Tutorial: How to make neon signs, by Andy M

Copied for safekeeping off of the Lead Adventure Forum, as I had it bookmarked but the Great Photobucket Disaster of 2017 left it without pictures. It has now been restored: How to make Neon signs

Following text is all Andy M's

 So how to do neon signs....

Well....you don't need much. The making of the sign is just a bit of plastic card and some solder. You'll need superglue to stick the solder down and a knife to cut it.

 1. Cut the plastic card and draw out your sign. Having a template to cut the solder really helps get the size of the bits right.

 2. Glue your bits on with superglue.

 3. Now for the neon to work it needs to be on a dark background. Its the contrast between light/dark that should fool the viewer into believing its real. I've started here with GW Leadbeltcher Metal.

 4. I've then mixed a heavy wash. 1 part GW Nuln oil, 2 parts GW Abaddon Black to 3 parts water. Then allow it to dry.

 5. Here I've used GW Mephiston Red and an old brush. The idea here is to drybrush into the cracks around the solder and drybrush a 'halo' around the letters.

6. Use the same colour as the last step but paint the letters a solid colour this time with a decent brush.

 7. The next stage is just to add some white, GW Ceramic White, 1 part red to 1 part white. Don't paint the whole letter this time, but try and make each successful highlight a smaller line than the one before.

 8. Add more white to your mix 1 part red to 2 parts white. Apply some of your whitest highlights at the start and end of the letters.

Edit: I forgot to mention the other colours that seem to work for me....

Blue Neon: replace GW Mephiston Red with GW Sotek Green.

Green Neon: drybrush GW Warboss Green to create the 'halo' effect around the solder letters, then use GW Moot Green to paint the letters. Add more and more white to the Moot Green to highlight the letters.