Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

K&S is a common hobby store brand for brass and aluminum stock like that. Usually found in the vicinity of the Plastruct and Evergreen displays. They make rectangular brass tube, but most model oriented places around here only carry the round rod and tube lines. In this case, it may actually pa...

I was gonna say wee tiny chisels, or punches made from sharpened square/rectangular brass tubing, but I like Johnnycrash's idea much better.

I like the look of the results.

I imagine you could also use a clear lacquer sealer to prep non-lacquer base color(s) for this.

You may be able to wrap the blueish stuff in Aves, just like the large cell white styrene foam. The sheets are foil clad on the flats, and that's the source of the blue blue you're seeing in the vid. The foam itself is actually a sort of pale buttermilk yellow color. The stuff's no good for carving...

I did find something "blueish" being used outside. ;) It's shown here as "Insulated foam sheathing" according to the California energy commission. http://www.energyvideos.com/bldvid.php?P=CA&A=5&S=rfi They are polyisocyanurate sheets. Wikipedia states they are essentiall...

I was wondering- since it's a PC game, is there any chance the in-game CG model can be extracted? Sometimes you can do that, depending on what 3D format the game designers used. IIRC there was a guy here who was scratchbuilding models of the Halo spaceships by extracting the in-game CG model and con...

Steel blue Dykem marking fluid, maybe. It's clear blue like the Tamiya paint, but there's something about how it dries that gives it a metallic-looking purple specular effect on top of the blue. IIRC this is what was used to create the purple metallic sheen on the Refit Enterprise's warp grills (whe...

As to the Nostromo - much of the pre-production artwork was done by Chris Foss. Many of his ships appear in a dull yellow like construction industry vehicles (what we call JCB yellow in the UK). Chris Foss's stuff was earlier in the production. The final screen used concepts were Ron Cobb designs. ...

Gonna break with the conventional wisdom here- I don't pin unless the surface area of the joint is extremely small in relation to the load on the joint. Or unless using superglue, which I typically don't. I use five minute epoxy for most resin gluing, and JB-Weld for jobs that need more finesse and/...

I was thinking specularity tricks. On an all white subject, start with an overall flat clearcoat, then drybrush clear satin or gloss on the highlights. That way the whole thing is the same white, but the light appears to catch more on the highlight areas.

I did read the instructions, but I don't trust that method. I've clamped it and rubber banding it many times now, and one thing I've been very impressed with is the extraordinary amount of tension required to bend the part even that much. It's kind of scary when the clamp starts to flex at the same ...

I've got the big Zentradi warship kit from Scale Solutions. I keep putting off working on it because one of the hull halves is slightly bowed outward. The degree of deflection is slight, but since the parts are very long it still makes for a big gap at the ends. I've tried the hot water thing, but t...

I don't worry so much about flooding anymore with superglue. I've discovered that once the parts are stuck together, a q-tip dipped in acetone can be used to wipe off the excess, even if it's solidified, without harming the inside of the join.

Knowing that makes things so much easier.

I've heard that red makes a better base for gold than black, but I haven't had cause to test it myself yet.

An old favorite article:
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/t ... tnt126.htm

When I first started using Aves, I wasn't sure what solvents/smoothing aids worked best. Mostly I was unsure whether or not the "Safety Solvent" was worth buying if water or alcohol would do the job. After having tried out a few of the options (including Safety Solvent), I thought I'd come...

Might still work for Frank though. Polymer clay... yeah, that won't do so well a those temps. There are, as others have noted, high-temp epoxies out there, both finishing epoxies for kitchen applications, and mold making epoxies for vacuuform and thermal elastomer molding. Might even be worth giving...

Try putting it in the mold dry, then put the mold in the oven and heat them together, so that the mold acts as both form and crucible. Embossing powder is like cloisonne enamel: normally applied to the intended substrate dry, then melted in situ (with a kiln in the case of cloisonne enamel, an oven ...

I don't think I'd have the patience to do all that fiddly cutting. I'd hand etch it in brass instead.

I used ink to tint epoxy putty with great results. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ter-or/2256514710/in/set-72157603704701438/ This is why the "natural" flavor of Aves is king. By itself it's not a good color to work with (translucent light gray is terrible for visibility), but I can opacify...

the resin is the five minute apoxy thats in a double seringe like thing that you get at wally world in the hardware dept. at wally world for like 4 bucks. Since you're using epoxy resin... paint. Yep, that's right: paint. Enamel or acrylic, either works and will not screw up the resin. Food colorin...

Bondo can be cut with fiberglassing (polyester) resin to improve its viscosity for use in moldmaking. IIRC thats how some FX artists used to build molds for casting silicone based makeup appliances. If all you have available is hardware materials, look for tubes of silicone bathtub caulking. This ca...

A fairly long time, like a couple of minutes. It'll set in spots around the edge after thirty seconds or so, but most of it will remain squishy for a surprisingly long time. On the one hand this means that you've got a lot of positioning time, to the point where you can even break and reseat a seemi...

Umi_Ryuzuki wrote:it is my experience that nothing attaches anything to aluminum

JB weld.

I've used the high strength 3 stuff. I liked it. Very good durability, though a lot stiffer than their basic rubber.

If it's really PVC then it should be just fine. Main lookout would be whether it's actually a mixture of plastics and not purely PVC.

Of course, when in doubt, use a bit of leftover scrap to test and see.

At this point, I'd say coat the inside surfaces of the planking with a sloshing of epoxy or a rolled sheet of Aves. That should solidly reinforce the planks' bond, and provide a workable overall rigidity without increasing the hull thickness very much.

I only have experience with the Alumilite stuff, but I'd echo what Joseph Osborn says about it. Usable, but less than ideal. The utra-fast resin will be particularly unforgiving to a beginner. Upshot is it'll teach you a lot about proper mold engineering, downshot is the learning will come mostly th...

My experience with superglue and microbaloons/talc has been that it solidifies quite rigid. With Microballons the result is tough as nails, and difficult to sand. Talc is better, but still a lot tougher and more rigid than the vinyl would be, and that could create some difficulty during sanding. Scu...

Fine point pens? I know technical pens can be filled with different types of ink (thinned paint maybe?), but are expensive and somewhat fussy to clean. There are disposable ultra-fine tip artist's pens made in different colors too; try checking art supply or craft stores.