Painting tail lights, inside or outside?

[Demoniac]

I'm continuing my 1:14 1850L build, and I've now come to the tail lights.

What should I do, paint inside or outside? There are some details in the lens, if I paint it on the outside, will these still shine through?

The 1850L is an old truck, and these lights were red and orange all the way through, so outside seems like the best solution to make them authentic.

Also, the manual says "paint inside" on the sun protector and some other parts, but not these tail lights, which of course then speaks for it self - "paint on the outside". But I don't have any experience on how it will look...

HELP!

[Tamiyabigstuff]

Tail lights are clear plastic - paint on the inside to preserve the external detail.

If you use the Tamiya clear red ( X27 ) & orange ( X26 ) acrylic paint, light will still shine through if you want to add the MFU & lighting kit.

[Demoniac]

Yeah, I'm adding the MFC-01. But wouldn't it look more clear when painting on the inside? I thought it should be covered as much as possible, and the manual doesn't say to paint on the inside...

Does anyone have examples of paint on inside vs outside?

[mongoose1983]

Quite frankly, I yet have to see someone using clear colors on the outside of the indicators.

Here's my take. The black borderlines were painted on the outside:

[Demoniac]

Oh, wow! That looks way better than I imagined! Cool!

I ordered the X-26 and X27, will test first on "scrap" parts

Thanks!

[SteveU30]

I use Sharpies to do mine from the inside:

[mongoose1983]

I use Sharpies to do mine from the inside:

With Sharpies! Why didn't I think of that. The results are better than good!! Excellent idea, Steve!

[SteveU30]

 

With Sharpies! Why didn't I think of that. The results are better than good!! Excellent idea, Steve!

Alas I can't take the credit, Skottoman posted this ages ago and I pinched the idea. I've used it several times and it works a treat!

[lawdog]

Alas I can't take the credit, Skottoman posted this ages ago and I pinched the idea. I've used it several times and it works a treat!

I do the same thing, but I paint the inside with silver to give it some backing and a more metallic interior look. Unless, of course, it's going over actual lights/LEDs.