Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Car kits are also good, usually in 1/24 or maybe larger depending on the scale of what you're building. Sway bars and odd things that go in the engine compartment are useful too.

Thanks!

Does anyone know if uncooked sculpey polymer clay has any effects with silicone? I was going to use some of this stuff that I've had sitting around to seal off the edges of the mold box and want to make sure before I use it.

Holy crap... I'm lucky if I can shoot an entire model with just one color and make it come out all right.

I'm wanting to make a mold of several different greeblies but want them to be in the same mold to save on costs. Mainly they're bits and pieces from a Revell Venator, mainly one sidewall and an engine nozzle, and a few other round bits about the size of a quarter. How close can the parts be and stil...

I'll have to pick up one of these coming up soon.

Hmm, I don't really have anything big in mind to cast, just a few small pieces here and there. I don't plan on casting anything bigger than a couple of inches, so I don't really want to invest in a pressure pot and all that stuff. I'll have to look into that bombs away method. Is there a type of mol...

I'm confused... I was reading the info on Smooth-On's website, and the differences between silicone molds, urethane molds, and all that. It was saying that silicone has to be put into a vacuum chamber to get all the air out of it and then it can be poured. But then when you look at their starter kit...

What's the time intervals for Mr. Surfacer? I have a small can of the stuff, but everything is in Japanese.

Hmm, I read the can, and it says it can top coated after an hour. It also says "Maximum top coat adhesion and durability will be achieved in 5-7 days." Does that mean I have 5-7 days to paint it, or have to wait a week before I can? I was waiting for it to harden due to some imperfections ...

Generally how long does it take primer to cure? I painted a model about 6 hours ago, and while it can be touched, it still feels a bit "soft" as if it hasn't fully cured yet. I remember reading that if it still has a smell, then it hasn't cured, and it still smells like paint. It's also pr...

I went through the same thing while I was in the planning stage for building my YT-2400. The easiest way I can say for blueprinting would be to find a good overhead birds eye view of the ship. If you can find a copy of the Prima Official strategy guide for the game, I believe they had a large pictur...

Cool, thats what I was wondering. Well, at least I decided to ask about this first instead of learning the hard way. Thanks! Now I need to find a place to get some SS ball bearings. What about using those airsoft balls? They look like plastic and come in different weights, so maybe they could be hea...

Has anyone ever put a BB or two into a bottle of paint to help mix it up when you shake it? I seem to remember reading somewhere that someone did this, but I can't even remember what I had for breakfast let alone where I read/hear/imagine things like this. I bought some copper/brass coated BB's and ...

I wouldn't use bondo as an adhesive. It tends to be really brittle and would possibly break away easily. I'd go with what was suggested above. I've also used Aves paste to put two halves of a model together, but I've only used it for that purpose once.

Hazaa! When I got home from work today, I took the clamps off and "tested" the bond by lightly prying the two hull pieces apart, or at least attempting to. Before, with just the 5 minute epoxy, the same if not less amount of pressure was enough to instantly separate the two halves. But now...

D'oh In a momentary lapse of sanity, I totally forgot to wash down the model parts... And since between this post and the last, I've all ready slathered the paste down and clamped the two pieces together. Well, I guess I'll know in 24 hours if it'll hold or not...

Bah! I took the clamps off of the model today, and the damned thing came apart! I've just got done cleaning all the epoxy off (it literally just peeled off like rubber cement...) and sanded down the surfaces. I thought about pinning the two halves together, but the bottom piece is really thin and I'...

Hmm, very interesting. I'll have to give it a try on my next resin kit.

I was just attaching two rather large resin pieces together with 5 minute epoxy, and after trying to hurry to get the two halves glued together before the stuff began to set, I wondered if Aves Paste would work. Has anyone used Aves to completely glue resin models together? Do I dare doubt that it m...

I know Plastruct sells plastic sheets in a multitude of different sized corrugated patterns, but I'm not sure if any of them are clear...

I just got done using the paste for the first time 30 minutes ago, and can say that small seams are easily filled with the paste and a makeshift tool cut from .030 gauge styrene. I made my disposable tool out of a piece of scrap I keep in a box. I just used the styrene piece like a trowel, loaded it...

The loctite 5 minute epoxy is just typical regular epoxy, not the loctite stuff you put on screws to stay in better. Now, that blue stuff made for screws doesn't do a darn thing for plastic.. trust me, I found that out at work a few months back.

I've only used it twice so far, and from what i can tell, depending on how small the parts are, it might be too hard to apply it without just making a mess. I got the Loctite 5 minute kind, and while I really like how strong it is, the smell is horrid. Oh well, at least it works.

Well, after letting the aves sit for another day, it has gotten slightly harder, and since I applied it in liberal amounts, the semi-hardened excess can be scraped off with a #11 blade, and then sanded down with 100 grit, though it gums up the paper something fierce. So even when improperly mixed du...

I'm about to start assembling a resin model, and was wanting to find a type of epoxy that I could get locally at a hardware store. Is there a type that I can find there that someone here would recommend, or is any of the liquid kind good?

It turned the grayish color that it did in previous uses, but I think I may have used more of the part B than I should have.

So I think I messed up with the mixing... I don't know how I could fudge up mixing equal parts, but some how I did, and now after 24 hours it hasn't fully cured. It's hardened somewhat, but can still be indented with your finger nail. Is there a way to make it harden, or am I going to have to try sc...

I found this link that describes washes and filters while cruising the internet at work.

http://www.migproductions.com/minisite/ ... washes.htm

Pretty cool since they have pictures showing everything.

So after doing the pastel-liquid wash, you seal it by flying it through misted sealer, or was that step only used if you brushed on dry pastel chalk?