Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

As I recall they come in Red, Green, Amber, and maybe Yellow. Under a 10th of an inch in size. SMT size .115 x.055 x.05 inches tall. They also have SMT ones that DO NOT have leads - just teeny solder pads They have a pretty wide selection last time I checked, including very bright colors, blue and ...

Smaller, actually, but they are surface mount (SMT). www.digikey.com is the best resource for anything you want electronic (and i DO mean ANYTHING). Order their catalog, it's only 2" thick. Scottie I strongly second that! I've been using Digikey since they first started! (1976 or so - their ca...

big-dog wrote:Tamiya flat base and Future.

I've used that. I'll only add that the Tamiya flat base really has to be mixed well in the Future, or the results will be disastrous.

I'm currently using the Acryl flat, either straight (it's dead flat when dry) or mixed with Future to get a matte finish.

Looks like the Microballoons is going to do the trick: I sprayed primer on a masked area, then while still wet, liberally squirted on micro balloons. Finally, sprayed on some more primer... still waiting for it to dry, but it looks pretty good. That's a good idea. A slight variation I just thought ...

Denatured alcohol also works to thin Mr. Surfacer for airbrushing. It does evaporate quickly, so mix, load and spray. Clean up as soon as you're done (I just run denatured alcohol through my airbrush afterwards).

My question is has anyone used this stuff before? Is it good for applying to plastic pieces to make duplicate parts? Does the molds made from it come out well? I haven't used this particular stuff before, but it is just liquid latex. Liquid latex does a pretty good job of duplicating surface detail...

I save old kit sprues and unused parts, and builtups that I'm tired of looking at (or will just never get finished) get recycled into the parts box. Interesting plastic shapes get saved, too. The clear plastic containers for Testors airbursh heads are favorites. I'll probably make resin copies. One ...

If i go with that (windex) do I let it soak overnight? You can try it - if it's going to work at all, the Pollyscale will feel almost rubbery and will be easy to scratch off completely with a fingernail. Another trick - after soaking the part, use an old toothbrush dipped in whatever soak worked (W...

TER-OR wrote:If it's just acrylic paint, try Windex (with ammonia) first.
It will be the easiest to rinse clean.

Except that cured Acryl (and probably Polly Scale) just laugh at Windex. It works well on Tamiya/Gunze and other older acrylics, though.

If you purchase a piece of square brass tubing as close to the size of the window as you can get. File the four outside edges of the end of the tube to create a "die" and using a wood block backing, gently tap the windows out. I think this would work, but I haven't tried it on plastic. I'...

Future (or just about any coating) will make most metal finishes appear less metallic. I don't find it too objectionable, but some do. Paint a scrap piece of plastic with whatever metallic paint you used, let it dry, then cover it with Future.

Denatured alcohol will remove most dried/cured acrylic paints - Tamiya and Gunze almost right away, Polly S and Acryl a bit more slowly, but they'll eventually come off. It'll also remove the above paints quickly if the paint has not yet cured.

I just got some MEK and tried the recipe contained in that link. however, it hasn't done anything to the plastic forks it cut up and put in the jar with the MEK (and thev'e been in there for about 18 hours or so). Has anyone else had this problem? How long does it take (the link says overnight)? Ca...

I use a homemade putty quite a bit that is ceap to make. http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21787 I have a couple of bottles of this stuff - regular sprues in MEK and clear styrene in MEK. I used an empty square bottle of Testor's Metalizer thinner for each, and filled ...

Latex is your best choice, because its water/ammonia base will not affect acrylics or enamels. Ammonia will do a fine job at dissolving Future (an Acrylic) and many of the firs generation acrylic paints like Tamiya's or Gunze, even if the acrylic is dried and cured. That's why Future has ammonia in...

That Wings 3d looks useful, but I can't get the download to work. They're using some kind of esoteric compression format that my computor doesn't recondise. It's also telling me that the dowloaded file is a compressed image file, not an application program. The Mac version of Wings3D is for OS X. I...

I'm told Blender is a good one to check out, too. It's also free software. Blender is good, but you have to invest a fair chunk of time to figure it out. It is a good program to have, though. The strength of wings3D is that it's pretty intuitive, for a 3D modeler, so there are fewer hoops to jump t...

While checking out Cardmodels.net I found an article on using Rhino to make a 3D design that can be printed. I'm not yet ready to start making paper models, but the principals & software involved are very useful in scratchbuilding out of plastic card. One cool program mentioned is Wings3d . It's...

Andrew Gorman wrote:But am I doing anything obviously wrong? I've tried it straight, I've cut it 20% or so with alcohol, but coverage just seems thin. Any suggestions?

Obvious - you're putting on a wet coat of Future. Try misting it on, letting each layer dry a bit before applying the next. Build up the coat.