Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Have you tried any of the high-strength degreasers like SuperClean?

Ken

What brand(s) of paint did you use for the colors?

What primer did you use?

Can you elaborate more on the technique you read about and the intended effect?

Ken

To me, matte paint covered in Future looks like matte paint covered in Future instead of the gloss paint look you're after. Really about the only way to get the depth and sheen of gloss paint is to use it, problem is that gloss paints don't cover as well as their flat counterparts so it can be tough...

I'll second the magnet idea, that's what Tamiya uses on their 1/16 R/C armor line to cover the control panels, works great and you can't tell the panels are removable.

Ken

Something I looked a long time for was some clear plastic cylinders with a base to make a flanged lens like you see on old diving suits, the problem I had was that are commonly molded with the injection point in the center of the base, ruining the lens. I ended up finding some lipstick tubes in the ...

I'm no physician. This is purely anecdotal. I, personally have only had one problem shooting anything from an airbrush in my life. I was shooting Future into my booth, and forgot to turn the fan on. For whatever reason, I inhaled a big lungful. My lungs "itched" for a few days, then I got...

What are you trying to bond the pieces to?
Are you bonding them along the edges (ie making a box) or laying the sheet down flat (like a baseplate)?

For the flat application I'd use either spray adhesive or contact cement.

Ken

Best tip is to keep it away from sunlight.

Ken

Do you have a lot of pinholes to fill? I had a resin figure kit that had a lot of pinholes in one area, I could never get them all filled since they were so small the filler would not go into the holes, plus sanding kept opening up more pinholes. I ended up skinning over the area with filler/primer ...

Floquil Reefer White is just a pure flat white, a lot of us like it because the pigments are very dense but fine, so it covers well but doesn't hide details.

Ken

Looking for something 11/16" nominal OD and around 1/2" to 9/16" ID, ideally .040" thick or thinner. I didn't know about the Plastruct rings, I looked at what they had, they do make 11/16" OD rings but the ID is a shade smaller than what I need, plus the thickness is way too...

Never thought about using washers for the pattern, you're a genius!

Ken

Got a little project going on that needs 4 lenses made, I've found the perfect sized lens and barrel material (lipstick tubes w/o the center mark) but I need to make a riveted flange on one end. My first idea was to cut out 4 rings in styrene and glue them onto the end of the barrel and then glue a ...

I had a figure kit that wouldn't stop oozing after multiple baths in Simple Green, Bleech-White, etc. I ended up returning it to the mfr. and got another one with the same problems. Over the course of 6-8 months I cleaned the new kit on a fairly regular basis with strong degreasers in warm water, af...

I've had a few resin kits that I've had priemr not stick, I'm fairly certain that all of the mold release is off yet the paint scrapes off like in your test. Looking at the surface it was nearly glass smooth, I don't think the primer could bond to it. I did the Comet+toothbrush trick and it worked, ...

A few things to consider: -What type can you get locally? When I started I could ony get enamels locally so that's what I've stayed with for the most part, I'm familiar with how to thin and apply them, i've used some acrylics in the past when I needed a certain color match though. When (not if) you ...

Aren't these the airbrushes that bear more than a passing resemblance and parts commonality to Iwata's?

Ken

I know that Gunze makes an acrylic lacquer and I know not to mix it with regular acrylics, just wanted to make sure that Gunze and Tamiya acrylics were compatible beyond the mixing stage, a thousand pardons Sahib.

Are there any compatibility issues with mixing Gunze and Tamiya acrylics before application?

I know that sometimes they don't play nice with each other if you spray one over the other (Tamiya over Gunze I think).

Ken

Have you tried warming it to lower the viscosity? I've done that with various brands of hardware store epoxies more than once, it works but accelerates the cure time by 50% or more, I haven't had one get hot enough to melt plastic or anything but I've had a few that managed to get hot enough where t...

I've never heard of chrome that would resist Easy-Off, looking around there are several different types of Easy-Off, which one do you have?

I think primer will go on fine over the chrome providing you're not masking over it (which sounds like you're not going to do).

Ken

More forgiving - Spray some clear acrylic flat on the backside

Less forgiving- Sand the backside with fine wet-or-dry sandpaper

Future floor wax...Seriously... I've used it for thin PE parts that will be very visible locations so no glue squeeze-out is a must. It's got a slow drying time so you can move the parts as needed to fit before it sets. Once you have an area done the way you like it I'd brush on another coat to seal...

Never seen it in Michael's, do you have a model train store nearby? It's marketed more for weathering model RR stuff.

Ken

I think they ran into some labeling issues with the cans again and are redoing them.

Ken

This kind:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... oQ8wIwBjgK#

Have you looked at the various powered kitchen jar openers on the market?

In the past I've used one of those v-shaped serrated jar openers that mounts under a kitchen cabinet to open stubborn jars.

Ken

gg_duce wrote:What about those cans of air (and I don't mean Perri-Air like in Spaceballs)?

Probably don't get much out of those, huh?

No, plus they can get expensive quickly.

Ken

I am just getting started in all this. Can someone list some brand names of good black primers to use on Styrene? Automotive and/or otherwise. I can't recall seeing a high-build black primer like you get in gray, if you need a solid black undercoat then I'd use any flat black spray paint. If there ...

http://www.mikegrantdecals.com/Instruments.html


Ken