Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Gents, I'm trying to blend three different powder colors: a yellow, black and a blue-green. The goal's to wind up with a dark yellow-green. I've not had much luck, though. It seems every time I get the stuff wet (I'm using Windex; I can explain the madness behind that later!), it either dries almost...

Gentlemen (and esteemed ladies, too few that you are! :) ), I recently picked up a neat little resin model, and it's a decent casting overall. I'd rate it a 7 outta 10 at worst. The main problem is that there are [very tiny!] holes in a number of tight corners and at wings' extreme-most edges. My qu...

I say it's a Klingon stigmata. [-o< Seriously, that's the craziest thing I've heard in a while Sean. Kenny I'm with ya, m'man. It is truly bizarre! :shock: Fortunately, I managed to keep the part from acting up long enough to make a good mold of the thing. The first casting I did turned out great. ...

Update: Washing it with filtered water + letting it dry at room temperature = better results, but there were still a couple of areas in which stuff oozed out. Oddly enough, the crud is coming out of hairline cracks on either side of the part now :-| (I would've taken pictures, but I doubt you could ...

It's funny, but that was one of my first (well, okay, second or third) thoughts: shoot a little cyano into the "hole," nail it with some accelerator, then see what happens :) I'm most pleased to hear -- cough, read -- you also consider that :) I'm gonna wait until the last minute to do thi...

sounds like it could be that the resin was inhibited by some reaction and never cured properly inside, leaching resin as it's referred to. Will Could very well be. The outside's cured by all indications: it readily takes paint; it's certainly solid; and heretofore, I've had no problems. It was only...

Can you post a pic of the affected area? If my latest fix* doesn't work, will do. *I saw Glenn Harris, local model expert and hobbyshop owner. He saw the offending part and thought it looked like some hard water damage he'd seen ages ago. He suggested I clean up the gunk with filtered water and let...

That's just the Oompa-Loompa blood oozing out of the resin. It'll wash right off and if you don't get it all, don't worry-- it's paintable. :D I wish it were that simple. I'd skewer a few 'Loompas to fix the problem right about now ;) Looking at the stuff oozing out, it looks kinda like the catalys...

Gents, I hope this is the right forum. My kitbashed KBoP's "head" is made of resin -- Alumilite or Amazing Casting Resin, one (I can't remember; this goes back many months). There is a small hole drilled into the part for a fwd. torpedo tube. I had to strip some paint from the model yester...

Kylwell wrote:Micro Punch, Arbor Press with punch, & Hole Punch.

Niiiiiice, Robb. Thank you.

I pray I can find something local (not to mention cheap!), but the stuff I've seen at the hardware store and Hobby Lobby's not too encouraging

Gentlemen, I need a tool that can cut clean circles in styrene of various thicknesses. I have a dinky compass that's got a small blade in lieu of a pencil, but it's all but worthless. I've found various so-called circle cutters, but they typically only cut VERY large holes for my purposes (i.e., 1&q...

Er... I'm @ a loss. I'll have to experiment to see if I can duplicate the results. Have you tried thinning with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner? I've not, but my apologies: I was using a Mr. Surfacer 1200 spray can. I should've been clear about that from the get-go :cry: I should also note that these &q...

All, First, my apologies if this has been covered before. I looked and looked but didn't find anything in the archives about it. I really dig Mr. Surfacer 1.2k. Wonderful stuff, really. However, I sometimes notice pecularities when I use it. On a heavily-paneled model -- think the wings of a Klingon...

All, I'd like to sincerely apologize in advance if this question's in the wrong forum and/or if I'm missing a sticky somewhere. I searched the site for "vacuform" and turned up zip. In any case ... I built a "vacuform table" very much like this bugger: http://www.studiocreations....

Thanks, Ken!

All, I've always had awesome results with Testor's Dullcote cans (not so much Model Master's Lusterless, though ... ?!). I've perfected my "misting" technique and can always count on a very durable, perfectly flat finish. I'm curious, however ... I've got a glass bottle of Dullcote and, si...

Gents, I decided to tackle another Adversary Set Warbird. It's a decent enough kit except for its horrid lack of windows! I have tried using a pin vise to drill out windows and fill 'em with oil paints and/or watercolors. The results have been mixed. My rows of windows almost always wind up crooked....

Late on this... maybe you can use the airbrush cleaner as a thinner? How have you made out so far on this?? I've not tried the airbrush cleaner as a thinner yet, but I might. I'll say this, though: mixing the Alclad II gray primer roughly 50/50 with good ole' Home Depot lacquer thinner recaptured t...

Has anyone found that, even spraying @ ~12-15 PSI, your Future isn't the fine mist you'd like it to be?

Quick update: I tried mixing a little Alclad gray 50/50 with regular lacquer thinner, mostly as an experiment. I wanted to see if it'd craze bare plastic but, most of all, I wanted to be sure my problem was due to overly-thick paint. I was right. The thinned Alclad went on beautifully and, surprisin...

Hm, don't know how much help I can be but I'll take a crack at it... I'm assuming this is hardware store lacquer thinner... that stuff can be pretty harsh, so I usually reserve it for cleanup rather than thinning paints. I don't know if Alclad has their own thinner - if not maybe you should try Mr....

All, I've used Alclad's gray primer with almost magical results for months now. The stuff usually went on idiot-proof: no thinning required, incredibly smooth finish and, since I spray it at ~15 PSI, a bottle lasts forever. ... That is, until my last bottle ran out. I bought a new one and have strug...

Sounds like you do indeed have dust under the vinyl. If it were just a bubble, you could pierce it with a pin and it should settle down (like on a decal). If the surface has enough solid lacquer on it, you can probably use a sanding block to level the lacquer and eliminate the imperfection at the s...

All, I've applied the gorgeous Aztec Dummy vinyl plates to my Polar Lights D7, but I have a slight problem: there is small (1-3mm) lump -- almost like bubbles -- underneath nearly every panel. I've already sealed the vinyl with two wet coats of lacquer. I don't think the lumps will look really bad o...

Scotch magic tape does a great job of lifting Micromask. I tested that today. At first, I was skeptical. I applied the tape, burnished it down on the Micromasked areas, and gave it a good RIIIIIIIP! But nothing happened :?: Then I put the part in water for a minute or two. I dried the sucker, then ...

Gents, I'm still having a devil of a time with my two Fine Molds TIEs. Everything's coming along great except the clear parts: the canopy and the egress hatch. I've finally mastered getting these two pieces nice n' crystal clear; polishing and Future-dipping has worked wonders :) Also on the plus si...

I have had the same problem - without lacquer thinner. On the rare instances I still use oil washes, I use turpatine instead of turpentine. I hope this helps. Kenny Interesting stuff, Kenny. I was really just messing around with the oil wash; I love to use them for small figures and very tight area...

The subject line kinda says it all ;) Fortunately, this wasn't a disaster for me (2 test pieces), but it did leave me very puzzled. If I recall the details correctly, these are the stages of painting I used in each case: *airbrushed MM enamels thinned with lacquer thinner, which was allowed to cure ...

Well I tried the isopropyl, it ate through the lacquer before it did the acryl, the windex doesn't seem to be doing anything to either, do I need to let the windex sit on it? Dang. Sorry to hear the alcohol cut into the lacquer. Windex does need to dwell on acrylics for awhile, at least in my exper...

Oh, yeah -- isopropyl or Windex'll eat up dry acrylics. Don't worry It might take a little patience, but you'll get there