Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

All of my sculpts are entirely negotiable from moment to moment. I actually don't begin with any fixed notion, but rather allow the pieces to tell me what they want to do. That way, I maintain some element of the unexpected in every character. There are some cases where a sculpt sits on the desk for...

Nice! I certainly wasn't until you posted this. Thanks!

Stu Pidasso wrote:If you have a Harbor Freight Tools nearby, they have all those grits up to 1200 for like $4 for 5 sheets of 8" x 11". Or Wal-Mart has less of a selection, but they do have lots cheap.

Agreed. I tend to buy the basic sandpaper at HFT, and find it a perfectly reasonable price.

Agreed with MF there. My LHS scored a bunch of partially built and opened kits that were part of an estate that was being liquidated. As a result, I was able to purchase a variety of armor kits at a true fraction of the normal price.

Coming in late to the party here, but I've gotta throw in my vote for the Gorilla CA glue. One thing that I absolutely love is the fact that the tip doesn't clog. The bane of my work for some time was messing around with straight pins trying to clear a jam out of the nozzle from a tube of Krazy glue..

Hey there,

As an aside, folks are requested to not use inline images here in order to keep bandwidth costs low. Rather, if you put links to other hosting sites where images are kept, that would be preferable.

Hope this helps!

With the square Testors bottles, I put them in a vice I got from Harbor Freight that has rubber covers for the teeth, and then use a vice grips on the lid. While I do this with two hands, it is definitely possible to do this with one hand if you break it down into basic steps.

Hope this helps.

That's a really crisp start. I look forward to seeing how this develops!

Joseph C. Brown wrote:Heck, where you are living, just lay it out in the driveway for twenty minutes. It'll lay flay after Georgia summer temps!

Just be smart 'bout it; don't drive over it, and wait till late afternoon. Seriously, twenty minutes should do it fine.

Chuckle. Exactly.

For straight edges, I use a dedicated plastic cutter that as specifically designed for cutting plexi etc. Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/P-800-Plastic-Laminate-Cutter-OLF5012/dp/B000BNLIKW For .020 styrene etc, a #11 Exacto blade works, but for thicker stock, I find that you need a very ...

( Claps for Kylwell's post. ) I think you've absolutely got it right there.

@Wraith

Completely OT, but love the Gurren Lagann avatar.

Eek. Not Baking Soda. This was an idea that was started some 20 years ago and has been deprecated by many a modeler. Baking Soda, even encased in superglue will absorb water from the air. Eventually, the baking soda will dissolve into a liquid solution and leak out of the glue joints. One A/C model...

Good suggestion. I've used them before combined with other elements to create fuel tanks for various vehicles. Here's one before priming and painting.

http://www.firstgearterritories.net/HTM ... F_L_3Q.jpg

Having almost exclusivly built AFVs I can't help but feel somewhat disadvantaged by the no tank models rule. :cry: I have a ton of greeblies though, I'll see what I can cook up. No more restricted than i am. Try going to another material. A block of balsa or modeling board to bulk out the dase shap...

I've been using a pin vise myself for the past year or so, and it quite simply gives you far more control than a motor tool, let alone a drill, with none of the melting or deforming issues. For thicker stock, I find that this works really nicely: http://www2.fiskars.com/Products/Crafting/Other-Craft...

For doing your own stuff, what I find in my work is that I try to have good composition- that is a balance of shapes and spaces, arranged in an interesting fashion. I try not to let things get too dense, else I end up with a sort of barnacled surface that interferes with the overall shape of a piece...

When you say foam, do you mean that you are using blue foam blocks that you've carved, or foam core board cut and glued to form shapes?

In my experience, humidity and temperature make a substantial difference in the curing of epoxy. If conditions are cooler than ideal, I will often use more catalyst in order to "goose" the reaction. The brand of the epoxy, and the age of the actual chemistry are also significant factors to...

I've been seeing a fair bit on this method recently. I'm definitely going to have to give it a try.

Weather is also a consideration. I've found that if the ambient temperature is too cold, you will get some rather particular "crackle" effects on the finished piece.

Can't go wrong with charcoal. If you don't like what you get, it's easy to clean off. You can also grind charcoal and dilute it with any number of liquids to make a thin wash. As ever, the best course of action would be to test beforehand on a scrap piece painted to the basic specs of the target ele...

Depending on the scale, I have frequently used CA glue.

Thermodynamics (expansion and contraction based on temperature) is also a factor.

Spray or hand paint in cold weather (below 50 degrees Fahrenheit)and you are almost guaranteed a crackle effect on your paint.

PS: If you have a loved one who is stumped for a decent holiday gift to give you, they are quite affordable and well appreciated.

If you are a hard core scratchbuilder, you'll find it absolutely indispensable. I personally find that the new "Stylus" model finds use for me at least as often as any other hand tool. If you are working at all with metal or hard plastic elements, it will save a great deal of time and ener...

Ah, and another selling point for Rhino is that while it used to be a PC exclusive, they are now actively (as in doing real research and beta testing) looking at being able to make this available for the Apple platform, thanks to the new Intel hardware. When I last upgraded my PC hardware, my father...

I'm rather peculiar, as I first scratchbuild my models, and then realize them in 3D as virtual models. My weapon of choice is Rhino 4. I've been using it since 1998-99. It excels at doing mechanical subjects, and exports to a wide variety of formats. it also imports Adobe Illustrator files that can ...

Here is a question.

Is there anything that would serve as a resist for the expandable foam?

Certainly when casting, there are substances that are used to make it so that the filler does not adhere to the mold. If you have a spherical mold properly treated, I wounder if that might work.

Got a question: can I take one of those solid disks of watercolor paint you can get at the craft section of Walmart, grind it up, and mix it with water to get a wash? I want to try that on my Finemolds Y-Wing. And for rusts, I find that if you take regular Testors brown and gradually add a bit of o...