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Mirthless posted:This was a horrible kit for my second tank, but I think I learned a hell of a lot from doing it. I think it'll be a while before I do another dragon gold box kit, though. Try one of the regular Dragon kits, as they're definitely a top shelf product. And then get an aftermarket photoetch addon set, and that will drive you back to madness. I swear, if I wanted to torture someone, I'd just make them assemble 1000 photoetch german WWII-vehicle tool clamps.
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Jan 12, 2013 00:09
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If anything, I've found quite a few PE sets where the PE is actually worse than the molded on PVC from the kit. I had a Panzerspahwagen kit, and the aftermarket PE kit wanted me to remove the molded hinges from the various hatches. The only problem was the PE replacements involved no folding, so they'd be perfectly flat on the kit. Sure, the hinges may be small on a kit, but they're certainly not completely flat. I swear that when some manufacturers are making PE kits, they do as little research as possible.
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Jan 12, 2013 01:33
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Just went to a new model shop the other day, and they had a lot of model ships on display. I think I've caught the bug.... This might be my next kit: 
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Jan 21, 2013 08:20
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Epi Lepi posted:That's a wood kit right? Looks too nice to be plastic. Yep, wooden. I'm totally new to wooden ship kits myself, but I joined the forums over at Model Ship World, and have just been soaking up the info there over the last couple of days. Seems like it's one of the premier, if not the premier model ship building sites on the web, and there's a metric fuckton of talent there. I'm just going to hang around there and read everything I can for a few months, and then maybe pick a kit at that point. From what I've read so far though, you're right to be frustrated with a wooden ship kit. It sounds like even the better ones have limited instructions, and assume even beginners have a fairly wide-ranging knowledge of ship-building terms and techniques. Even important stuff like plotting and shaping a beard/rabbet line, most kits don't seem to mention it and just assume you know what that is and that you should carve one. The worst kits sounds like they come with little more than the parts and a literal ship plan, and then you have to figure everything out yourself. Actually I should say the worst don't even come with english plans or instructions, or don't even qualify much as kits since you have to reengineer 90% of it to even get it fit together into something resembling a boat. (*cough* Billings Boats *cough*). Still, looking forward it. Sounds like Jotika/Caldercraft and Model Shipways makes some of the best put together and thought out kits, so I'll check out their wares and see what I like.
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Jan 22, 2013 04:38
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Mig produces some amazing stuff, but I find his tutorials less than helpful. He even put out a book on his technique, and there is virtually no text in the entire thing. It's all just photos of paintbrushes touching models next to jars of pigment, and you're just sort of supposed to interpret what's going on in the photo.
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Jan 25, 2013 00:40
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GreenDragon42 posted:Hi folks, I've been working on a free (no ads) application for Android mobile devices (requires android 4.0) for a bit now, which is intended for scale model builders and miniature painters. Sounds cool! Maybe expand the paint selection to brands and lines not necessarily focused on model making, but it sounds like you're going to be doing that anyway. Maybe add in Createx, Createx Wicked Colors, Golden, Liquitex, Comart, Windsor & Newton, Delta, Vallejo, etc etc.
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Jan 25, 2013 03:29
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GreenDragon42 posted:I've had Vallejo on my to do list. I wasn't aware of the brands that you've mentioned, and they might be a bit more trouble to classify their colors, but I've added them to my list, though I'm planning to do the model brands first. Yeah, I'd leave a lot of these guys until the more common models paints are covered. Companies like Golden, Delta, and Liquitex have absolutely massive paint lines with hundreds of colors, so covering their entire range will be daunting.
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Jan 25, 2013 07:41
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Holy poo poo, have you guys seen this place Miniatur World in Germany? It's the craziest, most awesome miniature world setup I've ever seen. Even the cars drive around the towns and the planes take off! The amount of modeling work it must have took to create this is astounding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkmg3Y64_s
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Jan 26, 2013 08:15
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Pricy, but seems worth it for an armor fanatic, considering the quality of the parts they're including. Sounds like all resin and metal construction. And with all the detail extras they're including, like interiors and engine compartment, you could almost approach that price on a plastic kit and all the aftermarket kits it would take to build something with as much detail, but in this case you get all that but upgraded to resin and metal. This hobby is so drat expensive though. Now that I want to get into model ships, those things tend to start at $200, with many of the top of the line kits getting up to $1500.
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Feb 1, 2013 02:05
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DiHK posted:First, a new airbrush. I am looking at Badger's Patriot but I am seeing some love for the Iwata CR and Eclipse in here. All i really want is a fine line without any splatter and my Paasche VL is one messy fucker. What I have not seen is actual Badger owners, nor folks whom have said "i had lovely airbrush XYZ but airbrush ABC was better because RST". That's probably because no-one wants to own up to buying one of those lovely testors airbrushes... i dig. Badger is having an insane sale on the Sotar 20/20 on Amazon. Normally $420, it's on sale for $76! They're out of stock now, but you can order it now to secure the price, and they'll ship it when they get more in. The Sotar is pretty drat good airbrush too.
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Feb 4, 2013 22:01
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I've never understood that one called Sexual Interference of A Minor Plea-Bargained Down To Misconduct Phthalo Blue.
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Feb 12, 2013 22:45
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Some of you guys may remember I posted a little while back that I was thinking of tackling a wooden ship kit, and had joined the forums over at Model Ship World. They get by on small donations from users, and this year finally had enough cash to upgrade to a modern forums package. So they get it implemented, it's up for two days, and then their hosting has a hardware failure on the main site.... and their backups. From what it looks like, that's 7 years of posts, build logs, photos, tips, plans, whatever, down the drain. They were the biggest ship modeling resource on the web, and it's most likely all gone. It's a huge blow to the hobby, it's like if Armorama or The Clubhouse just up and disappeared.
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Feb 14, 2013 06:06
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I like to use Silly-Putty for masking. In the case of hard-surface modeling, it only really works if you're masking along a seam that you can butt the Silly-Putty up to and get a clean line, but it works great in those cases. No leaks, doesn't pull up paint if left on too long, and reusable in many cases. It's quite a popular method in statue and bust painting, where you can really work the Putty into odd compound curves where tape just won't work. Less hassle than paintable latex masks too.
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Feb 21, 2013 03:26
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George Zimmer posted:Revell/Monogram more or less holds a monopoly on scale muscle cars, so I'd check their selection. Virtually all hobby shops/stores stock them. Also, completely baffling and surprisingly, Michaels Craft stores always have a fairly large selection of model cars in their stores. Right next to the artisan fairy craft glitter and Bored Housewives Incorporated Scrapbooking Kits.
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Mar 2, 2013 21:46
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The market in plastic model kits is stronger than ever. Quality is much better overall, and there are an endless supply of kits to choose from. If you're looking at armor modeling, you can't go wrong with Dragons main line of kits. They have some of the best engineered kits out there, and they often include many aftermarket accessories and photoetch right in the kit. And if you want inspiration, see if you can get your hand on an issue or two of AFV Modeller magazine. It's basically an armor model porn mag, with amazing pictures of the highest quality armor models out there, completed by masters in the hobby. You'll probably only find it at really dedicated, awesome hobby shops, so you may have to order them online. I say a little prayer every day to Plastic Model Jebus that we've got more than a few really decent hobby shops here in Vancouver. Having quality kits and materials on hand is so great when the alternative is lengthy waits for internet ordered items. Bloody Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Mar 2, 2013 |
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Mar 2, 2013 21:56
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Space Wizard posted:Oh, hey! You're from Vancouver? I'm in... Surrey. If you want to go for a bit of a drive, Burnaby Hobbies has an amazing selection of model kits, tools, reference materials, paints, etc etc. It's probably the best hobby store I've been to in the Lower Mainland, and they'll have absolutely everything you'd need to get you back into the hobby. They also carry those hard to find issues of AFV Modeler too. I usually go to On-Track Hobbies in Port Moody, because of proximity. They're mainly focused on trains, but they still have a fairly large selection of armor and air, and they have a fairly decent selection of paints and tools. They also have quite large selection of Woodland Scenics products as well, so they're useful for basing supplies too.
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Mar 3, 2013 03:02
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I can't speak to their airplane kits, but Model Shipways boat kits are considered some of the best in the industry. I would think their quality there would also extend to the airplane kits.
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Mar 4, 2013 22:48
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What exactly were the problems with the Alclad? You really need to airbrush on Alclad (if you weren't already) to get a good metallic finish, and Alclad really benefits from a glossy base to go over.
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Mar 8, 2013 23:09
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George Zimmer posted:Acrylics pretty much always have a matte/flat finish when airbrushed. That's not really true though. Acrylics will only have a matte finish if the paint manufacturer has specifically added a matte medium to their paint formulation. Many, if not most artists acrylic manufacturers will use a neutral medium somewhere between matte and satin, and the glossiness of the paint is largely dictated by the pigments used in each individual color. So you'd find that even among the range of a single manufacturers paints, different colors having varying levels of glossiness. A Liquitex Blue might be far glossier than the Liquitex Orange, depending on the specific pigments in use. Add on top of that many manufacturers may make very glossy or very matte paints in general, but not even mention this on the labels. Liquitex tends to me more matte, Golden is usually satin, and then you have companies like Createx that have different paint lines and don't list which are glossy or matte, even though Createx different lines vary quite a bit. Their standard paints are matte/satin, but the Wicked Colors are extremely glossy, and many people would never know that until the bought it and tried it out.
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Mar 10, 2013 19:27
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God drat it, foiled by primer, again! I finally ran dry on my favourite Dupli-Color primer. They seem to have done away with their light-grey primer now and only have dark grey, which doesn't work in many cases. I just tried the latest from Krylon, and their grey is too dark as well, and the coverage wasn't great either. Am I seriously going to have to go back to using Tamiyas extremely pricey Fine Surface Primer?! FUUUUUUUUUHHHHHH.....
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Mar 16, 2013 23:02
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I do, and I'm toying with the idea of going with an airbrush primer, but those things are usually even less of a value than a Tamiya rattle-can. I might try the Vallejo and GarageKit Colors primers though just to see how they fare.
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Mar 17, 2013 14:59
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While I never "huffed glue" as a kid, I can't say I disliked catching a whiff of that glorious Testors glue when I was working on a model.
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Mar 20, 2013 01:08
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Orangey! Is that a new kind they have? When I was kid, Testors glue smelled like brain-melting chemicals.
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Mar 21, 2013 02:33
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Must be new then. When I was a kid, Testors just had the orange-tube, but there was no orange-smell, just the smell of your brain dying.
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Mar 22, 2013 03:23
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Don't forget Lucky Model. Based out of Hong Kong, but their prices are so crazy cheap it's worth it.
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Apr 6, 2013 05:33
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God-drat it! I do a lot of statues and busts, garage-kit stuff, and the amount of man-children in that sector of the hobby is staggering. It's one thing when someone's producing a "sexy girl" kit, and another upon revealing it and people start coming out of the woodwork to post drooling smiley-face emoticons and talk at length about how they'd love to get their hands on her tits. These aren't teen, XBox raging douchebags either; many, if not most, are 40+ year old guys. Sometimes it seriously makes me want to quit the drat hobby. Garage Kits are such a small niche in model-making to begin with, that if you cut out dealing with leacherous old men with hardons for resin women, then you're eliminating 75% of the people producing kits. God-drat, this loving hobby sometimes.
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Apr 7, 2013 21:58
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Warbadger posted:Primed the T-72A and built a T-64B. Do you generally have to thin paints when painting by hand? It all depends on the paints and the surface you're painting on. Some paints will definitely need thinning, others work great straight from the bottle. A drop of flow release/enhancer can help as well with giving a smooth coat. My personal preference is to use paints straight from the bottle with a drop of flow release. I like the paints a bit thicker, but I load the brush very lightly and almost use a semi dry-brush technique. The thick paints helps it adhere better, but the lightly loaded brush and dry-brush technique ensures it goes on in very thin coats. I would tests your paints out on a spare piece of primed styrene, or even better a spare piece of the kit you're building. Find a consistency that works before you start laying down finished coats on the actual model.
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Apr 16, 2013 23:20
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Has anyone ever dabbled in the larger 1/16 scale tanks? There seems to a be a HUGE difference in prices between the manufacturers, with some $100+ and others $500+, and I'm not really sure (in my limited research so far) what accounts for such a discrepancy in price in similar models of the same scale. Beyond that, any particular brands to avoid in the 1/16 scale, or any that are far and away better than others?
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Apr 18, 2013 02:41
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Arquinsiel posted:As I understand it, some are built with motorisation in mind and some are not. True, but those ones seemed to be $700+. There were several static 1/16 models for $500+ though, which was where my confusion lies.
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Apr 18, 2013 04:44
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Bob A Feet posted:Well I don't really know what type of paint to use. It's pretty humid here (florida) so I'm going to go with acrylics and ventilate the gently caress out of my office. I'm going to the hobbyshop now so I'm going to be getting a ton of paint and I guess primer too. If you're going to use acrylics in very hot and humid environments, grab a bottle of retarder as well and add a drop or two of that to your paint well or airbrush. Will stop the paint drying too quickly on you.
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May 5, 2013 17:54
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Molentik posted:That is really something else Baronjutter, very nice work! I haven't done much military in the scale, but I do a lot of garage kits in all scales, everything up to life-size. Movie monsters, superheroes, busts, statues, there's tons of stuff out there. And there's so much variety if you know where to look. Hell, you can get everything from the most hosed up zombie-vampire, to a statue of Boardwalk Empires Nucky Thompson if you want. I don't have many pics of my stuff unfortunately, owing to not having a camera for a while. I do have this test shot of a Hulk bust a while back. I was messing with stereography at the time too, so that' the reason for the double-pic. Use the parallel viewing method to see the 3D. 
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May 16, 2013 03:07
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Overdude posted:Couldn't afford Tamiya's T-55 so I built the T-54 from Trumpeter: Nice work on this guy! I just bought one of Trumpeters 1/16 scale T-34's. Hoping to dig into that one maybe in the fall, but the size of it already has me drooling.
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Jun 9, 2013 19:32
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kaosAG posted:... you don't need a special "airbrush compressor"). quote:Compressor's noisy, but I paint in the garage anyhow. That's why you need a "special airbrush compressor". They're drat quiet, and they'll have less condensation and pulsation in the line. The sound issue is honestly the most important factor for a lot of people. You can paint in the garage for sure, but spend a bit more money and you can get one quiet enough that you could paint next to a sleeping person without waking them.
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Jun 27, 2013 01:32
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Faltion posted:I've also found Tamiya's lacquer thinner works the best, even with acrylics, over their acrylic thinner. That's because Tamiyas paints are secretly lacquer based.
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Jul 4, 2013 03:29
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GreenDragon42 posted:No, don't use mineral spirits as a thinner for enamel colors. Mineral spirits is a cleaning agent, it actually destroys the paint and will damage the brush (regular, bristles) if you use it as a thinner overtime. While you can get by with water or alcohol for acrylic paints, for enamel paints you need an enamel thinner, though usually it doesn't matter which specific brand. You do realize several companies sell mineral spirits for the express purpose of thinning enamels and oils, yes?
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Jul 4, 2013 08:22
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Nebakenezzer posted:Model note: I'm diggin' the tracks on the Mk. III filled with dry mud and grass, and vaguely wonder if there's a technique I can do to capture it. In a nutshell, plaster, paint, various grades of sand, and dried, thin gauge grass clippings. Of course, there are a billion and one custom products out there for recreating grass and mud, but you can recreate the effect with fairly basic materials.
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Jul 12, 2013 03:48
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Baronjutter posted:I have an airbrush and commercial decals! Aren't trains gloss for about a day until they're used and get dusty as hell? Bloody Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Jul 15, 2013 |
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Jul 13, 2013 01:19
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I wish I could remember the name name, but isn't there a whole series of models of dudes in close-fitting mech suits, sort of western style but interpreted through japanese styling? I was just reading about one a guy did in The Weathering Magazine, and it was a cool take on mech suits without being all dumbass Voltron/Eva/Macross style. Sort of an Ashley Wood WWr style, but kits. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
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Aug 9, 2013 03:31
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Jumpingmanjim posted:Maschinen Krueger? EDIT: Yep, turned out to be Ma.K after all. These were the figures I was thinking of:   
Bloody Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Aug 9, 2013 |
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Aug 9, 2013 06:19
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In the meantime, if you guys want some spacey stuff.... This is one the best space-dude figures I've seen in a long time. Sculpted by Toi Ogunyoku, this guy is about 12" tall, and amazing detail on him.    You can also check out Industria Mechanika. They have all sort of crazy characters and machines, from fish-shaped submersibles to Borderlands buggies.       
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Aug 9, 2013 06:52
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