Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Tamiya's white rattle can primer is very good, too, and I frequently use a Duplicolor grey acrylic primer for cars from local DIY stores with good success.

I'd suggest an overall coat with clear car body varnish, which is, for instance used to seal metallic paints. These are quite resistant to environmental influences and also stable under UV light. Just because the sun does not shine directly onto the item won't mean that it is not exposed to the effe...

seam-filler wrote: ↑Fri Apr 21, 2023 3:10 am

jpolacchi wrote: ↑Thu Apr 20, 2023 5:50 pm What do you use for priming vinyl kits? Acrylic only?

I personally use automotive acrylic primers all the time for vinyl.

Totally agreed. Tamiya's White Acrylic primer spray is top, but less expensive spray (automotove stiff is just great; my favorite is Duplicolor) will suffice.

And though not intended to spray, Microscale markets a brush-on flexible decal film material. Highly recommended stuff - and you do NOT have to apply it with an airbrush. It's not like a varnish that might leave a recognizable film on top of the decal, it seems to seep into the film and vanishes co...

When I built one many moons ago I gave it an overall US-style Olive drab paint scheme, using Tamiya's XF-62 (the WWII USAAF tone), plus some weathering, and it looked very good (and similar to the model above). But other schemes would certainly be plausible, too, e.g. overall Gunship Grey (FS 36118)...

Humbrol enamels had a shaggy quality level during the last years, since production went to China (when the RLM tones were introduced) and later also to Belgium. Some of these paints have horrible properties, including poor opacity and "glossiness", unwillingness to dry properly (some extra...

Personally, I avoid fillers these days - I found them to react with resin and IP underground, and they tend to remain somewhat soft and sticky. I prefer simple acrylic primer paint (Duplicolor is a great choice, IMHO), and the stuff is able to level out small scratches etc. - not as much as filler, ...

I am skeptical. Adding something to the paint does not change its basic properties, it just increases the coat's surface into a fragmented plane. The glossy quaility is still there, though, and unless you have a model that makes such a surface plausible (e.g. a large scale tank model, esp. with a ca...

On vinyl, I use an automotive primer designed for car plastic trims. I've heard that you can use enamels over this without damaging the vinyl, but I've never had the courage to try. Yes, this works. But I still would not dare to use this method for large areas - you never know how things develop ov...

I (still) have a tin from Humbrol's Authentic range, HJ04 "Mauve", the highly debatable "IJN Purple". Used it several times and i's still "alive" and fully operational, even though it smells funny (ever did so, though, a unique sour note). Not certain when I bought it, ...

Tamiya's tape is pretty sticky, but it HAS to for a clean edge and on bulged ground. However, in your case you might have simply pulled a certain acrylic layer off, or the clear coat was not thoroughly dry, so that the masking tape's sticky surface (which is not flat) imprinted itself into the varni...

This is how ANY acrylic paint adheres/works. Since it is basically water-based, it does - unlike solvent-based enamels - not bond well with the underground. If you apply, them directly on plactic or other non-soaking material, it is prone to scratches or to be rubbed-off easily. A primer mends this,...

You basically can polish clear resin, but depending on the piece's thickness and structure (sometimes the stuff tends to be brittle...) I would not dare using a mini drill/Dremel tool. If you use such a device, I suggest a polishing mop and a fine rubbing/polishing compound - but you HAVE to be care...

I frequently use simple acrylic varnish (gloss) from a rattle can, but I normally just do small detail decals. A quick hush with the can for a thin varnish layer is normally enough to fix the ink (HP), if I use too much the ink starts "bleeding". I use Expert*'s Choice decal paper, both cl...

Tamiya has a spray can transparent pearl that is used over any color. It's a very scale look. Second and recommend that. It has very fine pigments. For a figure project I experimented with several pearl options, and found the Tamiya stuff to be the most convincing. It also adapts well to the underg...

Brake fluid should only be the LAST resort. It's very aggressive and WILL hurt the palstic, sucking out softener and leaving the material brittle. Not the best idea for a 20 year old model. My vote would go to a (soda-based) oven cleaner foam bath , too: Leave it under a foam cover for a couple of d...

I have made very good experience with simple acrylic gloss varnish, sprayed from a rattle can (since I do not use/have an airbrush). A thin coat is enough - in fact, any thick layer adds too much humidity to the printed paper and dissolves the print color again, making it "bleed". With the...

I can highly recommend foamed oven spray cleaner. It works with soda, and the stuff creeps under ANYTHING without damaging the styrene. A bath under a foam coat might take a week, but it's very effective, esp. when the paint is still relatively fresh. A real killer method is a bath in brake fluid, b...

Well, I can (and do) bring it to a public disposal site (where also my empty/dry paint rattle cans and tins go), where the stuff is taken care of - for free.

Household waste or "dropping it somewhere" is actually not an option, unless you are rather ignorant.

Sometimes, the carrier film is utterly thin and highly hazardous to handle. Many films used for home-printing are very fragile, but there are also occasions from NiB aftermarket sheets that literally disintegrate once you put them on the water. Some old decals also become brittle and fall apart into...

If you want some seriously good stuff, and willing to invest some bucks, I also recommend Tamiya Fine White primer. Excellent stuff. But a good, grey acrylic car color primer (e.g. from Duplicolor) also works fine. If you have issues with clogged details it's IMHO rather an application issue (either...

I use two different putties, both are rather obscure, local products, though. For typical IP model work and on resin I use a nitrous compound putty called "Presto Finish", which is actually a fine putty intended for car body work, for the final finish before primer is applied. The stuff is...

The white Tamiya primer from the rattle can is excellent stuff, with very fine pigments - a great option if you do not have an airbrush. Standard grey acrylic car primer (also rattle can) is IMHO also an option. Not as fine as the Tamiya stuff, but with multiple thin coats (instead of trying to do t...

You might also check gift bands, for parcel decoration - there is some plastic (actually styrene) mash gift band around. Not certain if it would qualify for for small scale, but it might be an option.

I used a step-by-step project in a Francois Verlinden book many years ago as my initial weathering fix. It was a "simple" 1:35 M4 Sherman tank, and I started with duplicating the process outlined in the book - and it worked well. Anyway, atechnique or effect which works on one kit or scale...

I have succesfully used the bottoms from a clear plastic cookie tray (from a simple consumer package) for lit-up spaceship engines. Some clear paint, worked very well and did not cost anything extra. Just some cookies.

Second the plaster method, too. I built my first large scale figure kits in vinyl, and plaster in the legs not only lowered appreciably the center of gravity, it also stabilized the legs, supporting the weight of the upper body. Just make sure you let the plaster dry out THOROUGHLY before you "...

I have successfully used the Busch paint - initailly I bought it to repair a damage in my car's rear window heat grill, and it worked like a charm! I have later also used it for LED connections in one or two mecha models, and the stuff worked well, too.

What works well and has a visible effect in direkt light is a metallic base coat with a candy clear coat. You could use a black metallic paint with VERY fine mica particles (standard stuff, e .g. from a rattle can with a car color, is normally much too "rough" for a model kit), and cover i...

Second the Sheperd Paine book, and there are also some books from von François Verlinden in English language available. Another, more generic work that helped me a lot when I started with bases/dioramas was a book by Daniel Puiboube, but I think it's only available in French or German language. The ...