Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Got my replacement A470 body in the mail today-- that was fast! Thanks Testors, and I'm sorry for all those evil things I thought about you

Macfrank & YT, thanks for the tip. I'd be nice to get my A470 back into use. You can say what you want about their quality, but it's the fastest & most hassle-free general purpose airbrush I've ever used. I keep my nozzles in a jar of Createx airbrush cleaner and never have any hassles with ...

I'll give it a shot. When you say "bi-symmetry," I'm going to assume you're talking about getting the left-hand side to mirror the right-hand side. My best advice is to use a template to make the first side and then flip it around to make the opposite side. If you're trying to do it by eye...

Thomas E. Johnson wrote:I've never had a problem with my A470 airbrush. Its always given me perfect results.

Mine too, until its trigger went floppy last year and I can't get anyone at Testors to reply to my emails.
I have one of the old original Azteks and it's actually been a better airbrush than the A470.

Barring the use of vacuum to help evacuate the air from the mold, you really need vents to make sure the resin gets all the way to the bottom of the barrel. You probably want to make a one-piece mold to eliminate an ugly parting line on your barrels, right? If so, venting will be problematic. If you...

A teeny-tiny drop of insulating expanding foam from a can? How you would get just a tiny drop is the hard part. Smooth-on and the other resin suppliers sell a two-part expanding foam that you could mix in very small quantities but I think that'd be expensive overkill unless you could use the rest of...

Okay, I just had to try this today after thinking about it. I stuck a little resin part into a small blob of clay inside a mold box and then poured some molten Van Aken white clay into the box to make the bedding. BTW, I melted the clay in my wife's favorite little iron skillet, which I lined with a...

OdysseySlipways wrote:is it micro-wave save to warm up?

The Van Aken brand, yes it is. 30 sec on high gets it good & soft.

While I'm thinking about it, Has anyone tried actually melting modeling clay (it says it melts at 150F) and pouring into a mold form to make the first half of a two-part mold? I've always wanted to try it but have been too chicken. The master would have to be something that could withstand 150F, obv...

If you have a Hobby Lobby or Michaels in your area, it would be a bit cheaper to pick up some non-drying plastalina / modeling clay. I use a brand called "Van Aken," www.vanaken.com, and I think it was only about three bucks for a pound the last time I got it. I re-use most of my clay so I...

For what it's worth; I poured several molds at 10pm last night at room temperature (about 73) and cured them in a pressure pot in a shed overnight (temp went to about 29-30) and when I checked them after 16hrs, they were curing just fine. The rubber is a Shore A 25 Tin-cure from US Composites. I've ...

sand, check profile, sand, check profile, sand check profile.... Yeah, that's really the only way. This technique goes back to the stone age! I have to be in the right frame of mind to do this kind of work. If I'm the least bit feeling anxious I won't try to do do profile shaping and instead will t...

jsnmech,
Are you adding new details to each side of the form and need pointers on getting them symmetrical so it doesn't look lop-sided, or are you blending new details into the existing form and want to know the best material to achieve a smooth transition?