Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Here is another view of it: http://s1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee443/Bridge_Builder1/?action=view&current=theenterpriseincidenthd0092.jpg That pattern is almost exactly like the one in the upstairs shower in my dad's house, the house was built in the late 60's. Slap some clear green paint on t...

Without knowing your design and target weights I can't make a recommendation on what material to use. There are a lot of variables that affect the weight of each material; number of layers, resins used, etc. In terms of strength to weight carbon fiber is probably going to be your best bet, but that ...

southwestforests got it, it looks like rippled glass or plexi (probably the former) that was either painted or has a theatrical gel between it and the light.

Ken

I'm drawing a blank regarding the effect you're trying to replicate and looking around online I can't be sure I'm seeing the same thing you are, do you have a link to a good picture?

Ken

There are different styles of fiberglass, the spray on chopped stuff like you see on bathtubs, or the sheet layup seen on aircraft, you can even get honeycomb fiberglass panels that are light and stiff. One of the new advances in fiberglass is what they call 'pultruded' shapes, the glass fibers run ...

Have you considered Kevlar composites or even fiberglass? No sense in going the Ferrari route cost-wise when a Buick will work. Another thing to consider is that if you make the legs and body out of a very rigid material this could negatively impact the joints as well, ex. any bending motions that w...

To add on to the above advice:

Depending on the size you can make a t-handle out of tape to give you something to grip, or if the part is too small for that use some Blu-Tack putty (or similar) to grab the part.

Sand in a figure 8 motion so you don't wear down one side too fast.

Ken

Future cures fairly hard after about 24 hours (more or less depending on local conditions) at this point I've never know it to flake or rub off, if you have to remove it at this stage either household ammonia or rubbing alcohol will remove it. Sanding out the masters to 2500 and then polishing them ...

I've never heard of a way to fix cracks in styrene parts like you mention, I have heard of people applying Future to the cracked area and letting capillary action suck it into the crack, the crack won't totally disappear but short of a very close inspection it will be invisible. How long would you g...

scratch build a cnc machine to enlarge the model? and undercut all the と お思 taht are charging waaay too much to run a machine that is prettymuch automated you say? I hope you're joking. There seems to be a widely held myth amongst modelers that the mere existence of...

Have you considered sending out a call for help to some of the members here,... see if they can shop at their local Home Depot, Lowes, whatever store,... and ship this to you. You of course would pay for all expenses of course. It's just an idea and falls into what this site is meant for,.... help ...

I've seen that before. I suspect that what happens is that the final coat of clear lacquer doesn't adequately protect the shiny aluminum layer, which gets oxidized into (transparent) aluminum oxide. I agree, there was a GIJOE toy from the 80's that suffered from this problem as well: http://www.yoj...

Got a bit of a puzzler for the group: I'm building one of the Hawk 1/4 scale car engines as a Christmas gift for someone, the plan was to mainly do seam cleanups, better painting, etc, I didn't want to go all out and superdetail the model, one of the changes I decided to make was to strip the diecas...

I can get the 1" and 2" pink at the local Home Depot, if you're willing to live with it being cut up for shipping we can work something out, PM me if you're interested. Ken update- Looked into shipping 2" thick sections, unless you want a couple of 1 or 2ft squares the shipping costs ...

Plastruc cement will work on ABS or PVC but I'm not sure if anything holds POM. Of course there are usefull metal parts also. POM seems to be similar to PTFE (Teflon) and has similar bonding problems. I love the metal parts in things like this, printers are a good source of high quality cold rolled...

Make the base/diorama/etc. items smaller than usual, that will make the mech look bigger by comparison.

Ex-

Say the mech is 1/100 scale, make the other items in the diorama to 1/144 or smaller scale.

Ken

Hey apsilon, I have been told, but never investigated for myself, that you can have extruded aluminum created to your specs. Its worht a shop. Minimum order quantities and tooling charges will kill you unless you order thousands of feet. I checked around to see what it would cost and one place offe...

I know that Plastruct makes a lot of rectangular tubing but with sharp corners, I've also seen thin wall rectangular brass tubing but it has sharp corners as well. I take it you're looking for something that looks like structural steel tubing? Best idea I have is to sand off the corners of the Plast...

Saw some primer in a Walmart today in SW VA, they had all the colors noted above plus the primer, the primer was about half gone though. Ken Edit - stopped at my local WM store today (9/22), they had a couple of cases of the gray primer on the shelf. Looks like the restock is making its way through ...

Somewhat of an update, the local store restocked their gloss dark blue and green and gloss red sprays recently, no signs of the primer though but this is more paint than they've had all summer.

Ken

Not sure, I asked a similar question to one of the clerks at the local store about a week ago. For a good while the store was out of both the gloss and flat versions of their white and black paint, I like their flat white as an undercoat for a lot of colors. He said that the supply on the store bran...

I use IPA straight up, no mixer :D A little water may help slow down the drying time and may help prevent the airbrush tip clogging from the paint, also I think the Tamiya brand thinner has a "flo-aid" added to it for this purpose. A common one modelers used in the past was Kodak Photoflow...

Dr. Snuts, M.D. wrote:Just to be certain, is this the stuff I'm looking for?

http://www.floorcareproducts.com/floor-finish/index.asp

Correct, I haven't seen the old plain "Future" label since the switchover, I think all of the old stock was removed and sent back.

Ken

Future in and by itself no longer exists, the new packaging is "Pledge with FUTURE shine."

I don't remember if the name change was due to a takeover or simply "rebranding."


Ken

If you're using an acrylic flat coat make sure its mixed thoroughly before application, in my experience acrylic flat coats seem to be more sensitive to mixing ratios than the lacquer varieties.

Ken

as to air bubbles in the resin, if they are in there, they are small enough to escape my eye, and even if they where than small, the pressurizing of the tank would crush them I'm thinking of bubbles more along the lines of what you see in a meringue (for example), its technically a foam but you can...

Ok, with the mold design and resin staying the same as before then what other variables or changes are there since last time? Have you changed the way you mix the resin? I still think that there are voids in the mold or air bubbles in the resin that are collapsing under pressure, causing the void sp...

Is the mold in the pics the same design as your old mold that worked?

Have you changed resin suppliers, type, etc?

You mentioned casting the saucer by itself, from the pics it looks like that's all you're casting, is there more to the mold than shown?

Ken

It looks like to me that the mold is full of resin prior to it being placed under pressure, as the air bubbles collapse the resin volume decreases and slowly drops, there doesn't appear to be enough resin in the reservoirs to fill this space before the resin starts to set. The reason I'm thinking it...

91% isopropyl alcohol or lacquer thinner.

Ken