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T1g4h posted:Don't judge me too harshly Once you've got the decals on, douse that bad boy with some flat top coat, it'll even stuff out really well and make it look awesome. And more of a tip for next time, I think I notice you've had some frosting issues on the clear plastic pieces. While you won't get the super molecular bond of cement, regular white wood glue will hold the "glass" in place good enough for any display purposes and won't mess with the plastic. Goat Pillager posted:Also, I'm quite fond of the 1:76 scale (due to limited apartment space) but have yet to find a decent manufacturer in that scale aside from Revell and the hit/miss quality Airfix kits. Does anyone have any good advice for other, preferedly non-terrible manufacturers in that scale? I know Japanese manufacturer Fujimi have some kits in that scale. I can't speak from experience but a quick google consensus suggests that they're fairly decent kits for their price with the caveat that they may have some scale issues on some parts.
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Jun 6, 2014 14:25
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Goat Pillager posted:Agreed. The detailing on it is terrible and leaves much to be desired for, which is also why I made it look especially filthy to sort of compensate. Wait, why 1:76? 1:72 is almost the same size and there is a vast selection.
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Jun 6, 2014 15:14
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Ensign Expendable posted:Wait, why 1:76? 1:72 is almost the same size and there is a vast selection. Yeah, this. 72nd Armor - 790 results 76th Armor - 43 results I've just started on one of the 1/72 UM soviet kits, and it's really nice so far. Pics when I get a bit further.
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Jun 6, 2014 17:56
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What are the most common scales? What would be the closest to 1:160 that's actually generally available?
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Jun 6, 2014 18:15
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Mike-o posted:Thanks to Nebakenezzer for linking me to this thread a while back I'm one of the airplane threads.    Painting is an art you will spend a lot of time on, with or without an airbrush. A useful tip I might have gotten here is to never (Okay, rarely) paint straight from the bottle. Thinning the paint to a proper consistency makes brush painting miles better. And as other people have said, it really pays if you are considering an airbrush to find a proper one, and the cheap ones are basically a waste of money. The Compressor, you can rig up a hardware store one to work just fine, but do not skimp on the airbrush itself. Baronjutter posted:What are the most common scales? What would be the closest to 1:160 that's actually generally available? 1/144 - that's mostly big aircraft and modern fighter jets.
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Jun 6, 2014 18:27
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Baronjutter posted:What are the most common scales? What would be the closest to 1:160 that's actually generally available? Planes in 1:144, and tanks in 1:100 are "common".
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Jun 6, 2014 18:46
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Ensign Expendable posted:Wait, why 1:76? 1:72 is almost the same size and there is a vast selection. I have quite a few more modern tank, plane, and truck 1:72 kits and finished ones sitting around, but I started the old WW2 modeling with 1:76. I just try to keep the scales matching time period wise to keep the shelf looking organized for sperg reasons. RillAkBea posted:I know Japanese manufacturer Fujimi have some kits in that scale. I can't speak from experience but a quick google consensus suggests that they're fairly decent kits for their price with the caveat that they may have some scale issues on some parts. Thanks, had a look over their kits and it looks like a good selection. The scale issues are better than the quality issues on Airfix or the lack of variety with Revell. Goat Pillager fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 20:31
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I decided to give a myself a break from doing 1:35 WWII scale armour for a while and what could be a better change than to try aircraft. So here is my first 1/48 scale jet. It's the RAF Tornado GR1 ZA465 "Foxy Killer" from Desert Storm 1991. Foxy Killer was the the tornado with the highest number of sorties flown at 44. I wanted to do a Gulf Tornado as I was drawn to the battered sprayed pink panther desert spray over the dark RAF grey and the nose art. This is the only conflict in history where RAF crews decorated their planes with custom nose art. Anyways here you are, it was a massive learning experience and I have a list of faults as long as my arm but isn't that always the way?:     And in her new home: 
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Jun 6, 2014 21:23
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Ensign Expendable posted:Planes in 1:144, and tanks in 1:100 are "common". What about boats?
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Jun 6, 2014 21:25
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Baronjutter posted:What about boats? If you're in the EU, Revell offers a good deal of 1:720 scale ships or 1:1200 (both here are typically somewhat sparse on detailing but workable with patience) if you're wanting a ship without sacrificing an entire room to displaying them. Otherwise, Heller 1:400 scale kits are good, but get the best results with a lot of third party touch up parts, and 1:350 scale is generally really common, but can quickly take up a lot of space.
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Jun 6, 2014 21:38
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Goat Pillager posted:I have quite a few more modern tank, plane, and truck 1:72 kits and finished ones sitting around, but I started the old WW2 modeling with 1:76. I just try to keep the scales matching time period wise to keep the shelf looking organized for sperg reasons. If you're making the older Airfix tanks, scale is a bit arbitrary anyway. Even Airfix don't know what scale some of them are. 
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Jun 6, 2014 21:39
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Goat Pillager posted:If you're in the EU, Revell offers a good deal of 1:720 scale ships or 1:1200 (both here are typically somewhat sparse on detailing but workable with patience) if you're wanting a ship without sacrificing an entire room to displaying them. Otherwise, Heller 1:400 scale kits are good, but get the best results with a lot of third party touch up parts, and 1:350 scale is generally really common, but can quickly take up a lot of space. I mean I'm looking for boats as close to 1:160 as possible. Other things are welcome as well. Mostly for kit-bashing them into other things. Like I could maybe take a 1:200 ship hull and turn it into a 1:160 boat. So long as all the pieces are sort of close enough.
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Jun 6, 2014 21:41
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Unkempt posted:If you're making the older Airfix tanks, scale is a bit arbitrary anyway. Even Airfix don't know what scale some of them are. True enough. Most of the ones on my shelf are Revell so far. The IS-3 and a Buffalo APC are so far the only Airfix ones I've gotten anywhere with.
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Jun 6, 2014 21:41
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Baronjutter posted:I mean I'm looking for boats as close to 1:160 as possible. Other things are welcome as well. Mostly for kit-bashing them into other things. Like I could maybe take a 1:200 ship hull and turn it into a 1:160 boat. So long as all the pieces are sort of close enough. There is 1:144 scale models of ships, Revell again offers a good selection, along with Trumpeter. At least for submarines. Note that you will probably only manage to find subs or smaller ships like torpedo boats or corvettes on that scale. Anything larger than a destroyer will quickly turn into a space-hog.
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Jun 6, 2014 21:43
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Unkempt posted:If you're making the older Airfix tanks, scale is a bit arbitrary anyway. Even Airfix don't know what scale some of them are. Wait, are these all the same sprues?
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Jun 6, 2014 22:06
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Ensign Expendable posted:Wait, are these all the same sprues? Pretty sure they've been using the same moulds for over 50 years.
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Jun 6, 2014 22:27
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Boats seem really hard to come by for N scale. A lot of people just scratch build their own or find a good hull to build on.     I think I could scratch build everything except the hulls. So I'm mostly looking for a good hull to build upon that's the right shape/size. I don't care if it's a huge 1:500 container ship hull becoming a small freighter, or a 1:50 scale cabin cruiser becoming a much larger container feeder ship, just so long as I have a hull and maybe some details and bits to work with. I just don't know a lot about boats or boat models. There ARE N scale ship kits out there but it's such a niche market you pay through the nose. http://nscaleships.com/n-scale-ships/375-modern-feeder-container-ship/ about $500 for a little container ship with a lovely resin hull and little to no details. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 22:46
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big_g posted:I decided to give a myself a break from doing 1:35 WWII scale armour for a while and what could be a better change than to try aircraft. So here is my first 1/48 scale jet. That turned out really nice! The pink low-vis roundels look kind of goofy, but I like them. It kind of makes me wonder if low-vis or even camo really helps in modern combat with modern tracking systems.
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Jun 7, 2014 01:19
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RillAkBea posted:Once you've got the decals on, douse that bad boy with some flat top coat, it'll even stuff out really well and make it look awesome. Awesome, thanks for the tip! I'll try and give it a shot with the R32 Skyline I'll be building next 
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Jun 7, 2014 05:33
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T1g4h posted:Awesome, thanks for the tip! I'll try and give it a shot with the R32 Skyline I'll be building next Awww yiss, finishing up an R32 myself right now. Taken much longer than it should have because I couldn't get the gunmetal grey quite the way I wanted it. I've also got an 33 and a 34 lined up too.
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Jun 7, 2014 20:50
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Just finished something unusual, one of the metal Tamiya figures. I don't usually work in this scale, but it's a present, so I figured I'll deviate from my usual stuff. Only the figure itself is metal, all of the accessories are plastic. The sprue contains accessories for all 4 figures in the series. The kit comes with superglue that will work on metal, which is nice. You get a two-part base as well, and you can use either only one level or both.  Figure parts.  Here's how it looks glued together.  And painted.  
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Jun 8, 2014 22:00
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That pretty much looks like something straight out of a propaganda poster, as it should be really. Quite the intimidating little guy there! While you say you don't usually do that scale, you totally should if this is anything to go by. How tall is he? And now time for a self quote and a paint rant. RillAkBea posted:Awww yiss, finishing up an R32 myself right now. Taken much longer than it should have because I couldn't get the gunmetal grey quite the way I wanted it. I've also got an 33 and a 34 lined up too. And then Tamiya's 'Gunmetal' (acrylic pot) betrayed me once again. I actually already stripped the drat thing once because it glooped on me. It's also way too shiny, I actually figured perhaps my original pot had gone bad from uneven usage of the base and flakes but nope, I got a new pot and it sprayed just as shiny. For comparison here's the painted article draped on top of an unpainted body which is molded in pretty much the exact color.  "Not quite" is not quite saying enough. In fact a big problem with using the regular potted paints for bodywork at least is the metallic flakes are almost comically huge. Here's a Legacy bonnet painted 'Chrome Silver' (left) next to a Nismo Skyline bonnet painted in the near equivalent canned lacquer 'Gloss Aluminium'. (right)  I'm not sure how well it shows up the photo but in real life it looks like a little 1/24 scale man has for some reason decided to adorn his Legacy with silver leafing. While the effect that the canned lacquer creates is pretty much as good as you're gonna get. Tamiya are a pretty cool company though as when I contacted them to order a replacement for a warped body, they offered to replace it for free, which means I now have a little testbed for all manner of awful paint experiments.  First of which of course was a better 'gunmetal' color. I did consider just shelling out the  for a can of it and seeing how it goes but luckily I found Mr. Hobby's excellent 'Mr. Metal Color' range before that happened. It's unfortunate that they don't like handbrushing very much as the effect for metal accessories is pretty drat good for the price. I sprayed some 'Dark Iron' over some black primer, buffed it a little and sprayed some clear gloss over the top.  Perfect color first time, dammit!  Of course the testbed now needed a bigger challenge. I have a Tamiya R33 Skyline lined up in the backlog somewhere. The box displays the car in official GT-R nerd color 'Midnight Purple', a color so tricky that lowest common denominators for Tamiya's official paint mixing ratios come out at 1:10:40  For reference:   The instructions suggest mixing silver, purple and clear red, but that wouldn't account for the unusual reflective qualities. I considered trying a purple color with a pearl coat but unmixed 'Purple' makes it look like the Joker's weekend driver:  Admittedly it's not too far off the mark and would definitely work as a plain gloss with a little extra blue in the mix but as I went to buy the blue I found a rare bottle of Mr. Hobby's (again, I know) Mr. Crystal Color. I'm not entirely sure why they made these because there doesn't seem to be an awfully wide range of applications for the brand. A quick and dirty job of black primer, gloss and 'Amethyst Purple' gave me this:   Admittedly not perfect but compared to the Joker's track car it's pretty much as close as you could ask for without getting the actual automotive paint. It's also pretty as hell.  Conclusion: Testbeds are cool, interesting, and will save you hours choking on thinner as you feebly attempt to strip a 3 layer paint job without melting the model. 
RillAkBea fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Jun 10, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 18:35
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I made a tank! (tank destroyer, whatever)  Used salt and hairspray for the first time, might have gone a bit overboard with the weathering.
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Jun 11, 2014 00:20
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RillAkBea posted:That pretty much looks like something straight out of a propaganda poster, as it should be really. Quite the intimidating little guy there! While you say you don't usually do that scale, you totally should if this is anything to go by. How tall is he? 7 cm without the base, 11 cm with. Unkempt posted:I made a tank! (tank destroyer, whatever) Uh, it is not a tank destroyer, it is a self propelled gun  Yeah, that's quite a bit of weathering (vehicles sitting outside for 15 years still don't look this bad), but there is lots of charring around the driver's hatch and none at all around the gun.
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Jun 11, 2014 00:43
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SkunkDuster posted:That turned out really nice! The pink low-vis roundels look kind of goofy, but I like them. It kind of makes me wonder if low-vis or even camo really helps in modern combat with modern tracking systems. Yes because those same systems will never be 100% reliable.
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Jun 11, 2014 21:12
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Ensign Expendable posted:
Uh, yeah, 'charring'. Definitely not some idiot globbing on a load of 'wash' and leaving way too much on. Cleaned that up a bit:  I've got an SU-76M to do next, I'll see if I can restrain myself to something a bit closer to reality.
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Jun 11, 2014 21:16
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I was thinking of buying a modelling book or two. Any suggestions, thread?
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Jun 12, 2014 16:12
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Nebakenezzer posted:I was thinking of buying a modelling book or two. Any suggestions, thread? Shep Paine's "How To Build Dioramas" is a must, IMO. Some of his methods regarding weathering and painting are a little dated, but his techniques regarding perspective and scope of a model/diorama are still very useful.
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Jun 12, 2014 16:40
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Here's an interesting kit, a T-38 from a Moldovan company I have never heard of, AER.   It's a simple little kit, and cheap, too, I got it for only ten bucks. Unlike the Polish bargain basement kits, this one actually came together very well. The only problems I had with it were the very brittle plastic (only maybe half of the track links came off, and the tow cable did not survive at all) and the painting guide, that lacks any guidance. Despite that, the kit comes with a variety of Soviet and Finnish decals, both for pre-WWII and early WWII use. The kit also comes with a choice of armament: just a machinegun or a 20 mm cannon and a machinegun combination. The machinegun is quite primitive, but the choice is nice. There are no internals in the tank, nor is there any way to display them if there were, as the turret top comes in one piece with a closed hatch. Since half of my tracks shattered, I covered the rest in my best attempt at seaweed. I managed to get it glossy by covering it in model cement. The initial flat coat protected the paint from melting off. Overall, a cool little kit of this weird tank.
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Jun 15, 2014 20:49
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Isn't that the amphibious one they air dropped from an ANT-6? Edit: It was the T-37A; it was just in an article about the T-38 Proof that the Russians are crazy enough to drop a tank from a plane 
No Pun Intended fucked around with this message at 11:39 on Jun 16, 2014 |
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Jun 15, 2014 23:47
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Stories of small failure - I'm building a Be-12 seaplane, and realzied too late that I forgot to fade the color an appropriate amount. So, I tried to spray a very thinned white over the whole thing. It did soften the color a bit, and blend with the decals - but some splatter put some white marks on, making it look like the airplane has authentic seagull poo poo on it. (Sighs, moves on)
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Jun 16, 2014 01:31
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I've been looking for German WW2 kits in 1:48 for a club project. I have found a few by Tamiya and AFV Club, but are there any other manufacturers who are doing WW2 kits in 1:48? Are AFV Club kits worthwile, or should I stick to Tamiya?
lilljonas fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Jun 16, 2014 |
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Jun 16, 2014 12:32
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I don't know about AFV's 1:48 line, but their 1:35 line is usually pretty good. Not as 'shake n bake' as Tamiya kits though.
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Jun 16, 2014 13:15
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Put together a Minicraft 1:144 scale WC-130J (the plane the Air Force flies through hurricanes). Minicraft must have a Hercules fetish because they have a poo poo-ton of variants. Problem is, they all use the same fuselage mold, so to make the 130J, you have to slice out the sponsons just forward of the rear landing gear and insert the J-model sponsons. So I had to do some massive putty work to make it looks decent from arm's length - massive for me at least because I haven't used the stuff in years. I should have blended in the cockpit more, but after the sponsons, I was burned out on puttying and sanding.
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Jun 22, 2014 20:39
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Goat Pillager posted:Also, I'm quite fond of the 1:76 scale (due to limited apartment space) but have yet to find a decent manufacturer in that scale aside from Revell and the hit/miss quality Airfix kits. Does anyone have any good advice for other, preferedly non-terrible manufacturers in that scale? What kits are you chucking in the spares box? There's a good chance I've built it and made it turn out okayish.
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Jun 26, 2014 16:37
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big_g posted:I decided to give a myself a break from doing 1:35 WWII scale armour for a while and what could be a better change than to try aircraft. So here is my first 1/48 scale jet. That is a gorgeous Tornado, bravo. How did you do the weathering around the control surfaces? It looks great, I want to try something like that (though it'll just wind up looking like an awkward black blob).
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Jun 27, 2014 10:12
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I finished my Be-12. It's an Amodel 1/144 kit.        Criticisms: 1. Wrong color blue - I did not nearly fade it enough. 2. The photoetch was kinda mental - so *many* tiny pieces, including a million antennas. Many of these did not survive the build process - I guess I should have put them on last, then hand painted them. 3. Amodel makes a good kit in that if you put in the work it does look right. I probably should have just let the box around the cockpit and the nose have lines - erasing them was difficult (and in the end the nose broke off anyway so they are still there) In general, I'm pleased, even though this one got away from me a bit.
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Jun 29, 2014 02:20
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Where did you get the AVR-146 model(and who made the kit?) I used to fly them and I want to do one in Northwest Airlines old livery.
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Jun 29, 2014 02:35
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Ferris Bueller posted:Where did you get the AVR-146 model(and who made the kit?) I used to fly them and I want to do one in Northwest Airlines old livery. Good news - it's made by Revell Germany so it is a good kit for cheap. Bad news: It's out of print right now so you'll have to hunt around for them. This is the one I had: http://www.scalemates.com/products/product.php?id=102233 Oh, and PS the flying and airplane people have their own thread in AI. Was the 146 good to fly? This thread wants to know. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3276654&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 Nebakenezzer fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 04:38
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Did someone say 1:35th scale armour!? (I promise I'll post something more original next. Or at least the one after)   It's an older Zvezda kit, so not much to say about it. No interior, rubber tracks (ridiculously loose, too), okay price range. Decals are exceptionally primitive, only white sevens for either side (I lost them somewhere, so I used numbers from another kit).
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Jun 29, 2014 21:50
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