by the fans for the fans

What could I use to tighten the sliding door on the MPC alpha? Perhaps some sort of clear paint?

Ok so we've talked about "thinking outside the box" when it comes to modeling and your modeling supplies. For you guys out there who haven't thought of this before...

Finding a good place to put your paint bottles can be tricky. Sure they have those neat little spinning ones that take up space on your desk and can cost a little more than you want to spend... Or you could make use of an old garage sale find... For me I prefer using an old SPICE Rack. Yep.. a spice rack.

They are perfect for just about all your average size bottles and will hold more then the traditional "spinning" kind. If you hunt around at garage sales you can pick them up very cheap... or in my case.. a friend was gonna toss one out that had been in his garage for years.. so I snapped it up for free.

Now mine had two wooden doors on the front that I removed, but once that was done I was able to hang it on the wall and poof!... no more paint clutter on my work space and the paints are easily visible and well within reach.

Hope this give some of you guys some ideas..

Thank you again for your time and as always Happy Modeling!

Mark

That's a neat idea. The cheaper the better I　say. You could probably find some good stuff at Goodwill or thrift stores. The only thing I would be concerned with about that , oh nevermind. Just saw that you have little "guard rails" in front of the paints.

Any tips about optimal temperatures or anything else?

even with that, luck would have it that paint would somehow get plastered on my face

Sighup

The little "guard rails" were a pretty neat feature I found when I opened the doors the first time I looked at the spice rack. I'm sure that many of these type of racks will have something like that to help keep the bottles in place.

As for optimal paint temperatures.. Well I find that what works for me when brushing acrylic paints is room temperature with a small drop of liquid dish washing soap to help the paint go on smooth without bubbles...

As for Enamel paints I usually warm the paint slightly in a cup of hot water for a few minutes. Warming the paint helps the it glide smoothly and will reduce the risk of brush marks.. Unless you are wanting them.. Sometimes brush marks can enhance weathering techniques.

Here's an old school tip for cutting through styrene plastic..

Now if you're like me and enjoy getting yourself into highly detailed projects well then this tip will serve you well.

Let's say you want to open a panel in the side of a model ship or even a trunk lid or door of a car. Sure you could use the back of a #11 Exacto blade or even a razor saw, but sometimes there are projects that are just to delicate for that approach.

[NOTE: This technique only works if the panel line ends at end of the plastic itself.. Otherwise you'll need to drill a small hole to begin.]

First you'll wanna lightly score the panel lines with the back of #11 blade (Use masking tape as a guide if you are a little shaky) Next take a length of every day sewing thread wrapping one end around your index finger and the other around your thumb. Hold the model in the opposite hand and place the thread agains the edge of the plastic at the panel line. Slowly begin to work the thread back and forth In a sawing motion. The thread will begin to cut through the plastic. This work great when extra control is needed around complex corners and curves and results in fewer accidental gouges in the plastic from an exacto blade that slipped or going to far with a razor saw.
Also, because the thread is a uniform width it won't widen a panel line the way the back of an exacto blade can as it gets deeper into the plastic.

Well hope this helps you guys out and as with any tip or technique... Practice on a scrap kit or scrap styrene until you are confident before you use it on an expensive kit.

Thank you again for your time and Happy Modeling!

Mark

Hello guys and gals...

Paints were brought up in another thread so I thought I would add a few thoughts here.

The problem was that someone had a hard time finding the right paint they needed at their local hobby shop... Instead they had to resort to using "Wall" paint. Now while the wall paint was a fairly good match it did not give the right appearance that they wanted.

I have run into this problem many times in the past… and in the past I waited sometimes months to find just the right color at my local hobby shop.

One solution I have found was as close as my computer… EBay! If any of you have seen the picture in this thread of my paint rack… most of what you see in their now, I purchased off of EBay… You can find just about any color you need from just about any well known paint manufacturer and sometimes you’ll find them far cheaper then you would at the shop. Now for the most part I tend to use Testor’s acrylic paints… its just what I have grown used to using since they are pretty easy to use and clean up requires little to no toxic chemicals.

Now I have found sellers that offer lots of 10 to 20 NEW bottles of paints.. and you get to choose from a LONG list of colors. Some colors, of course, you will want more of since you use more of them.. others… a bottle might last a year… or even just go bad before you finish using it all. Lots like that are especially good because the sellers generally offer them far cheaper then what the bottles would cost if you bought them separately…

The last lot I bought….. even with shipping the bottles ended up being roughly .45 cents cheaper per bottle… That’s pretty good when you consider that those paints average about $2.49 a bottle… and it adds up… We’re talking about a $9.00 savings!

So be sure to give it a look… You might also want to check out other items for your hobby station… They have almost everything you could possibly want… from Air brushes to clamps, to small decal tweezers, to specialty tools.

That’s one of the things I love about EBay… if you want it… they probably have someone on there that has it.

Well I hope this helps you guys out

As always, thanks for your time and Happy Modeling!

Yeah too bad my local Hobby shop closed up and the local walmart stopped selling ANY model supplies at all or models for that matter (stupid back woods red neck sloughter hell hole) The internet is a hobbyist friend at times like these.


When i was on Cruise in the Navy i bought a model of the USS Bowfin a WW2 sub. Lacking my usual paints i had to use what we had available. I am happy to say i was able to paint my Navy Sub with the Actual Navy Paints. (If anyone is wondering Navy ships are not regular Grey they are Haze Grey) LOL it looked good. too bad it didn't survive the cruise.

And now onto my question, A big issue with many models is detailing with decals, They appear raised and this isn't a pleaseing finish. I've tried to apply clear coat over the paint and decals but have never really gotten a pleaseing result. Any suggestions?

Last_Valk_Standing wrote:

A big issue with many models is detailing with decals, They appear raised and this isn't a pleaseing finish. I've tried to apply clear coat over the paint and decals but have never really gotten a pleaseing result. Any suggestions?

That's a good question LVS... Unfortunately, as far as my experience is concerned, I've never found a complete solution for that issue...

Now there are times when the Raised edges of a decal actually add realism to a model. A good example of that would be a Nascar Race Car… Now the decals that are placed on the actual car sit on top of the paint… so having the decals sit on top of the paint without a clear coat is more realistic then painting over them with clear.

Now for Armor kits like tanks and such I tend to skip using decals all together and instead rely on photo etched templates, available on line, with needed emblems and numbers… this way I can air brush those items on the model in paint… this give a more scale and realistic appearance.

For Planes you can do the same for larger items like the art work on the tail or even National emblems on the wings… but often times the best choice is just real fine decals… and I mean REAL fine… you can find decals that use a real thin backing that lay closer to the surface then standard decals…. They will still have a little raise to them, but they are much thinner…. The down side is they are VERY fragile… and patience and a steady hand are a must when dealing with those…

There is another option… Dry Transfers… They require NO decal backing and attached to the model by rubbing the desired number or picture onto the surface. These are great for all kinds of models including rail road, armor, ships, planes and even Anime kits.
A well stocked hobby shop usually has dry transfer stuff.

Check around and see what you find…

Thanks for your Question LVS I hope this helps..

Oh and if anyone else has any other ideas on this or other subjects please post it here.

Remember like all tips and suggestions be sure and practice on a scrap kit until you are confident before you move onto an expensive kit.

Thank you for your time and Happy Modeling.

Mark

Quick question. I'm hunting for a 1/60 to 1/72 scale model of a Man-lift, of the type used in Aviation maintenance. I've serfed the web for awhile looking but have come up empty so far. any ideas or possible kit's that can be bassed to form one?

THanks again

Last_Valk_Standing wrote:

Quick question. I'm hunting for a 1/60 to 1/72 scale model of a Man-lift, of the type used in Aviation maintenance. I've serfed the web for awhile looking but have come up empty so far. any ideas or possible kit's that can be bassed to form one?

THanks again

LVS

Well I haven't seen one specifically.. though to be honest I never looked for a kit like that...However...

Check out the Hasegawa's US Aerospace Ground Equipment set kit... It's a 1:72 scale kit and has things like a generator and light tower and other air craft maintenance machines.

You may be able to use part of the kit and scratch build the rest... if not at least be able to take measurements off the kit to scratch build what you need. Sometimes you just end up having to scratch build it yourself.. but hey.. that's what Evergreen styrene stock is for right...

Check around for that kit.. it's great to have anyway especially if you are planning a VF-1 on the ground diorama.

Other kits of interest are the 1:72 Hasegawa US Aircraft Weapon loading set as well as the 1:72 Hasegawa US Pilot/ Ground Crew Set.

Well I hope this helps you out.

Thanks for your question and as always Happy Modeling.

Mark