Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

This is still a good thread to review occasionally. Maybe some of you have already done this. It has recently dawned on me that masking tape is pretty cool to use as a material for very thin raised panels, and accents. It has a slight texture so it may not be right for some projects, but it does loo...

I agree with using pin vise drills for making the most accurate holes. In some instances I'll start a tiny hole like that with a new exacto blade--just a couple turns, very lightly, to give it an exact center point to drill in. I guess you could center punch with a needle chucked up in a pin vise to...

I know this is an old thread but I just now noticed it. Another good way to clean out a newly scribed line is to tightly fold a small piece of 400 grit sandpaper into a slight wedge shape and run it through the trench. It helps level out the groove and bevels the edges at the same time. To help keep...

Sometimes when drilling into soft plastic, like "Evergreen," it's very easy for your drill bit to drift while it's plowing through the plastic, especially with larger bits. Single edged unibits are notorious for that--where the hole ends up not being exactly where you wanted it to be. I'm ...

Just throwing this in. Sometimes you have a large piece of plastic but you only want a very small area heated or bent. If you're using a hot air gun (or a hair dryer) you can make surgical bends in just a certain portion of plastic by shielding the other areas you don't want heated. Aluminum foil ma...

If heat alone doesn't work, you could use a razor saw to put a relief cut on the "inside" of the bend, heat and bend, then put a touch of glue at the cut. Fill gaps as necessary. Good advice. "Evergreen" tubing isn't anything like running underground PVC conduit on a constructio...

Mike I sympathise with your problem. I think severe warping (and mis-shapened parts) is the main reason why a lot of models I bought in the past never got built. (You'd think a guy with a name like ~Warped Speedster~ would be more help, huh? :D ) Lotsa good advice mentioned above, and I can't add mu...

I got some 1"x5" EL Strips from All Electronics. (Good store) http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/213/Electroluminescent-Strips/1.html Inverter. http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/INV-10/POWER-SUPPLY-FOR-EL-STRIPS/1.html They are white when not energized but gl...

Personally, I agree with using the acrylic rod method Terry mentioned. Or if you need really small buttons use fiber optic strands.

I'm worried that over a few years that the plastic strips may become brittle and begin to buckle. Is this a valid cocnern? Has anyone else encountered this issue? If it's going to happen at all, the buckling and cracking usually take place during the super gluing process, usually when a piece of st...

Interesting indeed. Good find. I wonder how ridgid the plastic is?

OK, now I really don't know what "Scratch Building" means. But I know it when I see it. At least I thought I did, I think...

I've been hoping for years that Plastruct (or Evergreen) would come out with some larger styrene tubing sizes but they still haven't, and that's really weird. Plastruct has lotsa big "But Rate" tubing but still no styrene larger than 3/8" diameter, as far as I can see. :? Maybe their ...

Ummm, roast duck. Then an hour of "Loony Toons" after dinner. Just wondering about the "Polymer Artist Medium." Does it help acrylic paint stick to all teflon, and other weird >stubborn< plastics? Because we all use strange plastics in scratchbuilding now and again. If so, that w...

Those SSM Store "Painting Clips" look pretty neat. I may get some of those. It really depends on the kind of parts you're painting. When spray painting I sometimes just use regular masking tape (folded under itself, sticky side up of course) to hold a bunch of parts in place. It usually do...

en'til Zog wrote:And maybe you could s/glue some 'sacraficial' sheet stock to the end of your miter box to protect it. Or glue on some brass K&S sheet or strip.

Good Idea, T-bolt!

I think the brass strip idea is good too Z. The harder the better. I think I'm gonna try that'n.

Maybe some of you have already tried this. Here's a simple way to get a perfectly straight cut on the end of your plastic tubing without the use of a lathe. It also works for square stock (rectangle strip). We'll assume you're using the standard small aluminum miter box available at most hobby shops...

For plug-in type pins like you're talking about. Go ahead and mount some short brass locator pins in the pylons but don't glue them in yet. Make them short with sharp points on them that will leave an imprint on the adjoining hull surface. When you think the pylon is lined up pretty good, go ahead a...

One thing to remember about circle cutters and drafting compasses. They are really great for circles about one inch diameter or larger. Any smaller than that and they can get a little stressed with the tight bends. As they flex and twist the cut radius shortens, sometimes quite a bit, giving an irre...

Just to expound a bit on the above mentioned scribing method. There was a discussion on this subject a few years ago. I figured I might as well touch on it again since someone has asked about scribing cylinders. I mess around a lot with cylindrical shapes. I do a lot of cutting using X-acto blades s...

For cutting around the cylinder's radius I usually set the cylinder on its end on a flat surface and spin it by hand, and let the scribing tool cut around it. (obviously the cylinder's end has to be straight and true and square) Stack up spacers to get your scribing tool up to where you want the cut...

I don't think we talked about your "Raised Panel Line" problem. To help get those raised lines down a bit before scribing, you may want to also make a couple narrow sanding blocks out of Evergreen stock. I don't know the tollerances you're working with so you'll have to decide what width i...

I would like to keep the rivets, but I am not sure how to scribe the panel lines, then go back and clean them up w/ out damaging the rivet details. As a straight edge for your scribing project, I'd use one of those metal drafting rulers with the cork on the bottom to lay on the plastic. The cork st...

Sometimes, regardless of the tool you use, you can end up with a undulating (bumby) scribe ditch. I'm not sure what causes this bumpiness at times, but trying to smooth it out with the same tool again seldom works. What will smooth out a lumpy trench is using an X-acto saw. Straight or curved scribe...

Buuuump. One more time.

^^^BOING^^^

Woops!

OK, now you have all the right stuff to do the job. Next step: You probably already know all this, but the best advice I can give someone about sanding plastic is >Go Slow<. It always sands off faster than you think it's gonna, and always in the wrong places. It's so easy to ruin a project. Sand a t...

I think you can buy thin door skin type stuff at Home Depot that bends pretty easily. Not sure how thick it is.

That's a lotta holes to drill by hand. Even so, a pin vise and a straight edge is about the only way to plant rivets nice and even, and straight. I hope you'll be using fairly soft plastic for your project (like Evergreen).

My undestanding is that you prime for several reasons. First to find problems and second to give it a base coat for the main coat of paint to grab onto. Once you fix any problems, then you prime that area again, let it dry, and then wet sand to smooth it out for you coat of paint. That's the same t...