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I spent two weeks in Japan and managed to NOT pick up any new model kits, since I already have a bunch of unbuilt and unpainted stuff, and my wife had a ton of stuff she wanted to buy... until I pick up this metal castle kit on the airport before take-off. It was so thin that it didn't matter, and now I plan to make it into a christmas tree decoration, if possible: http://www.fascinations.com/metalearth/international-architecture/himeji-castle I'm really curious about just how fiddly these things get! 
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Oct 20, 2016 12:03
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I've got a few of them (mostly Star Wars) They can be real fiddly. Especially curved pieces. Take your time and have a nice pair of needle nose pliers and all should be right
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Oct 20, 2016 13:16
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They're not bad, twisting the little nubs got old after a while. Spatua tweezers help too.
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Oct 20, 2016 20:43
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Revell 1/72 Fokker DR1   It's tiny!  Nice kit. Might rig it later but can't be arsed right now.
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Oct 20, 2016 20:49
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You got a great wood effect on the prop there. Well done.
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Oct 20, 2016 23:18
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I made a tiny bote HMS Kelly, lost off Crete, 1941.    One of the Pom-poms got sold on the black market. Some pretty lovely paintwork because the first coat of light grey was thicker than the colours and I should have thinned it more but fuckit I'm done. Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Oct 22, 2016 |
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Oct 22, 2016 02:57
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I've decided that my eyesight and steadiness (or lack thereof) preclude working with tiny boats any more. Bravo to you and everyone else that does them though!
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Oct 22, 2016 04:18
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I clearly hate my self because I started hand painting the pavers on my sidewalk slightly different shades of gray... now I have to do all of them so it matches. Just doing this little section took over an hour. The effect is subtle, but it makes them look like actual individual pavers rather than a piece of cardboard painted uniformly gray. They're 4x4mm which is a good size is fairly easily paint. People who do the same thing with their N scale brick (which are like .6 x .3 mm or so) are just nuts though. 
Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Oct 23, 2016 |
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Oct 23, 2016 20:01
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Baronjutter posted:I clearly hate my self because I started hand painting the pavers on my sidewalk slightly different shades of gray... now I have to do all of them so it matches. Just doing this little section took over an hour. Looks very convincing to me.
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Oct 23, 2016 21:08
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Baronjutter posted:I clearly hate my self because I started hand painting the pavers on my sidewalk slightly different shades of gray... now I have to do all of them so it matches. Just doing this little section took over an hour. Looks great and as long as you still find it enjoyable, continue!
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Oct 23, 2016 21:28
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The effect of painting your pavers is excellent, and worth the effort if you can stomach doing it!
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Oct 23, 2016 22:06
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Went to my first model show today! It was fun - lots of cool stuff and I did very well at the raffle. Also overheard by the dealer table "Well, y'know, a lot of guys are figuring out how many kits they make in a year, and how long they are likely to live, and realize that the numbers don't match."  Sci fi stuff had heavy repesentation. Somebody had built both the Battlestar Galactica and the Pegasus:  The good ol' Millenium Falcon. I thought whoever made it did an especially good job considering it started off as the snap version:  I was impressed by this Defiant, especially as I think it was a foamcore scratch-built job:  Despite the colors being a little bright, dude really got the details:    The same modeller also did a BOP:  (the lighting was sort of lovely there, this is the only shot that really turned out.) Dude also super-detailed this Lost in Space pod:  There was also this polar lights lit up Enterprise, with the warp nacelles having moving lights inside them. The effect was sorta spoiled, though, as one of the engines was making a lot of noise, which reminded me of one of those horrible "Snoring Sanda" motorized thingys.  Old-school sci-fi: Captain Nemo's submarine:  Cars This hearse was made with the Ghostbusters Ecto 1 and returned to hearse-dom with resin aftermarket parts:  Ever popular last of the V8 interceptors:   Slightly villainous long hauler. Done in an super dark purple, with the chrome nicely blacked up and a "mural" of the owner's dog on the back.   Completely scratchbuilt gravel-maker:  Thanks to bad lighting, these were the only two shots I got of somebody's fabulous Trabant:   Aircraft An old airline livery:  CL-215:   Somebody's excellent Sea King. All that was missing was leaking oil and hydraulic fluid:  People's classic warbird game was strong:          OK, not a classic warbird (in fact it was god-awful), but a very good kit:  The local IPMS guys did a group build of some eagles, and they were all extremely sharp:      Ships/Armor  Lookit dat camo net!  This is a Inuit boat, completely scratchbuilt:          I participated in the raffle draw, and made out like a bandit. I bought the Hs 193 for $10, the other things I won:  The 1/48 Fw 200 has a photoetch kit, and resin bombs with it. The 1/72 Backfire is a Italeri rebox? Lurking in both draw piles was one of these:   e2: it was packaged in 1995, which means poor Odo was unsold for 20 years.
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Oct 23, 2016 22:14
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Baronjutter posted:I clearly hate my self because I started hand painting the pavers on my sidewalk slightly different shades of gray... now I have to do all of them so it matches. Just doing this little section took over an hour.
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Oct 23, 2016 22:35
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Nebakenezzer posted:The good ol' Millenium Falcon. I thought whoever made it did an especially good job considering it started off as the snap version: Is that the Revell 1/241 version or the Revell 1/72 version? Either way it looks pretty dang great considering the kit's roots. I've built the 1/241 version in non-SnapTite a while back, but painting was kinda hell because of the size. EDIT: Should've noticed that it's the 1/72 because of some details(and I'm terrible at estimating sizes sometimes) Still looks great. Nebakenezzer posted:Thanks to bad lighting, these were the only two shots I got of somebody's fabulous Trabant: That's a limited edition version of an apparently pretty good Revell kit. I'm considering picking up one of the other releases of it if I come across it. Might be a bit of a challenge though as there are several stores I have to check if I'm looking for something new to build nowadays since I moved to Bulgaria, but on the other hand I can find older kits a lot easier, and I can just visit a museum if I need to see what old Soviet stuff looks like. Smoke fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Oct 23, 2016 |
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Oct 23, 2016 23:04
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Baronjutter posted:The effect is subtle, but it makes them look like actual individual pavers rather than a piece of cardboard painted uniformly gray. The effect really works well. It looks great! Nebakenezzer posted:Also overheard by the dealer table "Well, y'know, a lot of guys are figuring out how many kits they make in a year, and how long they are likely to live, and realize that the numbers don't match." Given the progress on my current kits my own situation is dire even by the most optimistic actuary tables.  I'll finish one eventually...
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Oct 24, 2016 01:09
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Nebakenezzer posted:Went to my first model show today! It was fun - lots of cool stuff and I did very well at the raffle. Model shows are cool and good. The warbirds and armor are always well populated in every show I've been too. The big Modelzona show in the Phoenix area is coming up the first Saturday in November, drat, it's like 2 weeks away now. Time fly's. I expect to see about 600 entries this year if the preceding years numbers continue on pace. I've got nothing to enter this year, but I'm going to go anyway, just because it's awesome looking at all the amazing models that people do. If any of you guys are in the Phoenix area, you really should go to the show, not only are there hundreds of awesome models, but the show is held in the CAF museum hanger, so there are also lots of real warbirds to prowl around and look at!
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Oct 24, 2016 04:29
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The Locator posted:If any of you guys are in the Phoenix area, you really should go to the show, not only are there hundreds of awesome models, but the show is held in the CAF museum hanger, so there are also lots of real warbirds to prowl around and look at! I'll be there! I missed it last year due to being out of town. I'm managing to drag a friend along too who I do wargaming minis with. We can both appreciate detailing tiny things. I want to check out a local IPMS meeting too, but the most recent few I've had scheduling conflicts with.
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Oct 24, 2016 06:24
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Nebakenezzer posted:Also overheard by the dealer table "Well, y'know, a lot of guys are figuring out how many kits they make in a year, and how long they are likely to live, and realize that the numbers don't match." I've never quite understood modelers that have enough kits in their backlog that they could open their own store. Sure, I can understand 10, 20, maybe even 30 kits in a backlog. But then you see guys who are all "I have 1200 kits in my backlog." What? Why? So much money spent stuff you will literally never get to, and if you do happen to die before you get to them, there's a 90% chance that stuff if being sold for pennies on the dollar, if not thrown away outright. Hell, I feel bad when I've got more than 5 kits in my backlog.
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Oct 24, 2016 13:26
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:I've never quite understood modelers that have enough kits in their backlog that they could open their own store. Sure, I can understand 10, 20, maybe even 30 kits in a backlog. But then you see guys who are all "I have 1200 kits in my backlog." What? Why? So much money spent stuff you will literally never get to, and if you do happen to die before you get to them, there's a 90% chance that stuff if being sold for pennies on the dollar, if not thrown away outright. I'm doing my best to keep my back-log small, and then it also includes wargaming stuff. But right now I have maybe 3-4 unbuilt kits, and maybe 4-5 that are either unpainted or primed. But I'm actively trying to avoid buying more stuff until I've painted what I have. On the other hand, my dad has at least a hundred kits in the attic, and he hasn't build anything since, I dunno, early 90's. He reads a lot of modelling magazines, but doesn't build or paint, which is a bit sad. He mostly started buying toys and pre-painted stuff lately, so the backlog isn't growing that much at least. I recently joined a swap group on Facebook, just to check if there was any 1:48 armour out there swapping hands (it doesn't), and the backlogs of some dudes there are just insane.
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Oct 24, 2016 13:34
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:I've never quite understood modelers that have enough kits in their backlog that they could open their own store. Sure, I can understand 10, 20, maybe even 30 kits in a backlog. But then you see guys who are all "I have 1200 kits in my backlog." What? Why? So much money spent stuff you will literally never get to, and if you do happen to die before you get to them, there's a 90% chance that stuff if being sold for pennies on the dollar, if not thrown away outright. I've been really good at not buying any more kits for the last year, since chances of building the ones I've got are pretty slim before I slide fully into scratch building. My problem now is I can't stop buying plans for ships to scratch-build that I'll probably never build. PirateDentist posted:I'll be there! I missed it last year due to being out of town. I'm managing to drag a friend along too who I do wargaming minis with. We can both appreciate detailing tiny things. Awsome! I don't know yet whether I'll have my ship there on the display only table, but I've got nothing to enter this year since I've been slacking and not getting anything done for a long time now.
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Oct 24, 2016 13:44
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:I've never quite understood modelers that have enough kits in their backlog that they could open their own store. Sure, I can understand 10, 20, maybe even 30 kits in a backlog. But then you see guys who are all "I have 1200 kits in my backlog." What? Why? So much money spent stuff you will literally never get to, and if you do happen to die before you get to them, there's a 90% chance that stuff if being sold for pennies on the dollar, if not thrown away outright. I've always kept kind of a stash of a few kits going, mainly because I occasionally work on two kits at a time(usually a smaller one together with a bigger one) I think it's just the lure of shiny new boxes and kits that does this though. Thanks to my wife I'm not that bad with it though, she tends to talk me out of buying stuff and insists I finish my stash first. For some people it might also be some kind of completionist attitude where you want every single version of a specific vehicle/kit, or army/air force building, especially considering there's decals available for a ton of versions.
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Oct 24, 2016 18:29
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Arquinsiel posted:If you plan to do more paved sections consider making masks that let you spray three or four tiles at once to build up random chunks of colour. I made a stencil but I don't have the ability to spray anything. The stencil works ok with sort of dry brushing but I actually went back to hand painting as I find I get better results and once I'm in a painting groove can go about as fast.  What I do is take my standard concrete gray and a lighter gray and put two blobs next to each other, mixed poorly in the middle. Every time my brush needs more paint I randomly dip, giving me a unique shade of gray each time.
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Oct 24, 2016 19:01
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Baronjutter posted:I clearly hate my self because I started hand painting the pavers on my sidewalk slightly different shades of gray... now I have to do all of them so it matches. Just doing this little section took over an hour. I don't know if it's still an option but for stone and pavement surfaces some speckling with make it look a bit more lively. It was surprisingly hard to find an example that's both close enough to make out speckles and that i'm allowed to post. If i remember i'll see if we have some good sample pieces at work tomorrow. 
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Oct 24, 2016 19:05
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Baronjutter posted:I made a stencil but I don't have the ability to spray anything. The stencil works ok with sort of dry brushing but I actually went back to hand painting as I find I get better results and once I'm in a painting groove can go about as fast.
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Oct 24, 2016 21:25
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Arquinsiel posted:You got me thinking about it and I was looking at paving tiles today on the bus. It's actually a really complex pattern that emerges based on elevation and drainage for each tile. You may be best off just doing it by hand after all. Yeah, it's pretty random even when they're using a batch that were all made at mostly the same time. Then they come back later and do patch jobs and repairs and use totally different shades.  Also cool this picture looks exactly like what I'm doing with my brick paved parking areas.
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Oct 24, 2016 23:07
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The Locator posted:My problem now is I can't stop buying plans for ships to scratch-build that I'll probably never build. Well you never know when an insatiable urge to lay the keel for a sloop will happen at 2 in the morning. At least now you'll be prepared for a variety of outcomes.
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Oct 25, 2016 00:23
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*sits bolt upright in bed at 2am* "GOTTA LAY THAT KEEL!!!" *cue Walkin' On Sunshine by Katrina & The Waves*
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Oct 25, 2016 01:20
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:*sits bolt upright in bed at 2am* *Their spouse rolls over in bed beside them muttering "Ugh, Not tonight..."*
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Oct 25, 2016 04:57
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Getting my roads weathered up a bit. Had a disaster with my powders. I got the sidewalks perfect, just some subtle powder application to bring out the detail and add some different shades. I then sprayed with dullcoat and it darkened the powders by about 300%. People said it looked good anyways so I just went ahead and ruins the rest of my sidewalks in the same way. 
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Oct 27, 2016 16:47
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Question for any train guys here. I just bought a static grass applicator and I'm thinking of doing a small rail diorama as a test piece. When it comes to kits of buildings, and figures and vehicles, are there any particular companies that produce the best quality kits and pieces out there? There is SO MUCH train stuff out there, that it's almost impossible to look at it all before I pick some pieces. And of course everything looks nice on each companies website, so you can't really tell if any particular kit is really good or bad. Should I go for Woodland Scenics buildings, or Walthers? Preiser figures, or Noch? Those are just examples with some companies I pulled off the top of my head, but that's the sort of info I'm after. Conversely, are there any companies kits and pieces that should be avoided at all costs?
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Oct 29, 2016 07:15
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You can usually get a good sense from the picture, just look up photos of the kit on google and see how other people's turned out. Some kits are better than others, but it's mostly down to your own skill painting and detailing them. It also depends on what you're wanting to model, there's a lot of companies but not a lot of overlap in products. So if you want to model an X building there's generally just one company that makes a X building suitable for your era and location. Also what scale? I only know N stuff. What sort of diorama you want to build? European? American? Modern? Steam era? You'll probably find once you narrow that down there's only a few choices. Buildings are generally safe and you can judge by looking at the box or other people's results, it's not like buying a locomotive where you really need to read reviews and know the company's reputation since there's electronics and moving parts in there. I started to glue down my sidewalks and crosswalks. I really like how my curb cut system works. I just have a little square hole in the underlay and the sidewalk gets depressed into it. Push down hard with my thumb for about 20 seconds and the glue is done, easy.  DING DING! Tram's here 
Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Oct 30, 2016 |
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Oct 30, 2016 02:31
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Well after lurking in this thread for ever, dreaming of air brushing my models. I finaly took the plunge. Was looking around for the ideal starter set with iwata stuff and a good comnpressor. Wa getting desperate since it kept getting more and more expensive. Found this kit in the classified. Wen't there and checked everything was ok. Seller claim the airbrush was used 3 times and it does look like that. Super clean no scratches anywhere. Think I made a good deal and I can build from that. Would love feedback! Two friends who know airbrushes said it was a great deal for a starter. COmpressor is NOT ajustable. I do have a shop compressor so between them I should be able to find a setup that works. Or I'll just buy another compressor. So 100 CAN$ I got: A kit: badger #150 USA. A compressor Almost full bottle of acrylic primary colors. Also went and bought 100$ of polycarbonate paint for my rcs and some tamyia military colors , thinners, stuff. Pretty happy cannot wait to ruin a perfectly good model plane or tank!
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Oct 31, 2016 20:24
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Seems pretty decent for $100. The airbrush should last you a good while. The compressor might be a little iffy, not being adjustable, but for now it should serve you well. Definitely a good starting point to get used to airbrushing and learn some techniques.
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Oct 31, 2016 20:30
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:Seems pretty decent for $100. The airbrush should last you a good while. The compressor might be a little iffy, not being adjustable, but for now it should serve you well. Definitely a good starting point to get used to airbrushing and learn some techniques. Thanks! Looking into the airbrush with a jeweler's magnifier I can see a little paint residue around the I think f-tip (around the needle) and where the bottle connects. But you need the magnifier and light to see it. I hope I can get this clean. It should be acrylic paint.
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Oct 31, 2016 21:27
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Are those dollar store acrylic paints? You probably shouldn't use them in an airbrush. If you want cheap airbrush paint, go with Golden High Flow Acrylics. They are made for airbrushes and you can get basic colours for about half the cost of Tamiya/Vallejo/MM paint.
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Oct 31, 2016 21:39
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Oh man. My poor 109 Gustav is going south fast. Apparently, I can weather tanks, but airplanes loving escape me. Construction was great. Primer went on well. Base coat looked great. Clear gloss looked pretty good. Suddenly the decals silvered like a motherfucker, like horribly. I stopped at the upper wing surfaces and glossed the fuselage again to ensure that it was completely smooth - which it was. And more of the decals silvered. I might have used too much microsol or whatever it's called. Then, after wiping off the flory wash and inspecting it 3 separate times under strong lights to ensure I didn't leave any excess wash behind, I clear glossed again so I could do some oil dot work without harming the wash. Magically - seriously like invisible ink - as soon as the gloss hit, a bunch of 1/8" dots of wash appeared everywhere. They were literally invisible until the clear gloss hit them. No loving clue. Pressing on, I started to do some weathering around the exhausts and oil coolers using oil paints and it just looks awful. It looks like oil paint smeared on a model. :rage: I might chalk this one up to a learning experience and hand it to my 5 year old to go forth and play with it. Very angry at the way this is playing out.
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Oct 31, 2016 22:03
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I wouldn't worry too much about running craft-acrylics through an airbrush. True, they're not the best paints, but some of the top guys in the garage-kit scene use Apple Barrel and Folk-Art paints. Just have to make sure they're properly thinned and mixed. If anything the main complaint against them is they're very pigment poor, so once you do thin them some of the colours have no coverage and are way too transparent.
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Oct 31, 2016 22:05
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Gewehr 43 posted:Oh man. My poor 109 Gustav is going south fast. Apparently, I can weather tanks, but airplanes loving escape me. What are you using for clear? I've had this happen with a rattle can of tamiya gloss clear that was old and never cured properly. Even left it alone for a day after it was dry to the touch. Decals looked like poo poo then the wash kind of stuck and couldn't be cleared off. I wouldn't sweat it tho. That particular fuckup is still in my basement and my son inherited plenty of poo poo builds. How it goes, I guess.
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Oct 31, 2016 22:57
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Iznogood posted:So 100 CAN$ I got: If that didn't come with a paint cup you are definitely going to want to get one. I'd use the jars for brush cleaner and water to spray through the airbrush during cleanup. Do a search on cleaning the 150, too. I used to completely disassemble the head unit every time I cleaned it and found out that you aren't supposed to do that because there is a bushing in there that gets compressed and results in air leaks if you take the head assembly apart. Behind the trigger down in that hole, there is a oblong O-shaped piece that the needle goes through with a little tang on it that rests against the back of the trigger. Before you pull the needle out to clean it, use a piece of blue tack or something to hold that tang piece in place because the needle is the only thing holding it in place and if it gets disrupted, it is a SOB to reassemble. Both of my 150s are around 30 years old, so it is possible they changed the design on the newer ones to make it easier. Lastly, if you ever have a need to replace the O-ring where the air hose hooks up*, don't order one online for $$$. You can get a replacement (size #0, I think) at a hardware store for a couple cents. The 150 is a decent airbrush and I've heard that Badger's customer support is excellent, however, you may consider upgrading to a gravity feed at some point in the future. I picked up an Iwata Eclipse a couple years back and haven't touched my 150 since. *don't worry if you look at your airbrush and don't see the o-ring, you have to pull out the air valve to be able to see it. Skunkduster fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Oct 31, 2016 |
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Oct 31, 2016 23:21
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Ensign Expendable posted:Are those dollar store acrylic paints? You probably shouldn't use them in an airbrush. If you want cheap airbrush paint, go with Golden High Flow Acrylics. They are made for airbrushes and you can get basic colours for about half the cost of Tamiya/Vallejo/MM paint. Wow. Where do you get such a magic product?
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Oct 31, 2016 23:29
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