Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Any advice on removing pastel from bare plastic? I used some Tamiya black pastel to put some smutz in the thruster port of a GUNPLA kit but got some where I didn't want it. Tried water and alcohol, topically not internally. Now my white panel has a kind of uniform dinge, which I'll have to remember ...

I've used Testor's Dullcoat for years over oil/acrylic combinations. Some are 20+ years old, still holding up fine. For nearly as long my process has been: Acrylics -> Future Floor Acrylic -> Oils and other weathering -> Dullcoat And the Future will hold up to the q-tip+thinner to clean off extra d...

Well, this project got pushed back a while since I broke snapped a ball from a ball and socket joint off of its stem, attempting to remove said ball from the aforementioned socket. And I still have to get the other side taken apart too. Anybody know someone willing to sell or trade parts to a Master...

I'm (re)building a Gundam Master Grade Infinite Justice kit.

I'm cutting off a few unwanted features, adding a few others, new paint job and some custom decals.

Federal directive to unify labelling throughout the US rather than for individual states to have their own standards. The label I see on many products 'The state of California.....' is not a Federal label. It's another CA exemption the state feels the need to add to 'protect'..... It will be intere...

Can anyone please double check my thinking insofar as the order in which I plan to apply various layers and techniques? Assemble Modify(fill, sand, cut, etc) Prime Base Coat Gloss Decals Decal sealer Wash Drybrush Am I cruising for trouble or am I in good shape? I don't recall the brand of primer bu...

I'm sorry, I missed the nature of the kit, and focused on the result. Yes, a soldering iron or pen would work very well. I used a little butane fueled soldering torch from Home Depot when I did my Master Grade Exia Repair kit. For Cylon weapons in the new BSG, that is pretty much all kinetics, be th...

There are two questions that you need to ask: What weapon is involved? What environment does the hit take place? If you want to get picky, you can also consider what the target material is. Ceramic v. metal armor, etc. Lets say we are hitting a metal plate with a laser, in atmosphere. The molten met...

The genesis of my plan for the aluminum mold came from the "We've got barn. We've got a stage. Lets have a show!" school of decision making. I had also originally planned to make the finished parts out of sculpy, so a heat resistant mold was important. The product I'm looking to get out of...

My original plan was to machine the mold out of aluminum, then use that to make parts out of sculpy. I'm getting the feeling that this isn't the best approach.

So I can't just pour resin or sculpy into my mold and go from there? What step is the rubber?

What about aluminum?

I'm looking to make a bunch of small bases for various bits and my original plan was to have a friend turn a mold out of a blank that I have laying around. Simple shape, a short, wide cone with a wire to support various bits.

Any thoughts? Specifically, what materials.

I've been trying to find Tamyia acrylic in my local(meaning any hobby shop that is less than a 2 hour drive. YAY Mojave Desert!) hobby shops but no joy. One shop I talked to mentioned something about an import ban.

What's going on?

We've used millable wax to proof CNC programs in some of the shops I've worked it. It gives a finish similar to metal, but it may require sealing for use as a mold component.

Lt. Z0mBe wrote:I use 90-percent isopropyl with no problems.

Kenny

What ratios do you use? I've already blown 2 pots experimenting.

Kylwell wrote:I've heard good things about the 360, I'm an Iwata fan myself.

So something like an eclipse SBS seems the most flexible. I have no air brushing experience to speak of but I also would rather not buy something I'm likely to out grow.

Yes. It collects paint, can be aggravating to clean and is worse when the paint jar slips out leaving you with a nice Jackson Pollock camouflage. Heck, I don't need no fancy air brush to do that! So what are your thoughts on the Badger 360. As I mentioned, I'll be doing Gundam models, but I don't a...

Can someone help me understand the virtues and vices of gravity feed, side feed and siphon feed? At the moment, I do mostly gundam models so it looks to me that siphon feeds will end up washing a lot of paint down the sink. Siphon feeds require higher pressure and therefor tend to paint a wider lin...

Can someone help me understand the virtues and vices of gravity feed, side feed and siphon feed?

At the moment, I do mostly gundam models so it looks to me that siphon feeds will end up washing a lot of paint down the sink.

What about packing sculpy into a mold, then baking it? A friend is going to machine a mold of a squat cone, about 2.57" wide at the base about .25" at the top and maybe 3/8" tall. Assuming that the machined surface is smooth and devoid of any place for the scluply to get caught, do I ...

What about mixing a white base coat with some Krylon reflective paint. Follow that with a thin, almost translucent color coat. Finally top it off with several layers of clear coat. Several layers of clear over the reflective base should create some depth. Kind of like painting the eyes of a Gundam m...

Base coat with Flat White, mist on an overspray of dayglow yellow, then succeeding layers of dayglow orange to red airbrushed as you work towards the corners of the object, keeping the parts closest to the "core" of the material the lightest color, and the edges the darkest. Or just put a...

Oh, yeah, I'm still gonna try it.

My timeline is fairly long on this project. I don't even expect to have the actual kits until early August, nor have them ready for this stage of painting until early September.

Do like the miniatures painters, many layers building to the color. http://www.coolminiornot.com/233996 http://www.coolminiornot.com/103554 http://www.coolminiornot.com/42876 http://www.coolminiornot.com/177196 http://www.coolminiornot.com/129820 and then there's this: http://www.coolminiornot.com/...

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might go about mimicking that reddish orange glow of red hot steel?