spot mirrors

[kerr54]

Hey guys, I wanted to make some spot mirrors for my rigs and tried a few things but.......I don't know......they just don't look right. How do you guys do it?

[Deleted]

I have not done it yet but I was going to make some using the chrome hub covers that come with the KW cabover or White-Freightliner kits. The ones that are chromed and are smooth with the right bevel to them. They should look pretty cool. There is also a tutorial on this site or another where some one used thumb tacks polished up. Check the how to section.

[camaro73]

I have used the hub covers in the past. They work pretty good. I have never thought about using thumb tacks.

[reddog414]

i have used thumb tacks and foiled them come out decent next time im going to try a paper hole punch on some thin plastic see how that works

[kerr54]

Now the paper hole punch thing sounds good. Haven't thought of that. The hub caps that I'm thinking of, maybe too big huh? Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[rnagle]

I've used the thumbtack approach on a few models, styrene cut & glued in place, then trimmed to fill out front surface of mirror body:



Initially I went with Bare Metal Foil for reflective surface, this works OK however it is difficult to get foil as smooth as real mirror glass:


Similar approach to constructing basic mirror body on this model, here I used Alclad Chrome to paint entire mirror. For mounting brackets I used .040 styrene rod with ends flattened using smooth jaw pliers to simulate prototype brackets with flat ends where parts bolt together:

[kerr54]

wow that looks great. Thanks for sharing.