slifghtly smaller than A4 format onto a normal piece of paper and temp-glued it with scotch tape. At least the back paper intake of the printer accepted it without a hitch.

[wyvern]

Thin, clear, "hard" plastic will work fine as clear windows, with some work to fit a frame properly. This is essentially what railway modellers have used for windows in printed, die-cut heavy cardstock models for many decades.

I've had mixed results using printed OHP acetate sheets. In theory they sound good, and if you've a laser printer which will give high-quality results on plastics, it will probably be good (speaking as someone who's never used one!). However, if you're working with an inkjet printer, you may find the results not as sharp as you might hope. You also need to be careful not to touch the printable side of the film, as that can smudge the printing, even some hours after the ink's supposedly dry. If you try to protect it with a second sheet of ordinary thin clear plastic, do not use glue, because I've yet to find a glue that won't cause the ink to run on OHP printed plastics that I've tried, no matter how long the plastic's been left for the ink to cure. This is obviously a further snag if you get any glue onto the printing accidentally, while trying to fix it into a window frame, for instance. If you don't protect the printed side of the plastic in some form, it will gather dust and lose its clarity, while OHP inkjet printable sheets aren't wholly clear even in the first place.

Clear sticky tape should be avoided in general. The glue is not light-fast, and will rot in ordinary daylight, discolouring whatever it was attached to before falling off, leaving a permanent, unpleasant yellow-brown stain. For something that's only going to be used a few times shortly after you've made it, it might be thought OK, but not for more than that. It's definitely not a permanent solution.

Some (unfortunately not all) types of clear, self adhesive plastic film rolls, the kind sometimes used to protect softcover library books, do have light-fast glues, and will stay clear even in daylight more or less indefinitely. I have a couple of maps covered like this which have shown no problems after three decades and more, despite being occasionally in full sunlight, for instance. Sadly, working out which are the better types is a matter of trial and error, and I can't help here, as the one brand name I used to rely on is no longer manufactured... Additionally, as also with sticky tapes, you can't use them as truly clear windows, because the glue, especially when stuck to itself, is never completely transparent, and often looks mottled. For certain types of low-quality medieval-style glass, this may be OK to a point, though it's close to defeating the purpose of adding transparent windows at all, of course.