Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

'Fresh and interesting, mon. Is she named yet? I nominate Junkyard Defender.

Out of reflex I'd choose a wood other than balsa. It does have a degree of strength, but it's not as high as I would personally want with such a large model. It also tends to compress, which is not a good feature for a load-bearing item.

Pick a denser wood.

Suspension method fail aside, there's a larger problem inherent to the concept: "Navy." Amphibious armor ops are a Marine staple.

Smooth-On has basic A+B sets that're often found in art supply stores. I forget the part numbers. The rubber sets up decently and the resin is easier to use than measure-by-weight varieties. 'Bit pricey, though.

How large is that Tamiya bottle? I don't like Tenax; it's not particularly safe and it doesn't work well.

I glanced at the title and thought it was "beheading wire."

Now that I'm in the thread, though, why would the wire cause a model to burst into flames? Are you planning to run current through it?

Metal miniatures can be made with surprisingly fine details. The key seems to be in the mold temperature and simple repetition. There will be flaws in any production run.

Cenebar wrote:Tony is correct though. Hovertanks don't need to look like tanks at all, nor do they need a turret or a tube gun. They could be nothing more than a hovering bank or missiles or shooting rods or one gigantic laser panel on a flatscreen.

So Ramiel counts too?

That was a good reminder about dusting the clay. A lot of times it doesn't really feel that sticky, but it can sure act that way. I've made a few fast & dirty molds like that, but using Sculpey. The advantage over plasticene is that the polymer's not very oily. I've found that using Sculpey as a...

Hmmm. Okay, no dice. That model might have been in the group picture, but I recall the article concentrating on larger robots of a different make.
'Sorry to get your hopes up.

Somewhere I have a recent copy of "Make" magazine (or something similar) which had a feature article on old hobby robots. I must dig it out and see if it's helpful.

Don't forget a sound chip to make the distinctive *Funk-pooof* noise.

Sweet flapping Ghidorah.

Press the nozzle against the crack(s), apply force, and clean up the excess.

BattleMechs violate "intuitive" sizing (translation: guesswork) because their materials tend to be very dense. Foamed metal skeletons designed for weight savings are one thing; heavy composite armors, to say nothing of shielded fusion reactors, are another. Granted the books (and games) ar...

This self may have to try the Paste. An attempt to skin a Styrofoam cylinder with Aves Putty resulted in a somewhat realistic model cucumber. The bumps took some effort to remove - three sheets of 100 grit sandpaper died for the cause. The priest and priestess at WF'09 were mystified by my account. ...

Of the two, Milliput's harder to mix properly and it's not as malleable. (I expect there are several grades of the stuff; for clarification, mine came out beige when mixed.) Hardened Mil' requires more effort for sanding/scribing. I've also had a problem with Milliput pieces warping after a couple o...

I bought the sample pack at Wonderfest in '07, then promptly forgot about it. In the interim I rediscovered the joys of modeling with Sculpy and FIMO, then just as quickly rediscovered the annoyance of hard, crumbly polymer clay that can't be re-baked. Meanwhile, Squadron Green has become less and l...

That's a thoughtful gift.

The newer Citadel bottles definitely go bad faster than the old flip-tops. I completely stopped buying them. Reaper paints, now, are good stuff. 'Pretty good leveling, nice colors (I really like their metallics), and fast-drying. Shelf life seems to be akin to the Citadel paints of old, at the least...

I've used Sculpey before, with both good and bad results. The stuff retains fingerprints quite well if you're not careful. It's also a little tricky to get it to bake perfectly; it wasn't uncommon for a few minutes' too much heat to shrink and blacken the material, while a few minutes of early remov...

Try the Citadel line of acylic paints. There's at least one bone-colored paint, possibly more.

If I recall correctly, well-worn bone stays pretty white, although I'm not exactly sure how well sandworm teeth would follow that trend.

The white, or light grey, strikes me as being a fast & dirty oxidation effect. Methinks that starship armor ought to have layers, such as a highly refractive exterior and an interior designed to spread any thermal penetration quickly (so as to minimize burn-throughs). Molten metals would harden ...

Make your own determination by modeling actual blast marks on a scrap model or sheet plastic. Hold one of those capgun 6 or 8 shot rings next to the surface and apply heat. It's fairly safe and quite realistic. It's also a real pain to repair, so don't try it on anything you'd want to restore later.

I used to "model" blast marks by laying one of those capgun rings on the desired spot and melting a cap with a soldering iron. 'Works like a charm, though the effect isn't precisely subtle.

Also, keep in mind that really big blemishes should get actual putty, or gap-filling superglue, beforehand. By "really big" I mean anything wider or deeper than a bad X-acto scratch, and even some of those are questionable.

It sounds like Mister is great stuff, the kind of stuff I could really use on all my projects... as long as it's mixed properly and used according to the product number/end purpose parameters. Whee. I need to spit in Tamiya paints to keep them workable, for Ghid's sake. Are there any Mister Products...

The comment about subtlety is noted, but I can't recall offhand any pre-shading examples I've seen that were really subtle. The times when a model's description has pointed out a preshading technique it seemed to me that the effect was overdone. That's especially true on smaller subjects.

Supercool the model and turn the gas inside into a Bose-Einstein condensate.

It's a good idea to wear gloves during the procedure. You don't want to boil your fingertips, and some softer resins might pick up a subtle fingerprint pattern if your grip is too tight.

I'm glad I saw this thread. There's an Iwata set for sale at the "local" art supply house (which also stocks mold and resin sets - yay), and it's about $60 with tax. I don't know which version it is, but I thought I recalled the name having a good reputation. I think now I'll have to buy it.