Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

I see you've created a special forum for people who want to help with the aftermath of hurricane Harvey, but it isn't accessible. I get the following message:

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Chas wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2017 8:46 am No spam posts in <thunderdome> or <marketplace> . . . interesting.

Both require special permission or a minimum post count to post there?

I can't understand why a hosting company would be down in the weekends (unless they're trying to go out of business real fast ). Hopefully this new host will be better.

I see the "Home"-link bug has been fixed

Gaia Notes is 100% compatible with GSI Mr. Color products, which are acrylic lacquers. These are made especially for modeling, and they target the figure modelers too. People earlier in this thread said that they'd work well on my vinyl figure, and I am not surprised. With others talking about usin...

Hey all, I'm looking for a match for Monza red. Where does the color belong to/come from? If it is a real car color, using the actual car paint is a good way to go; many colors are available in a rattle can, either from the manufacturers themselves or as generic offers, and these tend to be water-b...

Sadly, it's impossible to do unless you just keep trying and it slips by...but that is breaking the rules. If they catch it, they'll stop it, maybe confiscate it, or worse. That's why HobbyLink Japan and other Japan-based net shops no longer offer paints for overseas customers. That is just sad. Be...

I tend to prefer lacquer paints. Then again, I live in Japan, where using lacquers is more commonplace, whereas it seems that Western modelers have an aversion to lacquers. It's not an aversion; they're just much harder to obtain, especially in Europe, since most lacquers are forbidden here due to ...

Putting the parts on top of a heater (especially water-filled ones) for a while also works., with the added bonus that the parts won't slip out of your fingers since they're not wet.

Another thing you can do with Tamiya's less well covering paints (e.g. flat red and yellow) is to take the equivalent gloss color, Tamiya's flat base, and a tiny bit of flat white, and then mix your own semi-gloss color. They dry very well, rock hard and level quite well too compared to the stock fl...

On the two vinyl kits I've built over the years, I painted the first with Tamiya acrylics straight over the vinyl (after washing it), and the paint turned sticky some months after drying because the plasticizers in the vinyl leached through. :( The second one (wanting to avoid the earlier problem......

Thanks all, will see what works best on this kit.

Of course, some more primer flaked off parts I superglued together, so it will also include discovering whether superglue can survive those products...

Other than NOT needing to soak the parts for weeks, looks fine. That's because whatever they used to prep the molds on the older kits is a total pain to remove. For most recent resin kits a few days seems to be enough. Makes me wonder if the problem might be that the mold release agent remains on t...

Okay, I keep having problems with certain resin kits and primer adhesion. So I wonder whether my preparation method is okay: 1) Remove parts from trees, remove tabs and other imperfections. 2) Wash parts under running tap water, give them a good scrub, sand off the more visible molding lines and tab...

I'm usually in for something like this, but I'd like some guarantee that it won't disappear like my last two entries. :( We had one guy last time, kill one completely. Burned it if I remember. It's an act of trust and faith in the team members. I was part of the "model killer" group. I wa...

Hot tap water should be fine, but you may have to straighten it several times or use a jig to keep it straightened while cooling down.

Boiling water will make you burn your fingers the moment you touch the resin.

Last resort trick. Hot water. Soften. Bend back to straight. Drill into the end lengthways whilst still straight. Let Cool Cut a length or brass rod to the right length. Place part in hot water. Soften. Bend back to straight. Insert brass rod. Driible in superglue. Use a rig to hold shape. Let glue...

Used really hot water (too hot to put my hand in for more than 1-2 seconds), let the part soak three minutes, pulled it out and held it bend in the other direction for five minutes => almost straight for a few minutes, then returns to its initial warped state :evil: This resin sucks. Banana-like gun...

Can you build a jig to hold the part after you flex it back into shape? What's probably happening is that it's not flexing/stretching enough to counteract the way it's molded so as it cools, it shrinks/flexes back to its original state. Making a jig will force it not to flex as it cools. Right now ...

I'm trying to straighten a resin gun using the hot water method, and no matter what I try, the part will return to its banana-like initial state, making me suspect it was molded in that state. Any solutions besides scratchbuilding a replacement? Asking the manufacturer for a replacement is out of th...

For those that brush on Mr. Surfacer, what do you use to clean the brushes with?

I didn't use microset first as the decals were already sliding all over the place with only water. Will try that and the soft cloth method next time.

Thanks.

So I am building a Virtual-On kit that has those nice thin Cartograph decals that Hasegawa sometimes includes with kits. However, the decals have to go over some very curved parts (the boobs on a newer Fei-Yen kit :oops: :roll: ), and when I apply Microsol to them to get them to conform to the curva...

So I am moulding a fuselage, and due to an accident, I am out of RTV (oommoo300). about 3/4 of the rubber made it into the mould box, and I am out. If I pick up some more tomorrow, can I simply top up the box, over the cured stuff? Or do I have to start over completely. Its a fairly big part, and t...

Thanks. Is Tamiya lacquer primer just their normal gray or white primer, or some special primer?

Anyone know whether it is possible to recast vinyl parts in resin? If, so what should I keep in mind?

I won a mecha figure kit on an auction site that is a two-in-one kit: one set of legs, two different options for the torso (you guess right if you think I want to recast the legs).

Okay, thanks! I'll try that on the sitting pilot first - he's mostly hidden when the kit's finished so problems won't show up as clearly.

I'm working on a Bandai Gasaraki kit, and it comes with two pilot figures that are made from a rubbery, flesh-colored soft plastic. The seams on the figures are a pain to clean up and are slightly sticky. Last time I tried to paint figures like this with Tamiya acrylics and Humbrol enamels the paint...

Hmm, I was wondering about those acrylic Hobby Base joints. I actually have a few of those that I've put to work on an old 1/100 Regult kit. They seemed awful toight. I'll check out the Kotobukia ones too. So, in that case, here's my idea: If I sculpt the master around the acrylic pieces, then pull...

Those Hobby Base ball joints for instance: I love 'em and they're useful for all kinds of things... But they do crack apart sometimes. In general I'd say it's important to have at least the socket part of those be replaceable. I had that problem on a plastic model kit where I used those joints to g...

If you want to make it poseable, use polycaps like those from Wave, Kotobukiya, and Hobby Base (all available through Hobby Link Japan and other places). I think Kotobukiya also offers special ABS joints for large and heavy resin cast mecha. Hobby Base offers some really hard and tight clear ball-jo...