Decoman

It now seem clear that the tiny particles I see on the painted surface (when painting with this bottle of Humbrol enamel Duck Egg color of mine) is coming from the paint in the bottle. I do have a suspicion of what might perhaps be the reason for there being particles in the bottle now, but I cannot really tell for sure if what I had in mind has caused this. I used a Trumpeter mixer (driven by two batteries) to mix the paint and get the paint properly liquified, but I wonder if maybe I should have refrained from letting the mixer scratch the bottle, thinking I might have scratched off tiny particles off the metal. Any thoughts on this? Heh, guess I should be more careful the next time I use the mixer. Warning: If using such a mixer, take care to not accidentally flip the on/off switch. Also, it is a bad idea to let the mixer swirl the paint around on the upper part of the bottle (might splutter off a little paint onto the table and your stuff). Edit: *goes out to buy a new bottle of paint*

I must get some thinner Tamiya tape, because the thinnest I have is the 6mm roll, and I am getting tired of scissoring the tape into thinner strips. Hrm, it would not surprise me if the 6mm tape is the thinnest one from Tamiya.

Hm, I think I should maybe get some kind of olive green color and apply that over the weird "dark green" color here, keeping the dark earth color. Though the dark earth color will become the darkest color then, sort of opposite of the color schematic. Very well then The model in the photo has two layers of dark earth (29) and one layer of dark green (30) for the camoflage.

I suspect people have the impression that the Tamiya tape simply looks nice both opened and unopened. The color reminds me of post-it notes.

Is there any way to ship such liquids at all when placing an international order online, or are all liquids banned as a general rule for consumer products?

That 4th tip above seem like a good idea. Have to try that out on my next project! I have been conscious about not allowing paint to dry with masking tape on, because of the rough edges I end up with if I leave the masking tape on for too long (btw, I paint wiht a brush currently). I do suspect that one should take care to not let paint pool up against the edge of the masking tape regardless.

No I am using enamel paints here. I hope to start using an airbrush soon with Valejo Vallejo acrylic paint, but that is somewhere into the future where I can afford a compressor. Hm, not sure why the "dark green" color became so shiny, maybe the paint beneath haven't become dry yet. It has this satin look now even some time after drying. Perhaps I should try mixing some humbrol matt coat liquid into this Humbrol 30 bottle.

I guess I had my suspicion before I started painting, but only now do I fully understand that the painted model looks nothing like the color scheme in the manual. What is wrong here? The color chart says Humbrol 29 Dark Earth & Humbrol 30 Dark Green. (not really visible on image below) I remember painting such a Spitfire model 25 years ago and then I got it right, perhaps becuause I had been eyeballing my choice of color then. *shrugs* Edit: The color scheme doesn't actually state 'Humbrol' for the colors, but it seem so obvious that this is fitting for the humbrol color numbering scheme. When painting my second color here, I avoided painting the canopy area a second time, so I did not really aim for the pattern shown in the manual.

Thanks for the feedback. I got the impression that the rebel blockade runner was fairly new, but I might have misinterpreted what I read on a forum somewhere, so I thought this was some recent kit from 2010.

LOL so that was it then. I feel stupid now. *goes off to flip the roll inside the dispenser* Now that I think about it, it would not surprise me if the dispenser was actually designed to work both ways.

I recently noticed that there is brand (presumably asian) named "Blue Moon" behind the resin kit Rebel Blockade Runner and I wonder where these are sold, beside the Starship Modeler website (out of stock). Apparantly, Blue Moon also has a Y-Wing model by the looks of it, having found an kit on Ebay.

I finally opened a masking tape roll from Tamiya that includes a dispenser of sorts, but I am puzzed as to how to properly use this seemingly simple thing. After ripping off a piece of tape, the remainder of the tape is firmly stuck to the dispenser and I have to use small pliers to try tearing off a new piece of masking tape. This seem so impractical, I am wondering if I am doing something wrong here haha. Unless someone can point out exactly how I am too dumb to use this particular dispenser I will be going back to using my former solution, in which I keep the roll inside the plastic package to prevent dust from sticking onto it and by using a small scissor to cut off pieces of tape. I also make sure to flip a small part of the tape at the end, to create a small handle to easily pull off tape on consecutive uses.

I am currently painting my models with a brush and have sometimes noticed how the paint get this ugly sheen to it. Today I think I have figured out why such a surface finish came about. I have the habit of re-using my brush after cleaning it the first time, which often means that the brush is a little wet with thinner liquid (I clean my brush a second time by dipping it in a bottle of thinner), and I think this sublte wetness is what is causing my surface finish to look a little odd. I can't be sure about this, but regardless, I think I will now start to buy more brushes and only paint with a really dry brush.

I have had some success in cutting out masks after applying masking tape onto canopy parts on a model, but I wonder if there is more I shoud know about doing this, to get a better result. What I do now: 1) Place tamiya masking tape onto canopy glass 2) Even out the edges with a small object 3) Cut the masking tape with a scalpell blade, trying to let the tiny corner in the plastic be the guide for the blade 4) Attempt to successfully peel off masking tape Could I possibly improve on this in any way?

At first I thought that an antenna wire was missing between the canopy and tail, but now I wonder if only older spitfires had this. I like the weathering, but wonder if perhaps it still seem a little too clean. My impression anyway, I am not an expert on such subject matter.

Just like when painting a model with a brush faced with the challenge of painting the surface in one go, it seem pertinent to ask if the same kind of problem is relevant to painting a model with an airbrush. So, if there can be said to be an issue with regard to painting a model in one go to avoid overlaps, is then wet-in-wet "method" a requirement when using an airbrush, or does the airbrushed paint actually layer up nicely without seams? It must be said that I presently do not use an airbrush for painting models, so I really just wanted to pose an interesting question based on my ignorance. I am aware of airbrushing issues where paint either starts to dry before hitting the surface or close to it, I just wonder about how effective wet-in-wet works and if there are any limitations as to how to plan ahead with an airbrush job to cover an entire model nicely. Now that I think about it, I suppose that one could airbrush a model partially and then use masking tape along panel lines for continuing the earlier airbrush session to hide seams.

Thanks for the feedback! I believe I saw some Tamiya White putty in my local toy store and will try that one out.

Would love to see this model on a miniature grass field. (Assuming ofc that grass fields were used as airfields in WW2)

The only type of putty I have been using so far, is the Tamiya Basic Putty. A small tube with grayish, toothpaste-looking putty. I am getting a little annoyed by this putty, because it starts to dry too quickly for my taste, making the putty difficult if not impossible to knead into shape if the putty start to become dry and brittle. Is there any other putty that people could reccomend for plastic kits? Something more fluid and plastic looking perhaps? The use I have of putty is for filling smaller gaps of a couple of millimeter in diameter. I have read on a putty tube that one can mix putty with enamel thinner (iirc), is this true and what good is it for?

Complementary data should be added to scale drawings, for making things so much easier for whoever tries to work off of the drawings. Things like specific angle on wings and any other slanted surface. It's a big deal if some angle is 45 and not 46 or 44 degrees. Providing wrong data will only make matters worse. It also helps if a drawing can state the purpose of some antenna, making it easier to research stuff for yourself. I recall that I spent a lot of time trying to find images on google showing the detailing of the rear turret guns for the Tu-95 KM Bear bomber, only to find a SINGLE image sized 200x200 px or something like that. Btw, below is an image of the front part of a model I made, shaped as good as I possibly could by looking at alot of photos when drawings won't help. It's possible to model stuff fairly accurately, but I just find it overly tedious now. Another one It would have been fun to be able to work with this as a living, but who would pay me for spending time to model things accurately (or seemingly accurate if you will)?

There are a few enthusiasts that have made more accurate scale drawings of aircraft (older aircraft). Scale drawings in general off the internet tend to be inaccurate at best. Even scale drawings off printed magazines aren't any better, or so is my impression. Accurate stuff is probably proprietary material and not available to the public. I used to enjoy modeling 3D models on the computer, but I burned out on having to deal with bad scale drawings. One could try contacting a particular aircraft manufacturer and inquire if they have press material that are based on proprietary scale drawings.

I really like the chipped paint on that jeep. Want to try out that myself soon.

I am working on the 1/48 Spitfire kit from ICM (Mk IX, kit no 48061), and just now found out I have not succeeded in putting it all together as well as I hoped. The whole engine setup is a tight fit and I ended up having to correct some mistakes I made. • Had to use pliers to cut off some of the engine to get to use a knife on the fuselage, for making more space for the exhaust pipes, else the fuselage would warp inwards. • I have reinforced the plastic in front so that I can insert a piece of sprue inbetween the fuselage to undo the warping, hoping the glued plastic doesn't crack open in the process. • I have already sanded the fuselage and the top engine part (not shown on image), but some more sanding is needed to get a better fit. I think this will loook well in the end. A nicely detailed kit, without me being an expert on recreating an authentical Spitfire of course. Alot of flash imo, but with all the details, it was only fun to clean it up. I am glad I managed to successfully drill holes in the two larger cannon barrels. I decided earlier to cut off the front fuselage part, because the kit had some optional part for the front. But.. I had to do the detailed cutting. Glad I am done with that. Wasn't too difficult, but it seemed too easy to make a mistake there. The decals in my set is not in good register, being somewhat off, but not too bad. There were no sink marks as I recall with this kit of mine (ah I realize now that there is some on the prop blades, trivial to fix), however I had to return the first kit I bought because whoever put the sprues in the box had placed the same sprue twice and thus omitting some other piece of sprue needed. I am reading elsewhere in a kit review, that one can omit the engine inside the fuselage. I regret not omitting the engine early on.

Fun to see another one (beside me) that take the opportunity for driling holes into tiny plastic parts. All that is needed is a really good aim. If the aim is a little off, some sanding on the edges around the hole can help make the hole align better if it didn't become perfectly centered at first. Edit: Aheheh, I ordered myself this kit today along with the Tie fighter in 1/72 scale and the Millennium Falcon in 1/144 scale. I also ordered photo etched parts for the exhaust openings on the falcon. Nice to know that the four blaster cannons can be drilled on the 1/72 X-Wing.

I wonder, did you have any serious fittings issues or was it all sort of ok? I probably have this kit of yours and will try to make the best out of it.