bmwh548

Keep in mind that your airbrush is only as good as your paint mix will allow it to be. A poor mix using even the best paint will give you very bad results. I don't want to open a can of worms, but I would switch to at least Tamiya if you can't spray anything "smellier" in your space. For me nothing beats the Gunze C and GX series in combo with leveling thinner, but those do require special conditions so you don't jeopardize your health.

Keep in mind that in the series arrangement if a single LED fails, none will light up. I would stick to the parallel arrangement but I would do the resistors in parallel too. Say you need a 200 ohms resistor, you hook up two 400 ohms resistors in parallel (can't remember the standard closest value you'll find but I think it's like 460 ohms). That means the current will be shared equally on the resistors so there's less heat. If you have space in the base you can hide the resistors there so you can check on them and swap them for bigger ones if needed (1W resistors will still be reasonably small).

Even cheapos can do a really good job. I've used them for years. Their downside is in the poor quality seals and sometimes in the nozzle not being centered properly, but other than that they can get the job done.

I would just get a bog standard 5V phone charger that can "supply" 1A. It should far exceed your needs. Years ago I used a 350mA charger to power up the LEDs in my model cars for a show. The thing stayed on for 3 days in a row and it wasn't even warm. The resistors don't need to be played with again unless: 1- you change the power supply and the new one has a different voltage 2- you add/remove LEDs from a group that was in series with the resistor. A group of LEDs with it's own resistor won't be affected by you adding another group (with it's own resistor) in parallel. Like the schematic one of our colleagues drew for you on the first page.

That's not relevant. The datasheet will give you the peak value for the current they can support. An LED will draw as much current as you feed it through the resistor. Exceeding the supported current will cause the LED to "burn". The math you need to do will be solely based on how bright you want them to be, which is why I suggested you play around with resistor values and grouping the LEDs. When you're happy with the brightness you can do the math and figure out how big the power supply needs to be.

You say you swapped...what did you swap? Needle, nozzle, nozzle cap? They only work in pairs. If you're getting paint out without pulling back on the trigger: - broken nozzle - needle not seating properly (you might have debris in the tip of the nozzle) - needle not pushed all the way in or it's moving back on it's own when you tighten the collet - needle and nozzle are mismatched (you might have the 0.3 needle with the 0.5 nozzle) Edit: those microscopic nozzles are a pain to clean properly. You might have paint in them even though the cleaner comes out clean (pardon the repetitiveness).

Etch primer is specific for metal. It does what it says on the label, it etches itself into the surface and it sticks better. It won't be any more effective on plastic than your standard primer.

I can't generalize, but at least it won't be something that really draws your eye there instantly.

Grab one of those Molotow pens for touching up Chrome, far easier and he can do it himself. And yes, window masks are amazing but I think those are specific to the Japanese manufacturers (not sure).

Not necessarily, there's LEDs with the controller integrated. Just be very careful wiring them, most of the controllers don't have a reverse voltage protection and it'll burn instantaneously. You can add as many circuits as you wish (provided you stay in the power supply's limits, but that shouldn't be an issue).

No, you can't. The human eye perceives different colors at different intensities even if in theory the light output is the same. You need to separate them by colors and do each color depending on the effect you want to achieve. Also because of Murphy's law I never group more than two LEDs on the same resistor. If the connection breaks on the resistor you end up with 1-2 LEDs that don't work, but if you have all of them on the same resistor then none will work. Buy (or order) a bunch of different value resistors and test for light intensity before committing to gluing everything in place.

Strictly from personal experience I would stay away from Hasegawa for a first time kit. While they are gorgeously moulded and have very sharp details they can be a bit fragile in non-initiated hands (don't ask how I know).

Unless he was born to brush paint he's not going to get a proper finish brush painting. He could grab some basic rattle cans, they're never a bad investment. As for kits: Tamiya, Fujimi, Aoshima... They're pretty well engineered, come together beautifully with minimal cleanup and you almost never need to do any putty work.

The middle seal isn't always properly adjusted. My Ultra came with it way too loose causing paint to blow back in the trigger area. Apparently yours was done too tight. A little fettling would've fixed that (you're supposed to feel the needle catching on the seal, but not having any issue going through). I still have the blue Iwata lube and sometimes I grease the trigger mechanics. It's not like the trigger doesn't work fine without it, but somehow it makes it more....fluid let's say. Before I bought the Iwata lube I just used fine mechanics oil, did pretty much the same thing. I can't be bothered lubing the needle, I use mostly lacquers and those just wash away pretty much any lubricant. Also: get used to returning to the workbench to find your needle "glued" in place. Just unscrew the nozzle and the needle chuck and give the needle a good whack from behind to pull it through the front of the airbrush. Give it a wipe with your favorite cleaner and reassemble the airbrush.

I would actually consider a gloss (or semi-gloss) varnish before the weathering. With a flat coat you would have to push harder to remove the weathering washes which increases the odds of chipping the paint since you say it doesn't have that much of a grip. And when it's all done you just seal it in with a flat coat. In the future you might want to give Leveling thinner or Rapid thinner a try. They're lacquer based and they bite a lot better into the plastic (or basecoat). Imho X20-A is just IPA with some retarder in it (and probably some other stuff). It doesn't give you the same level of "bite" that lacquers do. As far as flat varnishes go: I never managed to get good results with Tamiya's acrylic one. Or with Gunze's Aqueous Flat. Way too much flattening agent and they dry white-ish. I prefer the Mr. Color GX 113. It dries dead flat but doesn't give that white-ish effect.

I never had that issue. Back in the day, when they were first released they had some bad batches, but that was fixed long ago. They spray beautifully, but yes, they have a certain odour like mentioned above. Nothing like an old school enamel as these I think are alcohol based enamels, but you still need good ventilation. I typically spray them through the 0.4 nozzle on my Ultra. Mr. Color's new range of metallics is also very nice (the Super Metallic 2) and they dry really fast.

Well oven cleaner doesn't do much to enamels in my experience. Maybe if you're lucky it'll start working the primer underneath. I don't work too much with the classic enamels, but lacquers and "acrylics" (and I'm pretty sure Tamiya's primer falls under one of those) are affected by IPA so you might have some luck using that.

Not exactly universal. Depends on the paints you've used.

Let me put it this way: AK's line of Xtreme Metals is enamel and they're some of the best I've ever used. One thing I do is let them dry for several days, otherwise they feel just a bit sticky if I hold the parts for too long.

Never used the Tamiya LP range, but Gunze's GX goes dead flat pretty fast. Maybe the Tamiya thinner is similar to the Self Leveling thinner from Gunze? That gives it a slight satin finish. I know Gunze also makes Rapid Thinner which is supposed to enhance the dead flat effect. Try on a piece of scrap: more clear to thinner in the ratio. It could just be that you're overthinning perhaps and the flattening agent isn't building up enough.

Haven't bought rattle cans in ages, but back in the day there were several types and not all of them were compatible. Imagine getting a brilliant paintjob only to ruin it when applying the varnish. Make sure you read the label and test on scraps before doing it on the model.

You'll be fine. I use the Gunze GX clears (which are also Lacquers) even over waterbased acrylics sometimes and there's no issue.

Compatible in what way? Do you want to spray lacquer flat coat over acrylic solvent paint? You'll be fine, I do it all the time. Just be 110% certain that the paint is dry.

Regular ball bearings are typically made of normal steel (because they're "drowned" in grease so there's no risk of rusting). You need stainless or in a few months time the paint bottle is ruined. There are a few manufacturers that package them for modelers (AK Interactive, Ammo, Green Stuff World), but you can probably find them a lot cheaper in hardware stores. If you can't find bearings some stainless steel nuts/tiny bolts will work too. The dropper bottles (like Vallejo uses) can be taken apart easily. Grab a tissue and pull on the dropper itself, it will come off. It's not glued or anything, maybe just a bit stuck because of paint inside the joint. And like Chimpion said, get some plastic spoons and do some testing before you try it on the model. Edit: for degreasing I use Cilit Bang (the one with the green cap). It leaves the surface squeeky clean, pretty much like IPA does.

I use a strong degreaser because I've had problems with adhesion so I strongly recommend you at least give them a wash in soapy water. I don't use Vallejo myself, but I have other paints in the same style bottle. I would recommend getting stainless steel balls (make sure they're stainless steel, not regular) and adding one or two to each bottle, that helps a lot when mixing them. Also there's several types of Vallejo, thicker ones for hand painting, thinner ones for airbrushing. You said you've never used an airbrush, are you planning on buying one? Or just hand painting? If you're going the route of hand painting you could try looking around for other paint brands and their specific retarders. Retarders really help when it comes to hand painting acrylics so they level out better.