Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Git yerself a can of them "mineral spirits" at the hardware store. Just plain ole paint thinner works best. Save lacquer thinner for lacquer based paints.

They can be overkill when working on styrene and can quickly melt the plastic so you need to run at the slowest speed for limited amounts of time. Great for carving and drilling harder resin, wood, and metals. If you buy one I'd also recommend getting the flex-shaft attachment for greater control an...

Up to this point I've always used Testors gloss and flat lacquers sprayed from a rattle can for my final coats. I've never had a problem spraying them over enamels so long as you wait 3-4 days for the enamel to cure. And they've never harmed decals on any of my builds. Never tried them over acrylics...

I've used the non-buffing metalizers and would appreciate if someone could tell me the differences between buffing and non-buffing. Is there any advantage to using one over the other ? The buffing goes on flat-ish, and you have to take a cloth to it to get it to shine. The non-buffing metalizer goe...

Well I finally took the plunge and sent in an order for the Aves sampler pack available in the SSM store. I look forward to trying this stuff out. Hope it's as good as the Putty Apostles on this site say it is.

I've used the non-buffing metalizers and would appreciate if someone could tell me the differences between buffing and non-buffing.
Is there any advantage to using one over the other ?

I'm planning on taking a 3mm led and filing it down to fit in a 1mm hole. Has anyone done this before? Yes, easy peasy... lots of times but this isn't shaving it's called turning down a LED. If you dont have a mini lathe set up... use a cordless drill that can be secured into a table vise and switc...

I've used silicone caulk from a tube before to good advantage.

I've heard of others using it. Myself, I used it to fill in some spots in resin windows I'd casted that had some tiny pinholes. I just used some CA to fill them and any low spots. Looked fine after I wet sanded it. You could always experiment on some scrap plastic. There may be size limitations for ...

I've read where you need acrylics for vinyl.

Rather than trying to measure paint by looking at demarcations on a styringe or pipette I've taken to laying pieces of tape around the outside of the mixing bottle. I estimate the total amount of paint I need for the job and place a section of opaque masking tape just above that line on the bottle. ...

I've heard it's the same as plain old Future just repackaged to get the Pledge name out there.

I've used denatured alcohol to remove future before. As far as a solvent goes, it's stronger than the 70% isopropyl alcohol I use but nowhere near as strong as lacquer thinner. I would recommend wearing latex gloves with it though as it is considered poisonous and can be absorbed thru the skin.

Here's the china cabinet downstairs where I have most of my ships. It only has the one spotlight on top: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r259/Trekriffic/Miscellaneous%20Images/Display005.jpg Doors Open: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r259/Trekriffic/Miscellaneous%20Images/Display001.jpg Here'...

I was thinking maybe about holding an acrylic rod gently against a broomstick handle (or any other cylindrical object) and using a heat gun to heat it up until it droops over the handle say if I wanted a 90% elbow. Wonder if that would work ? Perhaps one could heat it up against a picture frame or a...

I keep hearing how great it is so I'm going to pop my Aves cherry on my next order to the SSM store !

I found this thread on lighting the PL 1/1000 1701 in my archives and thought it was too good not to revisit. Especially for newbies who may want to light one of the 1/1000 E's but weren't around when it originally posted.

I've gotten good results with my Paasche VL. I keep hearing the name Iwata a lot though.

Maybe it was the use of lacquer thinner to thin the enamels. Normally, I use airbrush thinner when airbrushing enamels; it's a finer grade of regular paint thinner. I generally thin my enamels with reguar old mineral spirits/paint thinner for brush application. I only use lacquer thinner for lacquer...

I thin it about 60/40 paint to thinner most of the time. Another good rule of thumb is to thin to the consistency of milk. Not thin enough can give you a pebbly finish. Thinner means smoother but runnier so go with light spray coats. My compressor sprays at around 20 PSI which works well for me.

I find dry transfers work better when applied over a gloss finish rather than flat.

Thanks everybody for your replies! That´s really helpful. Another spray can that I like, and what gives me consistent matte finishes, the best IMO, is Gunze Mr. Top Coat Flat (not to be confused with Mr Super Clear). It's also acrylic based, so it won't harm decals. I used it on my own Y that's in ...

Yep. Testors Dullcote lacquer works well for me. Just apply multiple coats to get the degree of flatness desired.

I tried vinegar for one build in various strengths. It works okay but not as well as the decal set solution. All I can figure is there are some other ingredients in the decal set which, of course, they won't tell you on the bottle.

MillenniumFalsehood wrote:So FS 34088 would be Khaki Green?

FS34088 would be olive drab according to the FS chart.

Olive drab is more yellowish than khaki which has more brown in it.

Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaki_%28color%29

You're right. I see 3 FS codes for Olive Drab. The codes vary according to the finish (1-gloss, 2-semi gloss, 3-matt), color, and light or dark value.

So FS 14087 woudl be a gloss olive drab while FS34087 would be flat. FS34088 woudl be flat and slightly lighter than FS34087.

This is a good one too:

http://www.chassis-plans.com/paint_fed-std-595.html

You can do a control F and search for FS codes on this page.

I have used two methods. Buy black, red, silver, gold, and copper (or rust if you can find it, brown might work too in conjunction with red) gel ink pens. Spray a coat of flat lacquer on the model and let dry an hour or two. Get the ink flowing in the pen and delicately make swirls of ink where you ...

Place a piece of masking tape on the area to be masked. A small piece will do. Don't lay the tape flat; leave a wrinkle in the middle to grab on to. Paint your liquid mask over the tape to the edges of the area to be masked. When done painting, grab the tape with tweezers and pull off; it will take ...

I generally follow the milk rule myself. Works well for enamels.