Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

I have one, too. For really thick styrene, I use it to scribe a line by running the blade over it a couple of times. Then I either snap it, or keep cutting deeper with a stiffer blade.

I use a #10 blade mounted backwards to do the scribing.

Kev

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned clear wax. You may have seen it - candles with stuff embedded in them. It looks as clear as water, melts at a low temp, and should be easy enough (and less stinky/toxic!) to use. You should check around at craft/hobby/art places and see if you can get it. I know I'...

From that shot, I'd say it was repair people spraying over chipped paint at the panel seams. You could do that with a very fine airbrush line (I've seen this done on models in magazines). navy planes on carriers seem to have a lot of this, which really stands out. One thing I've done is to get paste...

I've used nitrile gloves with catalyzed Bondo, solvent stuff and all kinds of chemicals that shouldn't be touched. Haven't had a problem yet. I like them a lot better than latex, which seems to have an odd reaction to my personal skin chemistry - it turns dark and starts losing its elasticity pretty...

Oh, too cool!

Bookmarked!

Kev

Also, the clear coat would likely dry faster than the coat below, which would lead to an even worse case of cracking. I had a 1/48 Tiger Meet F-16 with the full set of Daco decals on it. Decaled quickly after painting, clear-coated it, and ended up with an alligator-skin finish that needed a lot mor...

I've done some looking around for the type of resin used to make those new flexible seat belts that some of the sftermarket companies use, but am not sure which brands/types would work best.

These are the "posable" belts, that can take paint well.

Anyone used these types of things?

Kev

A nice even spray of clear flat should also help.

Kev

I've seen this done on wood on a show on DIY network about wood turning. They've done a couple of things (small round boxes, etc.) that need to have an end lathed smooth. They use the slightly tapered plug method, with a bit on the other side of the plug for the chuck to hold. Should work about the ...

No, no, no... There are adhesives made specifically for doing this! Microscale makes a metal foil adhesive that thins out nicely with alcohol. Also, any big art & craft store (like Michaels) will have adhesive used for gold and silver leaf. I've used both with great results. They can be thinned ...

kylwell wrote:Besides my eraser shield there is this.

Verlinden used to do a set like this in a couple of scales - 1/48 and 1/72, IIRC. Mine have been used many, many times in re-scribing lost details.

Kev

I've had the same bottle of Future for the past decade and a half, and have used about half of it. One thing I've noticed over the past couple of years is that it can get a kind of phlegm-like substance building up in it. Not sure if it's a bacterial mat, or some kind of polymerization going on. Wha...

Most of them, especially the cliffs/caves, looked like they were draped canvas covered with some kind of texturing. Maybe a papier mache', but using strips of paper, and then some of that spray texture stuff for walls. You can get a can of that at most hardware or home stores. Then paint it like a r...

Hmmm... I think the problem with that is that unless the Sculpy is very thin, you would have to heat the thing for long enough to get the whole Sculpy blob hot enough long enough. Unlike things like water, styrene doesn't have a sudden state change: solid to liquid at a certain temperature. Being pl...

I used an old towel folded over a couple of times. Also useful to wipe off a regular brush when cleaning.

Kev

Boys, boys, boys - The Dobson Miter-Rite is what you need! I used the X-Acto miter box, and while it is decent-ish for 90° and 45° angles, the Dobson can be set to all kinds of angles, is pretty accurate (doesn't wander off angle), and is pretty inexpensive. I've used it time and time again and ju...

And even better, you can use it to feed you Zarathustran Fuzzies to give them the needed minerals they crave!

Kev

An easy way to mask them with liquid mask is to put a pool of the masking solution on a card and use a flat ended wire to dab it onto the windows. It may take alittle paractice, but the mask can be peeled off if not right. A few runs of dabbing and you will be surprised how fast it will go. Try to g...

You do need to be a little careful with the CA remover and styrene. Keep it away from the plastic as much as possible, and on the CA. I made the mistake of covering a plastic part with remover to get a piece of photoetch off (Verlinden detail for interior of a jet nozzle). The glue came off fine, bu...

Get some wood popsicle sticks. You can get them by the gross in craft stores, or just get some popsicles! Superglue some wet/dry and you have some great sanding sticks you can cut down to size, with whatever grit you desire (or have). I've also done this with a strip of 1/16" brass and a steel ...

If you want to hide a switch on a model - do it like a modeler! I hid a switch ona model by mounting it with just the button showing, and then covered it so that it looked like another stray greebly panel. Worked out pretty well. You could also use the switch as a ount for some bit that sticks out -...

Another issue might be with your masking. Are you using the white liquid latex like you'd use for making molds? That has ammonia in it as the solvent, which would attack some kinds of paint - acrylics especially. Just a thought. Personally, I almost never use a liquid mask on most paints due to the ...

You can also use a vector-based drawing program to do the shapes. I used CorelDraw to do this. You can set the angles and the dimensions really easily, and then just print out a paper pattern.

Count Kekkula

Yep, had that problem when I was wrapping thin styrene around a cylinder to make a hollow one. Shot it with glue, then hosed it with the sprayer. The plastic immediately split right down the middle. Much use of language not fit for public consumption followed. I now just unscrew the top and use the ...

Yeah, had the same problem. Clearcoated over Gunze that hadn't dried enough, and got a cool alligator skin-like effect. Sadly, it was on my Tiger Meet F-16 with the Daco decal set. I think the clearcoat shrank (shrunk?) and caused the skin on the paint underneath it to slip. Took several more coats ...

At the last IPMS nats in Virginia Beach a few years ago, they had a display of the Breitling Orbiter balloon - the 'round the world job that had a mylar top to the balloon. The model had been hit with the Chrome Alclad, and I would have sworn it was real mylar! It was that shiny. Do it the way they ...

Yep - the usual method is to coat the inside with either black or silver paint.

Foil would work, too, but it would be a pain to get the fibers through the foil without getting a "halo" of light around each porthole.

Kev

The deal with spraying it on the black paint was to get a nice smooth surface. A high-gloss paint will get you the best (smoothest) finish job. If the plastic is polished smooth, you can get the chrome look. I did that with the internal "nubs" that go inside the domes of the PL TOS Enterpr...

You could do what I've done for my Mercury - take one flexible wire (I'm using solder) and wrap it around and around with brass bead wire. The scale you need would drive the size of the wires. Both come in various sizes, and the bead wire also comes in a nice shiny silver. With the solder core, it's...

I've used the yellow Tamiya tape for edges and small, detail-y masking. For larger areas I edge first and then cover the rest with stretched Parafilm. For long, straight or mildly curved edges I also use the blue plastic tape from MicroMark.

Kev