Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Besides foil, the metal in toothpaste-type tubes is good. Not today's toothpaste, they're all plastic now. But that type of tube for oil or water color paint, body putty, even those tubes of Italian stuff (pepper paste, tomato paste, pesto, etc) from the grocery store. I save all my metal tubes for ...

I've seen something similar at the local cake store. Stuff you heat up, pour as a mold, but can then re-melt and use for another mold. It isn't Blue Stuff, it looks more of a translucent yellow, much like beeswax, but makes a flexible mold. Obviously, this product Composimold is for food-grade work....

D'oh!

Shoulda looked - thanks!

Kev

On the topic of "mark all read", is there a way to have a button on the main index to mark everything as read at one click? I still haven't gotten into the habit of clicking the button in each topic area.

Kev

Or go to a party supply place (Party City is our local chain). I assume you want five pointed ones. They have star-shaped confetti in several sizes, from near-pinhead to almost half an inch. They're punched out of plastic so they should glue down pretty well. They're usually either rightly colored o...

Or try to come as close to the background color as you can and use that as a border around your image. That way you have a little margin of error in your cutting and any bits where you cut too wide won't be as noticeable. I've found it's usually better to cut wider around a decal than cut into the i...

I looked online about Tamiya acrylics and the lacquer thinner, and there were some people who also used the Mr. Color Leveling Thinner with similar effect. If I could find it around, I'd give it a shot, too.

But for now, the Tamiya stuff will be my go-to!

Yep - enormous improvement in how well the paint works.

So I have used Tamiya acrylic paint with their acrylic thinner for airbrushing. It tended to dry on the tip of the airbrush, but laid down nicely. I tried it for brush painting, but was always frustrated by it drying quickly and practically clotting when I tried to paint over part that had already d...

When I did my 1/12 Mercury, I wanted to include the escapehatch bulkhead. After getting the right profile for it, I made the arc the right size in a graphics program, printed them out and used them as a template. I cut out radial ribs and glued them around a brass tube on a disc. Filled the spaces b...

I used it on my current struggle, er, model (the Jupiter/Vanguard launch tower kit). Lots of filling needed there! I had to pre-paint many of the parts due to the color scheme. This left some gaps between parts. I tried my old standby, Tamiya gray and white putties, but with the red and white scheme...

Yeah, get some of the polypropylene ones, especially the graduated ones. They're usually marked off by half ml marks. A case of 500 will run you about 16 bucks online. You'll find there's maybe 1 - 2 % that are faulty, where the seams didn't close, but considering the price and quantity, it's still ...

Get some teflon tape from the plumbing section of the hardware store. A roll will last a long, long time. Wrap a bit around the thread of the "male" part and join 'em up. I had leakage from the air hose connector on my old Badger and this stopped it dead. Make sure you wrap it in the direc...

I got a tube of Bondic for just this reason. First off, it doesn't cure hard, more of a hard rubbery feel. So sanding and polishing (as in windows) are out. If you can get it in without smearing any around the edges, it would make a more robust window. It does cure clear, but I've noticed it yellows...

First off yes you can use them. Second to make your holes as accurate as possible, use a pin or something very sharp to make a dimple right in the center of the window. This will give the bit a place to rest when you start to drill. Third, you might not want to use a dremel. They spin fast, and can ...

Since they're built up layer by layer, printed parts end up similar to the way a part would look if you cut out a bunch of layers of .005 and stacked them. Kind of like a topographic map made of cardboard layers. OK for really flat stuff, but on curves you would have a terraced effect that a lot of ...

Instead of Sculpy or some other heat curing polymer, use a two-part putty like Milliput, Aves, or even epoxy putty for the mold. I did this for the little domes on the Excelsior, and then just melted the end of a clear sprue and squash molded new ones. Just make sure you use some kind of release so ...

I've used Milliput white for a couple of simple open molds. I needed (OK, wanted) a clear headlight lens for a car. It came with chromed ones. I mixed up some of the milliput, covered it with a layer of release and pressed in the part a few times. When it hardened, I heated up the end of a big clear...

Here's a thought - drill the holes first, but oversized.

Then take some styrene tube and fit it to the holes, taking time to get them aligned. Use thick CA to give you time to move them.

Trim them down flush with the surface, putty as needed.

Kev

What I do is buy the smaller size (1/2 oz.) super thin. I haven't been using it as fast as I could, but when it starts to turn thicker I use that for gel and eventually as the super thick. So I've got three bottles, all marked "Thin", but at different viscosities. I just move them down the...

I've seen it mentioned a lot of times in Scale Aircraft Modeller International, and they seem to think it's great.

Not a direct review, since I've never seen it around, but some good news.

Or, get some, try it and let us know!

Kev

The pre made ones at MicroMark are just printed paper, but they're only in smaller scales.

There are some pre-made printed surfaces, like brick, cinder block, stones that are made by some companies like Micro Mark. I just found this site: paperbrick.co that lets you generate brick wall prints that have random variations, with different colors and bonds. The largest scale they have is 1/12...

A good cake place should have pure gold dust. Make sure it's the superfine powder, and 24 k.

I've used this for a cake and you mix it with alcohol (vodka, 151, etc.) and paint it on. It looks like gold leaf when finished. Smooth and shiny.

Kev

Overspraying would be the better way to go. It would be hard to get coverage as even if you used pastels. You could either use a clear with some paint added, or really thin down your paint as the overcoat and lightly mist it on. Of course - test your mix first! Nothing worse than trying something ou...

Doubt if Hobby Lobby would carry it. If you don't have a nearby model hobby shop, you can get foil adhesive at places like Michaels or another big box arts/crafts store. It's water based and you spray or brush it onto the back of the foil you want to use, let the water evaporate and use that to stic...

Best bet - give it a dip in Future first! Then if you don't like the result, you can strip with windex and start over. You then might want to streak with just a touch of enamel thinner that is barely tinted with gray - almost no color to it. wipe backwards and the streak should be almost, but not qu...

Has anyone tried the 24 karat gold dust used in cake decorating? I have used it for some details on a cake and when applied using vodka as a liquid it came out looking like polished gold - no grain at all. It's not cheap, at $8 for a teensy container, but it really looks great, and a thinned applica...

Office Max - Elmer's 4 oz. Rubber Cement, $2.99.

Any decent office supply place is bound to have it. Or a big art store.

Kev

See if you can find a local hardware chain, or an "olde fashioned" one like Ace hardware. The big box stores tend to not carry older stuff, but since the smaller stores don't need to pinch every tenth of a cent, they can carry stuff the big boxes don't. for example, if I need to get some p...