Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Easy Off oven cleaner works for me. One famously tough to strip kit is/was the Airfix large scale Bentley. They vacuum sprayed a copper undercoat so you have to use ferric chloride!

It's not a criticism of the Defiant, I try to enter the name to confirm my humanity for registration and it keeps getting rejected.

For the alternate site, I can't seem to get past the USS Defiant question... I always called it the Tick.

For the alternate site, it asks for a log in but I don't see an option to register.

People have their reasons. I'm chilling. On the whole, everything works!

No personal experience, but it it's not styrene it's probably ABS. Any acrylic or plexiglas cement should work. The late Ambroid Pro Weld, the "Same Stuff" someone was selling, etc. My fave is TAP Plastics: https://www.tapplastics.com/product/repair_products/plastic_adhesives/tap_acrylic_c...

That worked for me!

Check the car modeler boards for cutting open doors and hoods. I use the scribing method, but some people saw them open with sewing thread. In the book, the Nautilus was electric powered with a bunch of solenoids! Maybe some 1/8, 1/12, 1/16 under the valve cover parts could look the part. There are ...

I just ignore any printing. It usually doesn't telegraph through to the next layer, and if that becomes a problem a coat of scratch filling primer will take care of that. I pull styrene sheet out of dumpsters all the time- any vacuformed packaging is probably styrene if it isn't clear PETE, so many ...

Place down the street from me can handle 100"X52" which should work for most scale models:
http://www.pagodaarts.com/info
Just look up laser cutting + your nearest city and see what comes up

Butyrate is a little more flexible than styrene. Still will glue with a hot acrylic glue with methylene chloride in the mix.

Plastruct?
https://www.hobbylinc.com/plastruct-but ... bing-90102

Surface preparation counts! The better you buff it out, the better the clear coat will work. A model canopy or most clear model parts are not big and doesn't take a lot of time to do right. If you can more or less see through the part it's ready for a clear coat. If there is a scratch, you are still...

A full size vacuform set up IS a lot of work. A good intro is this book: https://www.amazon.com/Vacuum-Forming-Hobbyist-Douglas-Walsh/dp/0998932701/ref=asc_df_0998932701/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=316862106435&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7641524108661398430&hvpone=&hvp...

it's limited, but doesn't take up a lot of space. Mattel platform is 2/12 X 3". I'm using some 1/32 inch thick PVC which is sturdy enough for my purposes. It seems about as thick as most vacuform kits I've built. Thinner plastic would give you better detail if that's what you need. If the part ...

I just fired up my upgraded Mattel for the first time this year and it worked fine pulling a form off of a resin master- the power bay boiler doors on a Revell XSL-01- a pretty simple section of a cone. First sheet of plastic drooped to far and contacted the heating element, so I had to use another ...

The usual modifications to a Mattel are pretty simple- a new perforated platform to hold your masters, a metal cover to help the heating element heat up faster, a little rubber one way valve, new rubber feet and some silicone grease for the vacuum pump. Some have bypassed the pump to connect a shop ...

I just checked eBay and original Mattel machines are even cheaper than the Michaels product! (May 25, 2023)Repair and upgrade methods are all over the web, and upgrade parts are available. I really like my seldom used machine and it doesn't take up a lot of space.

The transparencies for overhead projectors are very thin. Someone, maybe gaugepods, used to sell clear PVC punched for the Mattel machine but it looks like they no longer sell hose or the upgrade parts. the PETE used for blister packaging obviously works well for vacuforming and blank sheets and she...

MEK has it's uses, but it is nasty stuff and stinks. Clear PVC primer is about 70% MEK and is available all over.

They are about the size of the old Mattel Vac-U-Form, which are not expensive now because of the interwebs. The Mattel I have works great the one or two times a year I use it and does not take up a lot of space. The upgrades from: https://gaugepods.com/products/mattel-vac-u-form-rebuild-kit?_pos=1&a...

Plexiglas or Acrylic cement is about the same thing. My West Coast source is TAP Plastics. https://www.tapplastics.com/product/repair_products/plastic_adhesives/tap_acrylic_cement/130/945?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=&scid=scplp10717&sc_intid=10717&gclid=CjwKCAjwtKmaBhB...

How long do you need them to be? For those diameters you could stretch some black sprue. Black seems to be more available in ABS or acrylic. Just use a hotter solvent and those could work.

Very nice! And big!

I have some Pactra enamel in the square teardrop bottle that is still fine after a couple of drops of thinner. I'm guessing those are from the 1970's. Almost all of the acrylics I've picked up over the past 20 or so years have turned into marshmallow like blobs that respond to nothing except being t...

I picked up some ChiCom dollar store ping pong balls today- still unglueable with methylene chloride laced acrylic cement... I'll have to try the official variety.

I tried acrylic cement with methylene chloride on them a long time ago, without success. Materials change- I should try again!

A lot of fishing bobbers are styrene. Ping Pong balls are some un-glueable plastic, unfortunately.

These are solid, but inexpensive:
https://www.tapplastics.com/product/pla ... ochons/139

I use ancient decals all the time. The window trick works 9 times out of 10. I spray a light coat of clear lacquer over them if a test decal breaks up or just to be cautious. Then trim them closely if they are still yellowed. I have not had a problem with clear parts, but worse case scenario, glue t...