Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Are you working with the metal miniatures, and modifying them? If so, I think epoxy putty is your best bet - but you'll need some practice sculpting it.

Hold on tight! ZING - we slide to the finishing forum. I've heard some people have switched from Frisket to Glad Press-n-Seal. As far as transferring - you can use an airbrush and paint it onto the fresh frisket, then cut out what you don't want. You can put your pattern under a piece of glass, and ...

I'm not quite sure what you're asking. However, for making good structural details like these ribs, i prefer using epoxy putty. This gives you a couple hours working time before it becomes too firm. Using tools, you can sculpt the shapes you want. Tools, if kept wetted with isopropyl alcohol will no...

It's about time we made some sticky topics here.


My thoughts.
Always remember, lots of good info here:
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/techmain.htm

There are a few ways to deal with gaps. If the fit is good, and you can tell this through dryfitting, the best way is to try to avoid any filling. I like to use a “hotâ€￾ cement like Tenax and a capillary applicator for precise application. If you slightly overapply the cement, and squeeze the parts together, a bit of semi-liquid plastic will ooze out of the gap. Then you can buff the area smooth. It works really well with a slightly slower cement like Testors liquid cement, too.

To get a good fit, you may find it useful to sand the mating edges flat on a smooth surface with fine sandpaper. 400-600 grit black wetsanding paper works best. Then I usually tape the parts together at a few places to ensure good fit, then start cementing. This is my preferred method for fuselage and wings.

If there is still a bit of gap, you have a few choices. For a fine line, you can use liquid paper. When it’s dry, you can wetsand it easily. Another product for fine lines is Gunze Sangyo’s Mr. Surfacer 1000. Both of these should coat the area, not just the scratch. The best way I’ve found is to try to coat an entire panel or close to it, if details don’t allow. Then wetsanding can make a nice mirror surface. The idea isn’t to just fill the line, but cover the entire area with a smooth surface.

Another product called Gunze Sangyo Mr. Surfacer 500 has a larger grit than the 1000. It’s for larger fills, depressions, and gaps. This will have more structure than the 1000, but may not give as fine a surface. The nice thing about the Surfacer products is that you don’t need to sand them away. If there are critical details you want to protect or if the gap is in a difficult spot, like a wingroot, you can erode the surfacer with 99% isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs. It takes a while, but you can really control the process well.

For more difficult gaps there are other options. First, you should try to shim the bigger areas with sheet styrene – if you’re working on a styrene kit. Just glue strips of thin styrene stock in the area, allow it to dry and remove the excess. You will usually need to address a fine gap later, but this will be strong and fills a large area quickly.

Other ways to fill deep or wide gaps are with superglue and epoxy putty. Superglue – cyanoacrlyate adhesive (CA) comes in many types. Gap Filling is useful for larger gaps. You can allow it to cure naturally, or hit it with accelerator. CA should be sanded within a couple of hours, or it becomes much harder than the surrounding plastic. Another option is to fill the gap with baking soda and apply drops of a very thin CA adhesive. This provides structure and accelerates the cure. Resin dust can provide a filling media for superglue, too. If you save resin dust when you sand this is usable. I don’t like doing it, because I prefer to wetsand resin.

Epoxy putty is a 2-part media which cures in a few hours and provides a very strong material which holds its shape and is very durable. It can be thinned with water, proprietary thinners or alcohol, and it can be shaped with brushes or tools. It gives a couple of hours for shaping, and until it’s cured, it can be removed with a wet paper towel. Using a brush and alcohol, excess can be removed before it’s cured, and many times you can completely eliminate the need for sanding. I like to use water as a final step to smooth the putty. A finger or brush can make a very smooth surface.

There are many types of epoxy putty. Plumber’s Friend is a 2-part tape, it’s cheap, but the region where the halves meet should be removed, as it will be partially cured. In the hobby shops you’ll find Milliput, A&B and Aves. I like Aves Apoxiesculpt myself, it cures about the same hardness as styrene, and has a nice fine particle size. I’ll use it extensively in limited-run kits, and in vacuformed and resin kits. Epoxy putty can add substantial weight to a kit, so do be mindful.

There are other materials like Squadron or Testors putties – these are solvent based putties and can shrink away from gap sides. They do tend to be gritty as well. I don’t like them. Bondo (in the tube) is also used by a lot of guys. It doesn’t shrink, but it is solvent based. It dries quickly and has a fine grit, and is pretty strong. Again, I don’t like it as much but it is fast.

You can do it as soon as the decal is mostly dry. The decal setting solutions usually don't cause problems, but the more agressive ones can cause the Future to haze. What I usually do is wait overnight, and if i'm happy with the decal, how it conformed to the details, how it's placed and everything,...

Yes, you should always topcoat your decals with clear to protect them. And that way you can also apply washes over them. Depending on the model I will either airbrush the whole thing with Future or just the panel which has the decal. BUT BE WARNED. The Future will not prevent the decal from being li...

It will not paint a clean, contained line. You'll get fuzzier edges than normal and you'll get some spatter. Really, the best thing to do is buy a replacement and look at both. Then you'll get an idea about how quickly or slowly the tip wears. The needle jams into it, so it's going to go bad over ti...

yeah, it's confusing. They're really very comperable. If you do consider the Badger 155, I'd spend the extra couple dollars and get the 360. It's the same as the 155, but the head rotates so you can use a color cup or jar as a siphon, or use the built-in color cup as gravity-feed. I've looked at bot...

Get a new tip. Buy a couple while you're doing so. The tip will wear down over time, and you may not notice until you try to do precision work. A worn tip may be OK for area coverage, but not fine control.

A cracked tip - is garbage. You wil have no control.

There is a 3M product made just for wetsanding. It's a black sandpaper and you'll find it at most hardware stores. There are also some nice convenient sanding pads out there, with a foam core which conforms to the model. You will probably remove a good amount of paint. Don't worry, just repaint the ...

Busy, really busy. I'm going to try to update my website to put links to various places with modeling articles I've done. And I need to do some writing for John, and so forth. Plus, work's busy. But hey, it's warming up and about time for bicycling, so the world isn't so bad after all. Except for th...

For those who can't find info about the Omni - it's made by Thayer & Chandler, a division of Badger. I haven't run lacquer-based paint through my Omni. I rarely use anything but acrylics. It does spray acrylic metal paints well enough - Tamiya, Gunze, Testors etc. I did buy a cheap single-action...

I've been using the rattle-can Gunze Mr. Surfacer 1000.

Pricey? Yes.
Oh-so-sweet? Yes.

Yup, Crash, that's exactly how I find the Gunze and Tamiya.
Paint in the morning, Future in the afternoon, let that sit overnight.

I do paint in the basement, but there's a dehumidifier in the room.

Pretty much. I don't have a pressure guage, but I airbrush at a pretty low airflow. Acryl in a fresh jar is pretty well thinned. Often I need to thin the Gunze and Tamiya a bit, it seems once opened, they evaporate a little. Don't spray thick coats of Acryl, though, it will crackle. Multiple thinner...

I have an Omni 3000. It's a GREAT value. I can brush quite fine lines with it - 1-2mm. It's a bit tricky at that level, though. For finer jobs I use a Badger Sotar 20/20. It's much pricier - espescially for replacement bits. A couple of guys in our club have BCS brushes. One has the gravity fed mode...

The only colors I've ever had trouble with is red. Red always goes yucky after a while. I tend not to keep bottles of it around long.

Otherwise, yeah, I 've got bottles of Tamiya and Gunze which are 6 years old. I know 'cuz that's how long ago the hobby shop closed.

Actualy, I'm using watercolors now. Most of the time. Pastels sometimes too. Future the model, let it cure. Mix watercolor pigment in water, add a flow agent like Liquitex's flow enhancer, dab in the lines and let dry. If any areas need additional color, apply more after dry. Then you can use a mois...

These are the very fine detail brushes. Both are good, but the Iwata is a lighter brush. As you're in Croatia, I'd also consider replacement part costs. I don't know whether you'll rely on retailers or internet. Both are well-supported brushes. There are others, also good detail brushes like the omn...

I'm moving this to Finishing. Painting is finishing.

There's an airbrush survey here, worth reading through.

Personally, I recommend the Badger 360 as an all-purpose brush. For fine details you may want to buy something else later. That won't be a beginners move, so don't worry about it now.

I know guys do it, you might want to check out a liquitex product meant to extend acrylic paint for airbrushing. Some of the figure modeling sites might be helpful, too.

I don't like using lacquer clear coats over acrylic paints. Use the Future, dilute it a bit with water and alcohol if you like, and a drop of dish soap in the bottle will help its surface tension. A couple of small coats is always better than one thick one with this stuff, too. Chalk it up to experi...

The metallics are tricky. The metal flaky bits kind of tend to "float" atop the media, making that nice shiny surface. Under that is a paint media, kind of a greyish bluish color. So you'll need to buff it very smooth and repaint the area. Bare metal finishes are generally regarded as the ...

sam1741 wrote:another thing is..
i live in asia...
so.. i dono what 'future' is called here..

anyone can help?

You'll find it at the grocery. It's an acrylic floor polish.


Tamiya or Gunze glosscoat are the same, pretty much. Of course, more expensive.

A bottle of 99% Isopropyl alcohol at the pharmacy or grocery will cost you about a buck. It's used to thin Tamiya and Gunze paint, thin Future, clean brushes, and clean models. You should have a bottle on your bench. Also, Goo-Gone is handy to have around. It will remove adhesive residue. Cotton swa...

Ooh, more templates.

I have the Verlinden set for aircraft, but the Hasegawa set has some unusual shapes.

Thanks, Dave. More stuff to buy.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Clean the parts before assembly. Clean them again before painting. Alcohol is a good final cleaning. Dust and skin oil are your enemy, espescially with acrylics. That and pet hair. Use a plastic tub to cover your model while it cures, just turn it upside down. Allow...

Use color interference. Blue is the opposite of yellow. It's tricky, but could work.

Or put the piece in the sun for a while and let the magic of UV rays to their work.

Use a lower-tack masking tape. The tape you're using has too much adhesive. 3M makes a drafting tape which is pretty good. I prefer Tamiya tape, it's really the best I've tried. Also, a glosscoat like Future or lacquer between masking stages can help. Another trick you could use witht he current mas...