Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

An excellent assortment of models at the show! Nice craftsmanship in many cases, too. Maybe I'll make it to Wonderfest 2024...

Thanks for the comments, gentlemen!

Wug & Zubie - thank you!

I highly recommend Evan Designs for all your scale model lighting needs. The company provides an excellent range of solutions, the service is exceptional and fast, and the quality is superb. It is now my go-to, and I've spent about $300 thus far on various lighting products.

https://evandesigns.com

Thank you for the compliments. It was a fun build but must admit that a lack of planning ahead certainly made this challenging. I have a habit of doing that, frankly. I suppose that can be fun, but only when an unforeseen challenge is actually overcome. While the lesson learned is to plan ahead, I c...

Here is a scratch build project completed several months ago. As background, I envisioned a large vehicle, about 500 meters in length. I imagine the engine to be an intertial confinement fusion drive system, similar to the one conceptualized decades ago for Project Daedalus. The propulsion system co...

Nope - CCFLs are good. The circuit board is located in the primary hull, all buttoned up. The LEDs for the strobe work, but the circuit apparently doesn't. So, I routed fiber optics to light sources in the model so at least a steady light will be apparent at the strobe locations. It sucks, because t...

Be careful where hot leads touch. One of the leads to a CCFL used to light an engine for my 1/350 Refit touched that of an LED used in a strobe circuit. It didn't take much to fry the entire strobe circuit, and since the circuit board is buttoned up in the model, there is nothing I can do. Needless ...

I have four basic circuits for my 1/350 Enterprise Refit. One is for three CCFLs. Another is for 8 steady LEDs. The third is for the colored navigation lights. The last is for four strobe lights. During construction, I noticed on two occasions that the strobe circuit stopped working. I was pissed, b...

Can I spray Tamiya Surface Primer L on top of a basic Krylon Indoor/Outdoor flat black? I have no idea what the Tamiya paint is, but I think the Krylon stuff is a lacquer. In other words, this is your basic lacquer/enamel question. If both are lacquer, no worries. If they are different, I need to be...

Thanks for bringing this little kit to my attention. Not only are they wonderful for model projects, they are also quite useful in terms of "back engineering" for those of us relearning electronics.

I will be ordering one fo these when they come in stock...

Horror! I seem to have tossed my scrounge box during the move! Blast! I'm scratchbuilding the Discovery from 2001 and need all sorts of tank parts - so I set off to by tank models. Luckily, it seems 1/72 tanks do the trick (I had no idea what scale would produce the right details). Anyway, I now go ...

Is there a way to know the specs of an LED if you've lost the packaging, etc.? I comissioned someone to build a circuit for my 1/350 Refit, and he did an outstanding job. However, a few LEDs are not lighting, which could be a few things (but not the board). I need to get new LEDs, but do not know wh...

I understand the intimidation issue.

As for electronics, I simply hire someone to deal with that, then I back engineer as required.

Works pretty well, and there are few worries of burning up components

I have a request for custom decals. I am scratchbuilding a vehicle and need some very simple decals made up. I will provide the jpegs. I'll learn how to do this on my own some day, but not right now. Who out there does this sort of thing? The Starship Modeler "Where to buy stuff" links did...

Excellent advice from all - thanks. I will be painting my PL 1/350 Enterprise refit with metallics, using a silver as base coat. I don't want a chrome finish, but I do need a tough coat of the stuff so I can mask off panels and such.

I'll let you know how it goes.

I use a bunch of wood bits from wooden ship model kits, and lots of Evergreen and Plastruct plastic bits. I also comb the aisles of Home Depot looking for assorted odds and ends.

I would like some opinions on the toughest silver paint out there. To be more precise, which silver paint holds up very well to masking? My research seems to indicate that Alclad is the toughest, but would like additional experienced input. Whatever the answers are, I still intend to overcoat with F...