glueman

Awesome ... awesome .... and thrice awesome. For a complete novice (i.e. me) how do you get started? Do you purchase Lightwave? So many questions. Cheers Pete

I've encountered a similar problem with my latest build (2001 Space Station from Fantastic Plastic). The PE parts are made from thin stainless steel. I tried using new, sharp rounded scalpel blades cutting on a large piece of ceramic tile. That worked for one or two cuts but the blade quickly became blunted. I think in this particular kit the PE parts are slightly on the thick side and being made from stainless steel are pretty hard to cut through. I ended up using a thin disk cutter attached to a rotary tool. That worked well as the individual parts are large enough to hold (saying this, one or two did jump down below into the carpet monster ... luckily I managed to retreat them). The added benefit of using the disk cutter was that I could quickly remove the burrs from the PE part. I wore protective goggles when using the rotary tool and had a strong light source to illuminate what I was cutting. Pete

Have to agree with you John_W. I enjoyed reading the Mars trilogy but didn't get on with 2312. Wasn't sure what if anything those 'filler' chapters of incomplete sentences, paragraphs and random thoughts added to the story. Pete

Just finished reading Aurora which is the new book by Kim Stanley Robinson. Thought it was a fantastic story, very well written with great attention to detail. And very believable too. I'm becoming a fan of KSR. Have read the Mars Trilogy (Red, Green and Blue Mars) and also 2312. But I reckon Aurora is his best so far. Pete

Just emerging from a dark room ... last night I spent over two and half hours adding some very small PE parts to the Space Station. To set the scene ... each arm that connects the hub to the rim has 10 tiny PE triangles around the base that form a gusset. Each PE triangle is about 1.5mm tall by about 4mm in length. As the hub is a curved surface there are three sets of slightly differently shaped PE triangles per arm. Each PE triangle fits into a tiny grove on the arm. There are 80 little PE triangles to add (10 per arm, 8 arms in total). It's been a very long time since I've done anything this fiddly and a fair bit of time was spent swearing and cursing ... and learning the best way to do it. Luckily I didn't lose any parts and managed to do an OK job. I used a magnifying glass that I clamped to the table top and a head torch that provided some much needed illumination. The first step was to remove each of the PE parts from the PE frame. I used a pair of PE scissors to cut as close to the part as possible. These parts are so small it is very tricky to remove excess PE from the part. In the build log they suggest using a demmel type tool to remove any of the PE flash. I haven't tried that yet. Again following the instructions in the build log, I worked on the same PE part number starting with part #29 (x4) as these occur closest to the 'out riggers'. Then is was part #27/30 (x4) then finally part #28 (x2). To attach the PE part to the arm I used a pin to lay some super glue along the faint grove on the arm. Then with a steady hand and some small tweezers positioned each PE part on the arm. There was a bit of overspill of the super glue which I managed to tidy up a bit. The very last job was to add two new out riggers made from 1.5mm U-shaped strip. The finished product ... one arm at least. One arm done ... 70 more PE triangles to go.

Some more progress with the build. In the end I decided to remove the little 'out riggers' (as suggested by Nigel) along each arm partly because I had already broken two Removing the out riggers was a good move in that I could then clean up the resin flash on the arms and man-handle the arms without fear of breaking the rather delicate out riggers. I have some U-shaped channel strip of about the same size that I'll use for the out riggers. This is a photo of the before and after removing the out riggers. Once the arms were glued into the hub is was then time to build the completed ring. I did this one section at a time, doing a dry fit first to check the fit ... the fit was generally ok ... but ... (more on this later). Then it was out with some super glue. The end of each ring section has two PE parts (#26) that attach to the end of each section and extend partly down the arm. They look nice ... but are a bit fiddly to glue in place and line up with the change in shape of the arm. It didn't help matters when I realised that I had made life very hard for myself. Remember I used the plan that came with the kit to make sure the sections of the ring were the correct curvature. It turned out that by changing the curvature slightly (and cleaning off the flash at the end of the sections) I had inadvertently decreased the diameter of the entire ring by a couple of millimetres. This meant that the arms linking the hub to the ring were slightly too long to fit into their recess and the PE parts were also slightly too long. I got around the arm length by taking a razor saw to each arm and removing the excess. As for the PE parts, I just moved them further back a bit on the end of the rings ... but doing this has resulted in a few gaps where each ring joins together. Good job I have some filler Below is a photo of the rings 3/4 completed. Finally, all the ring sections were glued in place (one at a time) using some wood spacers to prop up the ring sections. It's worth noting that each ring section is quite heavy and after attaching the second section I was having to add a bit more super glue than usual to make sure the third and last sections would stick firmly in place. A rubber band was used as a rim clamp to hold everything in place whilst the glue was setting. The ring sections line up pretty well (minor step here and there but not really noticeable) and there are some gaps at the joins that need filling and smoothing out. On a happy scale of 1-10, I'm at about 8.5 ... pleased that it went so well ... but probably could have done a bit better. It will do (unless it is for Stanley Kubrick then I would have to do it again ... and again ... and again ... repeat many times).

A little more progress ... this time with the completed ring. First step was to dry-fit the four quadrants of the main ring together and to overlay the quadrants onto the plan to make sure that they followed the plan and formed a circle ... which they didn't. After reading the build log (see earlier link) I was expecting this problem. Some of the quadrants are 'too' curved especially towards the ends of each quadrant. The solution (as suggested in the build log) was to put the quadrants into boiling hot water for a couple of minutes to soften the resin, then to gently bend the quadrants outwards to open up the curvature a bit. It worked!! I also followed their advice about pinning the quadrants in position as they cooled down (see lower photo). Just for reference, the rings shown on the plan don't actually form a perfect circle. The diameter measured horizontally on the plan from left to right is 220mm. The diameter measured vertically from top to bottom is 218mm. The hubs also are not perfect circles being about 0.2mm wider than they are tall.

I did have the same thoughts as you Nigel regarding the out riggers, but thought about using plastic strip or narrow U-shaped trough as the original parts appear to be grove shaped. I still may swap the original out riggers for new ones. Pete

Thanks for all of your comments. Before I forget, I'm actually following the build described on the web site (link below). It describes a number of 'issues' associated with this kit (and solutions) which I'm finding very help. http://www.starshipmodeler.com/2001/sj_ssv.htm Back to the story ... another evenings worth of removing flash ..... getting there albeit rather slowly. Most of the 'arms' are now clear of flash and I've glued the two sections of the short hub together. The surface detail is pretty good where there is no flash. The inside of the docking chamber is smooth ... couldn't quite get the windows with the people inside to show up at this scale Another job is to enlarge the holes in the hub so that the arms fit nice and snug. The instructions don't really mention how deep the holes should be opened but there is a guide on the actual arms themselves. There is a faint grove on the arm (for PE parts to be added later) that ends at the same point as the ends of the out riggers. The end of the grove and end of the out riggers should rest on the surface of the hub. The hole in the hub need to be about 2-3mm. Some gentle sanding with a rotary tool is on the cards for tonight.

Hello everyone ... I'm back ... this time with another exciting project. Some eagle-eyed members will know that I have two other projects that are currently on the go at the moment ... a Vulcan build and a Viking lander build. I'm still working on them and hopefully will update those posts soon. As this was a fantastic Christmas present I couldn't resist starting yet another project. 2001 is one of my all time great films. I remember going to see the film when it was first released and it completely blew me away ... it was just so awesome. I did have a kit of the Orion Clipper Plane at one time in the past but that has long since gone. For being good all year long, Santa brought me the Space Station kit for Christmas. The box ... with a nice cover photo. Note the different scales. Three different scales of the Orion Clipper planes are supplied with the kit as there is some uncertainty as the size of the original space station in the film and hence the scale of the model. You get lots of resin parts to build the hubs and the rings. Some parts have good surface detail but there is often a faint texture on the parts, like a carbon fibre print which presumably is to do with the resin forming process. And lots of PE parts to build the incomplete rims and to add detail to the arms. And lots and lots of flash especially on the arms that link the hub to the rings. Guess what I'll be doing for a while ... slowly carefully removing excess flash from all the resin parts.

Oh ... thanks Pete

Newton was born in Lincolnshire in 1642 and was educated in Lincolnshire. In 1661 he went to Cambridge ... which is just south of Lincolnshire. He moved to London in 1696 ... which is just a little bit further south of Lincolnshire, where he died in 1727 in his sleep. Real men come from Lincolnshire ... it's official: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-30529703

Less of that ... Newton came from Lincolnshire Pete

Thanks. I don't know which is taking longer ... me building the model or the real thing going to Mars Pete

Fantastic tips ... thank you. I didn't know about cutting the crust off or leaving it for a few minutes before mixing. I always work at room temperature and leave it for 24 hours before sanding or cutting. Pete

Just received a signal from ground control to wake me up after almost 8 months in deep sleep ..... bleep ... bleep. Had a bit of brain wave about how to make the wind covers for the RTGs. I eventually came up with a cunning plan. I cut out a base from thin plastic card which was slightly smaller then the base of the wind covers. I then glued on a short plastic tube, 15mm in diameter and about 10mm in height. This tube forms the core of the wind cover. Then out came the Milliput, the standard Yellow-Grey variety I built up the rough shape of the wind cover by wetting the Milliput before it started to harden. Got quite a good shape. I left the Milliput to harden for a few days. The photo below shows how I'm building up the rough shape of the wind cover. This photo shows the wind cover after a bit of sanding. The finished wind covers after more sanding and topping-off with a bit of plastic card. I'm very happy with the end product although the shape is not exactly 100% perfect ... but it will do. Time for another hibernation ...

This is very spooky as I was just about to ask the very same question about spraying large models. I had the exact same problem as stevemk1 in that I used my airbrush for spraying small areas like the bomb bay (pressure set to 15psi). But the entire airframe is a different beast. I have a BD128P airbrush and a AS18-2 compressor with adjustable output pressure. I also have an older Paasche single action airbrush, but not used it for years. If I remember correctly, it was pretty good at doing larger areas but not fine detail. Wondering if I should use the single action airbrush to spray the airframe and increase the pressure. Perhaps it is a trial and error approach (e.g. increase air pressure, distance etc). Pete

Hi Rob, Thanks for the tip. I'm sure I've got some PVA glue somewhere. I'll give it a go when I put on the second coat of Mr Surfacer ... just got to remove the ragged edges first Cheers Pete

Been a long while since I have done anything to my Vulcan. Sorry everyone ... Big step forward today (with perhaps a small step back?) ... my first ever use of Mr Surfacer 1000. I mixed Mr Surfacer with cellulose thinners at about 1:1 and applied with an airbrush. I think my airbrush and/or compressor settings were wrong as all I could spray was fine jets of spray. Took quite a while to cover the entire model. It's partly dried now and it has that sort of very fine loose 'paint dust' when I move my fingers over the surface (I get a paint dust on my fingers ... hope you know what I mean). I'm using a pressure of about 20psi. Is this too low to cover such a large surface? I applied Maskol to cover the windows but for some reason the edges were not sharp at all (see second image). Bit of a mess really. Again, any hints and tips on using Maskol would be much appreciated. Still long way to go ... so don't hold your breath. Pete Close up of cockpit area. Messy windows

Wow Rob!!! Fantastic build and brilliant paint work. I'm intrigued about the use of Blu Tack as a mask for the camo part of the painting. Doesn't the Blu Tack leave an oily residue on the paint work (it does on my daughter's bedroom wall!!!) How long do you keep it on the model? I'm still working, albeit very slowly, on my Vulcan build. Almost at the stage of applying a primer undercoat so am interesting in the Blu Tack approach. Cheers Pete

Thanks for your help. I can adjust the air pressure on my compressor ... I think it is already set to 20psi, but I'll check. I'll watch out for the 'cobwebs'. Cheers Pete

Another question ... sorry ... could I apply Mr Surfacer 1200 using an airbrush? If so, what sort of air pressure would people recommend and also does it require thinning? Ta very much Pete

Thank you everyone for your comments. Cellulose thinners for cleaning brushes. I'll give it a go and if it isn't any good ... well ... it didn't cost me much ... in fact was pretty good as it came from Hong Kong and postage was free. I'll put some photos up on my Vulcan build. Cheers Pete

Hi everyone, I've just received a bottle of Mr Surfacer 1200. I plan to use it on my Vulcan build to fill in minor gaps between the wings and fuse ... and anywhere else that has minor gaps. I've never used this before so any hints, tips would be very welcome. First question ... what do I clean the brushes with after using Mr Surfacer? All the instructions on the bottle I have are in Japanese. Many thanks Pete

Hi Gustavo, I shaped the Milliput before it dried. After applying the Milliput to the tubes I dipped my finger into some water and then onto the Milliput. Did that a few times to make the Milliput nice and damp (not dripping wet) and then shaped the nozzles to approximately the required shape. Thanks Pete