Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

I made myself a mini drill from a 12v motor & 600RPM gearbox combo, and miniature chuck, both from ebay for a total of less than 5 quid that I have been using with 0.5mm drills on my Zvezda SD and haven't broken a drill yet. It's fast enough to drill a hole in a couple of seconds, but not fast ...

https://plaidonline.com/products/brand/galleryglass Comes in a variety of colors, including clear, and dries clear in that color. Apparently, it dries to a rubbery consistency, and is easy to remove if you make a mistake. It’s supposed to be available at Michaels, and at $2.99 a bottle it’s probably...

If you're friendly with your dentist he (or she) would probably be willing to give you old dental bits. Even when they're no longer good for teeth they're fine for styrene and resin. Been using them for years and have only broken two. I found these on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

Never mind!

I figured out the answers to my questions!

Thanks anyway!

-T

I made myself a mini drill from a 12v motor & 600RPM gearbox combo, and miniature chuck, both from ebay for a total of less than 5 quid that I have been using with 0.5mm drills on my Zvezda SD and haven't broken a drill yet. It's fast enough to drill a hole in a couple of seconds, but not fast ...

I bought a Rogue One Star Destroyer model, and am interested in lighting it with 0.25 mm fiber optics. The problem is, how do I drill the thousand(s) of tiny holes? I have a pin vise, but based on my experience with #80 drill bits, I would end up breaking a lot of those. And the cheapest I've been a...

Thanks!

I'll probably go with adding a small amount of light gray and light brown to a base of white.

Any suggestions on how to achieve an off white paint color?

White + light gray? White + gray? White + ivory?

I have a color that's described as follows: White (60%) + Akira off-white (40%) + wood brown (small amount)

Any help would be appreciated!

Brilliant!

Thanks!

I just purchased both of the Cosmo Fleet Sets from Yamato-2199. The kits are 1/1000 scale, and contain plenty of small parts. Other than using a fine-mesh strainer on the drain of the sink, are their any tips for washing very small parts? Is it best to do sub-assemblies before washing with dish soap...

Try UV glue!

My understanding is that it bonds almost anything, and dries clear.

But I haven't had the chance to play with it yet.

Has anyone heard about UV glue? It's glue that remains liquid until exposed to UV light. I first heard about this on an infomercial last night, but in thinking about it, this stuff has been around for years at the dentist's office: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE2B1ET-p1Q It seems to be optically...

I don't know about a tutorial, but Adafruit sells EL panels and tape.

https://www.adafruit.com/category/50

Basically you need an inverter to drive the panel. They usually off a source that's betwwn 3V to 6V depending on the area of EL panel/tape you're trying to drive.

Best of luck!

I find that I'm using a lot of 10/0 brushes - Mostly because I've been working on 1/1000 & 1/2500 kits, and I find them to be very useful for fine detail painting. But the downside is that they're expensive. (Even $2.50 a piece adds up really fast!) Can anyone suggest an alternative? I have trie...

After watching Episode 4 last night, it looks like the paint instructions are wrong when it calls for Black. His head and chest aren't quite that dark.

I think Graphite would be a better match.

And I just painted the silver details on his head and chest.

Sigh...

Testors does offer Italian Red under the Model Master brand.

I'm building Analyzer, from Space Battleship Yamato 2199, so it's not like I need an exact color.

Hey all,

I'm looking for a match for Monza red.

I've been searching, and I can't decide whether Tamiya X7 Red, or maybe Testor's Insignia Red would be the closer match.

Any insight would be appreciated!

I bought a 3d printed model of the Discovery One, from 2001.

Is there anything I need to do to prep the model for painting?

(E.g., washing the model with either Ajax or dish soap?)

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I was about to yell "NO! Not EnviroTex - it'll melt your model!" Then I realized that the last time I personally used EnviroTex was back in '81, so I have no clue what the EnviroTex Lite may do. Maybe another, more recent user of it will surface? Don Matthys, over at DLMParts, used to hav...

I have EnviroTex Lite bi-part resin, and I'm wondering if there's a way to make a quick and dirty resin cast of a model part. Perhaps using Super Scupey as a mold. I'd like to make clear domes for my 1/2500 Romulan Bird of Prey, and there's also a ladder-pattern on the engine of a 1/1000 Klingon BOP...

Elmers makes clear glue. I bought it, but haven't yet tried it for windows. It does dry clear, though. In my experience, Micro Criystal Clear always dries with a blue color. But maybe I'm not applying it thin enough. Clear resin, like the type used to varnish tabletops, is an option, but it's by far...

There's this site for fiber optics and LEDs:

http://fiberopticproducts.com/

Make sure that the positive leg of the second led is connected to the negative leg of the first led. The same goes between the third and second leds.

It actually doesn't matter whether the resistor is connected on the positive or negative sides.

Best of luck!

Until the thread on big flat LEDs, I had no idea that LEDs in the 10mm size were available.

I have a bunch in 1.8, 3, and 5mm sizes, but 10mm definitely has its uses.

(E.g. deflectors and engines...)

http://www.adafruit.com/search?q=10mm+led

Well...I'm familiar with the acrylic they're using for these LEDs. There are two flavors, one optimized for edge lighting, and another optimized for diffusion with back-lighting. I'm thinking warp grills and such cut specifically to size and shape for specific models might be quite useful to a lot ...

Pictures, we like pictures..... Got my order in on Friday, so here are some pictures: All three sizes: http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg127/maddoctrekkie/f34273851ea00ef9e931908a30c10be0.jpg Here's the largest: http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg127/maddoctrekkie/38d102847cdf7f67ca45a0f313935...

What is the amperage rating of each power supply?

Keep in mind that there is a distinct difference between amperage and voltage.

Thanks!

Adafruit has a starter kit for about $80.

That would probably be a good place to start.

I was looking at the Adafruit website, and they have some pretty cool lighting products, but many of them are Arduino driven. Although I'm not a programmer, I have some experience hacking scripts. Is there anywhere I can go to find out what exactly an Arduino can do, and how to get the Arduino to do...

Yesterday I ordered two of each size.

My brother was asking if it'd be possible to cut it into custom shapes.

I don't see why not...