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Hi all, I’ve created a crash test dummy to practice weathering. I cleaned the model. Brush painted 3 coats of acrylic colour, blue on top, off-white on the bottom. Then used a MIG panel line enamel paint. Issues: I noticed some blistering, which equated to removed paint once I removed the enamel weathering with a cotton bud. What would cause this? On one section of the model, the weathering enamel would not rub off with cotton buds. Why would this happen? I have yet to try thinners, but imagine it will remove it. Just wondering why it comes off in some areas with cotton buds and not in others (smoothness of paint?)…? Generally it worked well though. A separate test saw me spraying Matt varnish on the model. This pooled in a few areas (white gloopy mess). It took lots of sanding to rectify and even then there was some evidence of the issue. What would cause this? Thanks for any guidance/advice/experience.

Newbie question - despite having a good time removing and sanding each piece, so far... Should I have removed every piece from the sprue beforehand or left them on there to prime and paint first? How do you hook a completed track onto the tank? Is there a trick to it? Thank you👍🏻

Hello - I hope you good AFV folk can help me out - again... I will shortly have a tank commander and some truck and halftrack drivers to paint in 1/72. They are British / Northern Europe / 1944 - market garden type stuff... I am looking for help with basic uniform / helmet / beret colours. I use Vallejo Model Air - but I do have conversion charts for... Humbrol Gunze Gunze Mr Colour Tamiya XF Testors Can anyone throw a few colour numbers this way please. Thanks in advance - Steve

Hi everyone, I have been lurking on here for a while now looking for tips and pointers; so I finally decided to register and ask questions. I am about to return to modelling after a major 35 year hiatus, but having said that, I am really more of a newbie. I used to build airfix kits and add the water slide transfers and that was pretty much it, any painting was done with a cheap brush and humbrol enamels (and not often at that) I more enjoyed the building. Anyway, looking on here has inspired me (especially the work of Andy Moore; I mean WOW). What I do need is advice. I have been bought the bandai 1/12 scale R2 and BB8 kit and I'm wondering where to start with weathering. The kit is still on its sprues so I have yet to make any kind of start, as for materials I have some Sprue cutters, craft knife and diamond files from some of my day job tools (I'm an engineer - mainly in the aircraft and submarines industries; 3 colour smoke pod in the red arrows hawk is some of my work). So, where do I start - I want to build the kits and start to introduce some grime to each droid, bit of dust for bb8 and some oily type grime for R2. Help?

Good morning, I just thought I might ask the advice and opinions of members of the forum in regards to a project i'm starting. I was thinking of doing a 1:72 Airfix Vulcan "properly"; with aftermarket engines, intakes (possibly, you'll see later) and the white ensign model (WEM) stuff. I've also thought it might be an appropriate model to do some rescribing for the first time, along with flory washes, photo etch and resin- I had to choose this model So the few questions I would like to ask are as follows: 1. Can you use a steel ruler and is it adviseable for linear panel lines as a guide- rather than masking tape? 2. (Perhaps the most important decision) Which Vulcan to do?! I've got a choice between XH558 and XL360- having been in XL360 and purely because I quite like the 617 tail marking (I might be turning into an "anorak" ) I feel a greater sense of attachment to her, although I have seen XH558 display at Throckmorton last year and so I am quite keen on her too! 3. Should I have "everything" open (gear down, airbrakes down, bomb bay doors open, crew hatch open)? Or should I save some money and (if I should choose XL360) build the Coventry Vulcan as it currently is (and save additional money with FOD covers for the ghastly kit intakes)? Note: I would have built the Cosford Vulcan but I'm not keen on the highly glossed finish of XM598 4. Any other advice for building the Airfix kit? Joins to watch out for, etc. I know that 2 and 3 are very subjective points but I would greatly value your opinions. Many thanks, Sam Edit: the 617 tail marking on XL360 Edit 2: -Are there any definitive colour matches out there for either 558 or 360?

Hi all, I'm building a 1/144 A319 at the moment, and to be geeky for geeks sake i'm painting it up in a fantasy livery of the imaginary airline I has when I was a kid... Take what you will from that. Either way, I need to find a decal sheet of standard lettering to form a random/made up registration. G - XXXX (or whatever). Ideally I need them in white. I can find some squarey RAF ones around, but if someone can point me towards some more generic ones, i'd be grateful. I can paint the livery but not the reg. Cheers, Chris

Afternoon All, Last night I finally sat down and opened the Airfix 1/48 Javelin with a view to starting it. Additionally, I also opened the AlleyCat Mk7 conversion kit as my dad worked on them when with 33 Squadron in 1958 at RAF Leeming and RAF Middleton St George. Specifically XH838, which he photographed on the flightline shortly after delivery. This is where the problems arose. I understand from the AlleyCat instructions that I need to insert piece for the Mk7 gunports, as I am not doing a missile carrying aircraft. That leaves me with another insert, which I don't think I need, and a long panel for the outer/upper wing. Is there any change in the shape of the outer/upper wing from Mk7 to Mk9? From the sources I have at my disposal I thought that the Mk 9 as basically a Mk 7 with re-heat, Firestreak missiles, and the re-fueling probe. Do I need to incorporate this item into my build? Any help would be grateful. Regards Andy341

Hi Everyone, My missus and I are big fans of airshows, we both love taking photos as well. We are looking to upgrade our camera as we only have a little pocket camera and are wondering if either of these will be suitable for airshows : 1) http://www.tesco.com/direct/fuji-finepix-s4900-digital-camera-black-14mp-30x-optical-zoom-3-inch-screen/413-7120.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=413-7120 2) http://www.tesco.com/direct/fujifilm-finepix-s8200-digital-camera-black-162mp-40x-optical-zoom-30-lcd-screen/748-9097.prd?skuId=748-9097 I am always showing her the amazing photos that get posted on here and just wondering if you could tell us whether one of them is suitable to use. EDIT : Any suggestions for other cameras similar in budget to these would be welcome. Thanks, Rick & Michelle

Hi Everyone I am currently building Eduard's Messerschmitt Bf 110D 1/48 kit. I am tiring to fit the engine nacelles to the wings and they are some what challenging....... Have any of you guys out there built this one and have any advice on the matter?

I'm hoping someone out there can help me! I've come back to scale modelling after a 30+ year hiatus and am loving it! My first attempt was a 1/72 Airfix Mosquito (see my profile pic), which I brush painted. I started reading around the subject and learnt loads of techniques which I enjoyed trying out. Next stage was clearly to move to airbrushing so I searched the t'interweb and ended up buying a Badger 200nh single action suction feed airbrush. As I'd already forked out a load setting up my work bench I couldn't justify a compressor so I'm using canned air for the time being. The problem is that I simply can't get any control out of the brush! Instead of controllable fine lines, I get a random sequence of large wet splodges, nothing but air and then a very thin dusting of colour. I tried in vain to pre-shade the panel lines on my 1/72 Airfix Sabre (using gloss black, that someone had recommended in an article I read) and pretty much painted the whole model. Nothing like it looked like in the article with nice narrow lines over the panel lines. In a review of the 200nh, the reviewer sketched a little smiley face no wider than a scalpel. I must be doing something wrong! I tried spraying while twiddling the needle adjusting screw and that didn't seem to make any real difference. Seemed to be simply on or off. Are you supposed to be able to vary the intensity of the air? I've ended up using a whole small tin of Badger air and half a big tin with no meaningful results. Is the tinned air the issue? Perhaps it's the paint? I'm using Humbrol enamels thinned with Humbrol thinners. I've read the ratio of paint to thinners should be 50:50, to a milky consistency. But are we talking full fat or skimmed?! Or even gold top?! Dosing thinners is easy with a pipette, but I'm struggling to dose the paint. Any tips? Could it be that the mix is too thick? or thin? I'm using the glass jar with siphon pipe but perhaps a Badger metal cup would be easier? I'm getting good at stripping down the brush & cleaning it and to a layman's eye, there's no apparent damage. So I'm feeling pretty disillusioned at the mo - got a new toy but don't know how to play with it. Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks in anticipation for a bit of inspiration Beardylong (and the irony is I haven't got a beard any more!)

im going to build 2 revell tornado gr1'a as a gr4 & 4a, i have the bits and bobs to convert, q1 im thinking of building the 4a as scud hunter off the model alliance sheet, load wise would i know it carried a raptor pod, did it at all carry ant lgb's at the same time, and would it of carried asraam's or sidewinders? q2 are any of the 4s that were used in telic, now flying marked up similarly in Afghanistan. as i have brimstone's for that, and wondered in any of the markings were any good from telic sheet? this one i want to build with 2x lgb's, brimstone's on rear and lightning pod i front plus asramm,s am i off target here or somewhere near?