Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

jowman wrote:I used my chopper II for the first time today; what an awesome little tool.

Wait until you find out that you can set it up to make the same exact cut on strip stock. You might start looking for projects with lots of little fiddly parts on them.

Thanks for the response. Now I understand the need for de-airing the silicone. I've seen people looking for it, but it wasn't explained why or for what purpose.

I'll have to think/research the whole vacuum & de-airing process.

Thought I'd start here then try this question in the Construction Forum, if I get just 'shrugs' here. *wink* I'm contemplating casting up a variety of parts. I have a standard compressor, so I could do some pressure casting, once I have a pressure pot. My question is, is it just a matter of making m...

As that I've ruined two of these, don't use the touch-n-flow as a superglue accelerator applicator. Sounds obvious, I guess, but I kept thinking, the accelerator is only going out and won't clog with CA. Apparently capillary action pulls the glue back into the tiny applicator tube.

Depends upon the paint scheme. For Star Trek models, read, all white finish, I primer with Model Master Silver paint. For models where the finish is virtually the same as primer, that is a gray color, I straight to using the finish color.

Especially when the base coats replicate a complex camouflage scheme, many modelers will paint the main scheme with enamels and weather with acrylics. (The opposite choice is also popular, as that I know the AFV modelers love weathering with Turpenoid & oil based paints.) So the short answer is ...

How about Geometry? I can follow geometry. Picture a cross section through the central axis of the cone. Interestingly enough its an isometric triangle. The base of the triangle is the desired diameter of your cone. Adjust the height of the triangle to correspond to the desired height of your cone. ...

Future, airbrushed & handbrushed, has been reported to also be an effective decal sealant.

There's Daler Rowney FW Pearlescent, but this isn't suitable for finer airbrushes. Createx do airbrushable pearls - just Google Createx (UK only) and you'll find a few suppliers. I believe that Liquitex do an "Iridescent Varnish" also suitable for airbrushes. If you have access to a good ...

I may be wrong, but I believe that the pearlescent finish was used only on the TMP & TWOK version of the model and that the effect was lost when they did the refinish for the Ent-A. S'kay, you have to an repentant refit addict to know some of these details. You're right & incorrect about th...

Is there another distributor, besides Plastruct, that makes Tee structural shapes, in either metal or plastic, that is greater than the T-8 size? I'm making the engine nacelles of a 1/16 Y-Wing and these are for the spars that support the engine exhaust deflectors. The T-8 size is 6.4mm (1/4")...

Plastruct also make a welding agent to bond various plastics. IIRC, Plastruct's welding agent was Chloroform with some additives. There was another solvent I used way back, which is a close cousin to CHCL3, Carbon TetraChloride, CCL4. But you needed something very strong to dissolve the PVC used in...

To add to what's been posted: - Make sure the scratches from the previous grit have been sanded out before moving on to the next grit. - Sand at right angles to the previous grit - Change the water between grits, don't want a coarse grit contaminating a fine one. Ken Put a drop dish washing liquid ...

Another trick is to not use primer, but a silver paint. Or apply a light coat of primer, then follow with silver paint. The translucence of white paint will work with silver paint, rather than have to cover up the grey in primer.

BTW, another good plastic polish is in your bathroom. Toothpaste!

For cutting the larger circles, I use a pair of "dividers". Technically a compass is a point & a pencil. Olfa makes a nice adjustable circle cutter with a blade for the sizes you indicated. But its designed for paper, not sheet styrene, and is about as effective as a carpenter's compas...

A model paint stripper available from the grocery store is Pine Sol. Problem is, *some* plastics don't react well to it (ie. they melt). Any mainstream kit from the last 20 years *should* be fine (even there, there have been exceptions), but I'd be careful with kits from the former iron curtain of t...

If you need a strong joint and can place the glue on the backside so it won't be seen try CA and baking soda. Place the CA and then sprinkle a little baking soda over it. Shake off excess and repeat if needed. This gets very hard almost instantly and will get hot if you try a large amount at a time...

My very first serious scratchbuild sported a section of a fishing bobber. I needed a large hemispherical shape for the bridge. Though not all bobbers are the same. Some, are made of a brittle styrene, and attempts to section them destroys their structural integrity, in other words, you get a ragged ...

S'OK. I don't mind being obvious. The local comic shop closed last Thanksgiving. My only source now is WalMart or go online. A friend just emailed me to check out US Plastics . But I don't know what thickness is best for scratchbuilding. Maybe someone here can pipe up and give us a hint. - Leelan F...

Magnificent work. That's the great thing about scratchbuilding, you can build it any freaking size you want, provided you have the real estate to display it.

With the scales I've been building in lately, I need to know and find a specific sheet thickness quickly, if only to avoid wasting the most precious commodity, time. (At the smaller scales, a panel detail made with 10 thou sheet versus 20 thou is a big deal.) I now keep a set of plastic "feeler...

I saw one finished version where the modeler free-handed spraying on the darker lines of the mottling. Which looked pretty good, but was not nearly as dense a pattern as on the TV screen. There is no easy answer on this one, because its another one of those very complex patterns that require a subst...

No one mentioned checking the needle. I was having performance issues with my A/B. Then I checked the needle. It looked like a crochet hook. I straightened the needle out, and the issues stopped.

Before spending any money, try using google's Sketchup. You can rough out what you want there. And if you don't mind entering individual dimensions for each component, its still pretty good. However, if you have some very specific 3 view drawings you want to replicate exactly, Sketchup is not the ch...

A light (tooth) brushing with Bon-Ami will clean out the line, and round the edges slightly to remove the furrows that often get created when plowing out the center portion of the scribe. Then run water over the piece until all of the Bon-Ami has dissolved away. Bon-Ami is composed of three minerals...

Mass Effect has excellent art direction & execution. I intensely (yet I understand, different strokes for different folks) hated the game play. Sorry, can't help you. Still, kewl looking ships.

I had several bottles of paint and all the sudden after I moved 2 dried up the same time, what makes this happen? I used them before I moved and I had the lids on tight, also what causes them to get little bits of paint into them? Thanks You didn't say how far you moved. If it was a substantial dis...

A trick used to provide the multi-color paneling on the AMT Klingon BoP was to dry brush the second and third colors. Still painting individual panels, but dry brushing is not nearly as fussy as wet painting and much more tolerant of mistakes.

Damn, I knew something was keeping me from building. On a more serious note, I'm currently working on a project that's supposed to be almost OOB. But I'm having no end of troubles with it, but maybe because I got lost on the way to OOB. I bought a photo-etch set for the kit. This actually induced mo...