Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

I couldn't say for sure, but I would suspect that, like many other model car manufacturers, Poacher probably use HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) which is styrene with polybutadiene added. Like ABS, straight styrene solvent will often not work, but anything that works with ABS (like Plastruct Plas Wel...

Yeah, the Reload button is now essential, and I've stopped counting. :D Oddly, my laptop handles this a lot easier. That's a bit strange, I've got a laptop and I have yet to get a 500 error, then again maybe not so strange. Not strange - just lucky. A "500" error is at the server end of t...

Count me in.

FALLINGSTAR wrote: ↑Thu Sep 19, 2024 10:23 pm I haven't been able to access this site for the past week or so. I either got a page saying I think it was 500 error or the site was all jumbled up.

I've been getting that too. Just press the refresh key (F5) and it should connect eventually.

Yes... onezero@starshipmodeler.net

It's the email address that the "Contact Administrator" link gives when you get the SQL error. It's a;so the address given in the SM Store site.

I've tried but so for nada.

Actually I have stupidly discovered something that must have been in plain sight all along. There is an "outbox" as well as a "sent" box. Why??? Funny thing, the outbox has the PMs I sent admin back in Jul and Aug and one from 2017 regarding copies of Jupiter 2 instructions whic...

You might get better results if you search for " color scale effect ". e.g. https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/tools_techniques_and_reference_materials/f/13/t/2385.aspx Unfortunately, though, there is no hard and fast rule on this, but essentially, you want to tone down the colors of a model so ...

Rocketeer wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 8:50 pm ScaleCoat Paint Remover will remove the aluminum layer and the clear conductive layer under the aluminum.

Except that ScaleCoat went out of business at the beginning of the year. Model railroaders have been moaning about it for months.

I haven't tried it, but I remember someone saying Coke will strip chrome off. Yes it does, but it doesn't always remove the undercoat. It's an overnight job, but a lot less toxic than almost anything else. Use regular Coke - none of that diet, low or zero calorie swill - I've found they just don't ...

There are acrylic iridescent and iridescent paints designed for airbrush out there... Jo Sonja's, Createx. Mission Models, Chestnut, Jacquard & Hobbynox. Most of the suggest a needle size of 0.2mm or larger.

I want to achieve transparent to semi transparent colors mainly so the iridescents can be layered with one another with additional colors. Acrylics really lend themselves to semi-transparent finishes. Thin the paint slightly more than usual and just mist on the paint with your airbrush from a light...

The best results I've had for straight lines on curved surfaces is Dymo tape. It's self-adhesive and gives a good hard edge to scribe against.

Edit...

I've found this blog... http://otakuonabudget.blogspot.com/2014 ... ibing.html

Green Stuff World do a range of "Fluor" fluorescent paints, These emit light when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. Their pigments are designed to absorb UV light and then re-emit it at a higher energy level, which causes them to appear bright and vibrant in the presence of UV light.

What do you use for priming vinyl kits? Acrylic only? I personally use automotive acrylic primers all the time for vinyl - in the UK we have a really excellent brand, Halfords. They even do a plastic primer intended for use on plastics used in cars such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polycarbonate...

Unless the acrylic paint is completely and fully cured, it will not stop oil paints from leaching through to the vinyl below. Even then, the oils in the vinyl may still creep through the acrylic/lacquer into the oil paint above preventing it from drying. Don't forget, too, that oil paints never real...

I'm using these to light up the 2500 Enterprise D. Bit of advice. Use thin wire, unless you are a soldering grand master, as the terminals are only a few millimetres in length and is very fiddly. Speaking as someone who does this for a living, thin wire would be a mistake. Use thicker wire (prolly ...

I use a tack cloth for un-detailed surfaces. Where there are a lot of breakables, I use a blast from a perfectly clean, dry airbrush (with an inline moisture trap). And to prevent more dust settling, I have some old packing cardboard soaked in water for a while at the back of my spray booth - this t...

A CAD drawing in 3-D for such an endeavor is straightforward to do, requiring no dexterity skills at all. When my first job got CAD, I played around with making solids of revolution by drawing out the section profile, and extruded bolts and washers. But that was over 30 years ago, when there were n...

For me, I want to get into the 3-D game because there are some things I want custom made that are nearly impossible for me to do by hand building, like tires Tires (or tyres if you're in the UK) are actually very, very easy to make by hand (there are at least two ways I've used) Easy, but terribly ...

southwestforests wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 11:19 pm For me in my experience, the less texture the surface has, the better.

Agreed. Many years ago, I did a Ford tri-motor in BareMetal foil . If it hadn't been a commission it would have flown out of the window long before completion!

I got myself one of those shakers for nail varnish and tattoo inks - largely to preserve my increasingly arthritic wrists. As far as Vallejo Model Air paints are concerned, a couple of minutes in this shaker works well. It definitely needs longer with the Vallejo Color paints, but it is still not th...

Comicsalemodels.com - site not found??

I dislike CA intensely and only use it when I really have to. When I tried using it as a filler (with baking soda) but even if the joint survived more than a few months, I was never able to make the joint look truly seamless - it just doesn't take paint the same way as the surrounding material. Whil...

This sounds weird, but at the pet store they sell these clear globes you can put critters in so they can run around the house. Without being eaten by the local cats I guess. And not escape I suppose. :thumbsup: One of the most impressive scratchbuilt Death Stars I've ever seen started life as a 12&...

Official ping pong balls are made of ABS since 2013 - so MEK would work fine. Cheaper (toy) ones may be made of styrene. Before 2013, they were made of cellulose (which is why acrylic cement with methylene chloride wouldn't have worked back then). As an aside, the size of ping pong balls was increa...

There is special paper for technical drawings for use in plotters. They are thin as paper but are of plastik and diffuse fairly well without blocking that much Light from the source. If you use several layers with some spacing inbetween (1/16 to 1/8) the diffusing becomes more even. :thumbsup: Usua...

I may look into "Gesso" if it can be thinned enough and brushed on. I can't air brush it on, but it's is said to be "the best" surface prep for oil paints second to a good acrylic primer. I think Vallejo might be the best acrylic primer to use, but I am not sure? Gesso can be sp...

I might try the vinyl glue on some trimmed off scrap to see what it does. Like, if it melts the begeeses out of it, sticks it together or does nothing? I think it should work. Vinyl kits are made of PVC vinyl, so...if the glue is made for PVC vinyl, it should work without attacking it and it should...

Not being a great fan of CA, I mainly use 5-minute epoxy on vinyl kits anyway. It's got far better mechanical properties than CA, especially shear strength. You can still use CA to tack parts together while the epoxy cures. I have heard that some contact adhesives also work for a really strong bond....

I don't know specifically about this one, but I built the Visible Horse as a commission (a veterinarian) and had the same problem. I suspect that it is one of the softer ABS formulations. 5-minute epoxy worked well enough for the assemblies that needed some strength, but for the majority I used Plas...