Thread: Rusty Lanterns

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I have wanted to do this for a long time. I was aiming for this year when I saw the thread about what the stores were starting to carry recently. One of the items was a cheap lantern meant for tea lights. I would have preferred a kerosene lantern, but they were too expensive. I picked these up for $7 a piece. L.A. prices donchaknow.

After disassembly, I used this stuff to frost the glass globes. From what I have seen, the spray looks better. This stuff took multiple coats, but it was a lot cheaper than the can of spray.

From the inside, I sprayed a light coating of black primer on the upper end of the globe to simulate soot. You can also see that the first coat or two of frosting is on the outside.

Now, no real aged lantern makes it through life without a few knocks. I took a hammer and pounded the laterns out of shape. Be sure to be careful about where the cage bars mount, if you pound the hole in the sheet metal it might not line up again when it comes to re-assembly.

I sprayed all of the lantern parts with red primer.

I really love the lanterns you get to see at Disneyland's Pirates of the Carribean. I just don't love that you also see the wires. So, I am going to attempt to try and hide them. This is one reason I wanted a kerosene lantern, the legs on the sides are hollow and thick enough to run the wires inside of them. But this is what I decided to do instead.

I'm using door bell wire and am gluing it on to the lantern with Cyanoacrylic (Krazy type) glue. I also drilled holes to run the wires where needed.

The clothes pins were to hold the wire while the glue dried. I also had to choose which side of the lantern would be the back. I ran the wires along the back side. This is an image of the wires glued in place.

Once I ran the wire inside of the upper lantern body I then ran the wires along the inside of the rear metal cage bars. Again, with the glue and clothes pins.

Here you can see a little better how the wires are run. That big hole in the bottom of the upper lantern body is a problem, especially if these end up out in the rain. I'll get to that next.