Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Which shows that the Facebook group needs to be deleted in the interest of collective health and well being. Plus, I've checked the FB page for SSM and nothing in at least 2 months if I remember correctly. Can't help but wonder if SSM has been hacked. There is the SSM site on the Face run by John a...

From the list of 10 moderators, there are only two people who are active, Trekmanscott and Kylwell. https://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/memberlist.php?mode=group&g=12 There are five administrators, but none of them are active. https://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/memberlist.php?mode=team Just ...

Mods are offering nothing because it's private. If the site owners wants ya'll to know he'll let you know. One of the biggest issues, tho', is that the architecture this forum is built on is obsolete and moving it would be neigh impossible or at least extremely tedious. Meanwhile we're open to explo...

Just an FYI, John is not the only one with admin level access and the lack of movement here is due to people having real jobs and the general decline of forums all over. I'm sorry somebody pee'd in your Cheerios. The exit is over there.

I would suggest wandering through this site for a few hours to get an idea of what power systems could have been available http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm

Look up the MSDS on them. You'll find them chock full of acetone.

There are "green" lacquer thinners and they genuinely work. They smell like soy is about the only drawback. We used to use them a lot for cleaning airbrushes when we didn't have a vent booth.

In thin coats lacquer thinned with lacquer thinner dries too fast to affect the plastic. If you soak it in lacquer thinner there will be problems. 100% flashes off too quickly for a lot of uses which is why there is lacquer thinner, now with even more unicorn farts. Nail polish cleaner/remover cover...

Used to be that nail polish were lacquers, well technically synthetic lacquers but lets be real nobody uses original lacquers anymore. That being said I'd suggest a lacquer thinner, typically 80% acetone and 20% unicorn farts, to try to thin them. I've tried a number of less smelly lacquer thinners ...

My only concern, provided you're using adequate ventilation, would be seal degradation. For that you'd need to get an SDS or MSDS on Solvaset and see if the seals for your airbrush are proof against it.

I would avoid adding soap. While it does reduce surface tension it also reduces bonding making the surface really, really, soft. A commercial surfacant will do also reduce the surface tension but won't affect bonding. To be honest I've never asked if something was airbrushable. I just see if it'll w...

Did you do that with a single action airbrush or were you shooting with a double action brush? How much PSI? Yeah, even the Daler Rowney bottles don't say you can airbrush those iridescent inks. Kinda misleading. Unless I'm going for an "opaque" color, I was going to goof around to see ho...

I used a .35 needle to spray them. That's a medium size. IIRC I added a bit of clear gloss acrylic to the mix to help them stick.

I've sprayed quite a bit of Daler-Rowney Pearlescent ink. They work much better with a good base coat of white and a seal coat afterwords. They're now particularly soft like old Createx were but better safe than sorry.

There's a product called Alumaclear that is made for bonding to raw aluminum. Baring that I'd suggest a 2K urethane clearcoat as they bond incredibly well and do not show wear or yellowing.

There's also Model Design & Blueprinting Handbook, Volume 1 by Charles Adams, https://www.amazon.com/Model-Design-Blu ... 0979175232

Be sure to check out Hasegawa's line of metallic films & colors.

I usually add a drop of flow improver as it helps my ham fisted painting. Shaking will not properly mix Vallejo as had been stated. I modified one of those immersion style paint mixers to fit through the neck of Vallejo bottles to get them mixed well. Basically I shaved it down to diameter then file...

I used to have a bottle of Pactra (or was it Revell?) acrylic from the 80s that I kept just to be reminded of how bad a paint can be. The stuff refused to cure. Ever. Even after 10 years it was still tacky. Finally tossed it back in the aughts. I've got some Tamiya that's 20 or so years old as when ...

The farther away you can get the light source from the diffusing material the better it will work. That being said check out the various plastics manufacturers for free samples like this https://plaskolite.com/catalog/optix-ld ... ng-acrylic

I'm a mod and don't have permission. So let me bug 1-0 about it.

Generally I'll mist on some bathroom cleaner then use warm water and gentle water from the spray or shower head to rinse it off. If the decals come off the water is too warm and/or you used too much soap.

Get a decent soldering iron. That fixed 99% of the soldering issues I used to have. Temperature control makes a world of difference.

I've done it. It takes a HUGE amount to get a true flat and if you over do it it'll get a frosted look. How much you ask? Roughly a bottle of Tamiya flat base to a bottle of Tamiya gloss paint. I say roughly because as always, results will vary. It's easier to just lay some Alclad matte over it all.

Time for a Silver model contest?

Do you mean prime? Or are you applying decals to bare metal?

I'd go with some broad angle LEDs and some diffusing medium like Lumicolor Glacier or OPTIX Flexilume.

Patrick46 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 6:23 pm Kylwell, do you use the regular clear or the blue base clear paper?

Depends on what I'm printing.

elend wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 3:27 pm Is there actual decal sheet paper for laser printers?

Yes, meant to handle the high temp fusing. Inkjet decal paper is made to be semi-porous to accept the ink.

This is my preferred supplier https://www.papilio.com/