Howdy Barry,
Thats a cool tip in itself. i never thought of the tail light lens laying all over the street lol, I have some out in front of my house (I live at a busy intersection).
But, using the clear plastic sprue bits, you achieve a sort of "clear lens" over the color painted on the "bottom" of the light (bottom being the end of the light glued to the model).
Anyway, I like your idea alot.
Below is a pic of "installed lights". The colors are somewhat hard to see, I used a flash on my camera at the time...oops lol
Anyway, Dont ever let anyone say that modeller arent a resourceful bunch, I mean taking scrap plastic for lights, using the tie twist off bread wrappers for antenna, or panty hose for camo netting in diaromas.......oops, there went another secret lol. Well, I have two tanks I will be building soon, so we will get to that tip when I finish them.
anyway, have a good day,
Greg