Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

It's just honest reporting. When I do kit reviews, I want to describe exactly what the hobbyist will find when he or she opens the box and pulls out the parts. That's all it is. "For the record, this is what I found." I've received kits with paper thin flash, or no flash, like nearly every...

If you're using acrylic paint, thin with Transparent Airbrush Extender. This will effectively turn the paint into a sprayable filter. Make it as light as possible and give that a shot. You might want to seal with a clear lacquer first so if the effect isn't what you're looking for, you can clean it ...

An enamel primer, like Testors Model Master Car Enamel Primer might level out better than any other type of primer, but you don't really get close to the even thin coating that spraying will yield, and then there's the smell of enamel paint and paint thinner to deal with. I bought me a Dayton exhaus...

Yup. Lacquer Thinner should cut through most dried paints.

You might try sanding down the lens on the encapsulation. Sometimes that makes the light spread out a little more. Maybe sand the surface down with fine sandpaper too. Or you might consider www.superbrightleds.com 360 degree LEDs. The epoxy encapsulation are actually coated with phosphorescent coati...

Every model is different, so I just plan ahead once I figure out how the model is engineered to come together. I've been working on an MPC/Ertl X-Wing and I've already primed in sub-assemblies. So here's what I've done: I assembled, puttied and sanded the wings and some of the engine cowling parts a...

Here's what I use most: Drill press with a couple accessories for the table: indexed vise and a pipe clamp. A good set of drill bits plus a center finder. A set of drum sanders. Dremel tabletop sander. I have one with the 6 inch disk and 1 inch belt. Dremel Moto-tool with a flex shaft. Pana-Vise San...

No. A hair dryer won't be hot enough or even enough to give you a good cure. Huh. I use the oven all the time. Many of the crafty polymer sculpting ladies I've met use their ovens for curing their crafty polymer jewelry use their ovens too. I think this stuff was designed for that, no?

After baking, leave the sculpt in the oven to cool down really slowly. Otherwise, the polymer clay has a tendancy to crack. Sculpey sets really well at about 250 degrees or higher. Half an hour for every 1/4 inch thickness. 91% alcohol is a great blender/solvent to help get rid of any fingerprints, ...

You've got to do it "trial and error". If you have a junk model kit that you can experiment on, just keep readjusting the mixture until it works best with your technique.

I've got a pretty good exhaust fan venting out over my painting area. I have a 2 cartridge respirator as well, but I often don't use it. Probably should though. Acrylic vapors will probably do as much damage to my lungs as any solvent.

I get Castrol Super Clean from Autozone or the auto department at Wal-Marts, but Home Depot has a similar product called Purple Cleaner. It doesn't totally dissolve the gloss lacquer, but given some time, I've found it softened the lacquer enough to peel it off the styrene. Doesn't do any harm to th...

You could also measure out a real-world office chair and scale it down. At least you have some kind of numerical reference points for how large a chair ought to be in scale. If your model fits both 1/78 and 1/48, then either the chair is quite low to the floor in one case, and in the other situation...

It depends. If it's the silver grey contour putty, yeah. Same-ish as the Squadron Green, White, Red, and Bondo Spot Putty. Tamiya Polyester putty with the small tube of catalyst is a polyester epoxy putty and will function pretty much like Aves putty, Duro epoxy glue, or Mori Mory Putty. Very stable...

Try giving it a coat of epoxy putty instead. Squadron green shrinks a lot, and softens the styrene underneath. It's also fairly brittle, so if there's even a bit of flexing between your styrene planking, it'll crack. I would coarse sand the form, to give the epoxy some tooth, then apply the putty, a...

You could sand down some of the epoxy at the tip of the LED, I think that helps spread the light out better. You could also buy some of these 360 degree LEDs from superbrightleds.com. I got a few to put into some starship engines and they really do cast light in all directions.

Maybe you can mix in a little extra hardener? I don't know. I haven't had this problem yet. But I do have an older bucket of Aves.

http://www.superbrightleds.com

They have a range of very bright white LEDs with various viewing angles from 15 degress to 360 degrees.

A new one from them is a "warm white" led. It's only available at 35 degress, but it might be interesting to try them out with the blueish white LEDs.

Be careful handling the surface, as the Metalizers are quite fragile. They really do need to be sealed after airbrushing. I like SnJ Metallizing finish. It works the same way although the color palette is a bit more limited. The finish, however is very rugged. Aside from that, the Alclad II series o...

I've owned Paasche VLs and Millenium and they are both work horses (the Millenium is pretty much the same as the VL, only you get the fancy barrel with the cutout and a fatter trigger--which I don't like). The brushes abe built like tanks but I've had a ton of trouble getting good replacement parts,...

Reflectivity aside, silver paint seems to be more opaque than any other paint. I've done some test a couple of years back and almost all other paint colors have some level of light bleed. The metallics were either opaque or nearly opaque--at least to the point where I couldn't discern any light bleed.

I've seen a couple of the bottles of the stuf turn "grainy". You can tell looking at the paint in the bottle. If it's turned, don't use it.

If the gaps are fairly large, I find sheet or strip styrene that most closely match the size of the gap, then weld it in there with solvent type cement. Then I finish it off with Tamiya Polyester putty. The apoxy sculpt worke well too, but like you said, don't use too much! There should be enough wo...

Kind of. But if the jaws that hold the blade in are hollow rather than solid, I think your drill bit will not be secure enough to be useful, the thinner ones are quite fragile and any uneveness in pressure will shear the bit. Most pin vises go for under $10.

I have several. My favorite one has a wooden ball end that rests in the palm of my hand. Much more comfortable than most. I've never used one to hold pins though...

When I painted oils (as in on canvas or on masonite board) my painting instructor said I should wait a year before overcoating the work. Consequently, I never varnish my work! I guess the time it takes to fully polymerize can take quite a long time. I think I would not use acrylic overcoats as the o...

Depending on the paint, it can take a couple of minutes to a couple of hours. Progressively check on the parts. I'd start with a couple of hours. See if the paint is lifting off. If not, leave it in the solution overnight. Check the next day.

It's just a lacquer-based paint with an acrylic polymer additive. Think of it as just lacquer paint. Acrylic polymer is a thermoplastic added for strength in the paint so you can have Acrylic enamels and they can be solvent-based or water-based paints. It's the base you need to consider in how the p...

Are you owed something? Why be upset? It's no one's job to field all and any questions. Many folks here go to Hobbytalk, CultTVMan's board, and the Clubhouse as well. Could be they've seen you've gotten some responses already, including the 2 here from today. You've got plenty of good ideas to addre...

Get a nice 4 oz. bottle of Alclad II grey primer for airbrushing. The stuff's good.

I like Plasti-Kote too. If I can find it. Otherwise, I've used Krylon and Rustoleum Sandable primer and they seem to work pretty well too.