RobL
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Posts posted by RobL
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7 hours ago, ckw said:
100% agree. If you want to use Social Media, that's fine, but don't force your customers to sign up to a service they may not want (or indeed may be blocked from using). I won't use social media - doesn't matter why, I have my reasons - so companies requiring this lose my business.
And while we're at it, don't assume everyone has a smartphone. Many people have trouble using them or can't for a variety of reasons ranging from arthritic fingers or having to choose between paying the phone bill/visiting a food bank.
If the world wants to go fully digital that's fine, but then governments/organisations have to ensure everyone has the means of accessing appropriate technology at no or subsidised cost. Otherwise we will end up with yet another social division.
Colin
Well said.
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Eyeball your mix in a cup of some sort (I use plastic shot glasses) and listen to your airbrush - as long as it's thin enough, (most people use milk as an example) and your airbrush isn't sounding like it's having difficulty spraying it (compare how it sounds to spraying water) then you're golden.
However, you mention a rough surface. Try getting closer to the model. With that low a psi the paint could be drying before it reaches the model, thus giving you the rough surface in places. Or increase your psi (and watch out for spider webbing).
I spray Vallejo Model Air and spray at about 20-25psi, only reducing it via the mac valve on my airbrush when I need to get up close. I generally don't thin Vallejo Model Air paints, or add extra flow improver. Only very occasionally do you get a bottle that needs it. Most are OK (after a thorough shake). Although I've had a white and yellow that were too thin.
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I've had several spare parts/decals from Revell, both for kits I had, and that I didn't/don't. They never asked for any money. Both GMBH and USA arms have always been good in that respect. Didn't know they had an office in Tring though.
Airfix on the other hand, last time I requested spares (for a kit I had) wanted a flat £5, paid by cheque - talk about dinosaurs!
If I need a spare part for a Revell kit I will always go to them first.
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I have both a Dremel 3000 and a Rotacraft 12v multi-tool. I wouldn't use either for removing plastic from a model, unless you want to remove very big chunks or are taking off from a very large area that you don't mind obliterating. I'd stick to using coarse sanding sticks if taking material off to replace with PE.
I recently bought a PWM speed controller for the Rotacraft though. That might help it work reasonably for removing small bits of plastic, but again, I still wouldn't go there. One slip and...
I use my Dremel for cutting thick bits (like clear rod) with a cutting disc (and DIY stuff like sanding wood) and the Rotacraft for drilling holes (although for some reason that's not quite as easy as using an actual drill or pin vice - I feel I need a third hand for adjusting the speed as I go!).
Very handy tool to invest in though, I bought both mine with models in mind and I've actually ended up using them more on DIY stuff.
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Hey all
I finished this the other day, and thought I'd share it here. It's a repaint of a Games Workshop tank I bought sometime between 1994 and 2000. For those in the know it's painted as an Armageddon Steel Legion tank using as close to the original Citadel Paints as possible - the exact colours for the camo are no longer made by Games Workshop and their current range doesn't have anything close as far as I know (maybe for the grey but not the other camo colour), so I had to use Vallejo equivalents, they were Model Color Dark Grey and Game Color Dead Flesh.
Didn't really do any weathering on it, because I don't really know what I'm doing with weathering so I left it pretty clean looking.
Thanks for looking.
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I realise your budget is £150 give or take, but I'm going to advocate for cheap Chinese knock offs here.
I have a Harder and Steenbeck Ultra. With both .2 and .4 needles/nozzles. In the last year or so I have found I was having problems with it, the trigger pull has become "notchy"/stiff, I was getting paint/water in the trigger area, the air stayed on, and there's a bit of a deadzone when you pull the trigger back, i.e. for a moment no liquid comes out, not even water, and by the time it does start coming out it's past the point of giving you a nice tiny dot of liquid.
Now, I also have a Veda WD-180 that I bought from a company here in the UK called Bartsharp. It's a Chinese knock off of an Iwata. It has 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 needles/nozzles. It cost me £25 a few years ago. It's trigger pull has always been smooth. And although it has the same deadzone issue as my H&S Ultra it just feels a better "daily" driver than the H&S Ultra. It did also develop an issue with liquid coming into the trigger area, but I tightened the needle seal on it and it seems to have resolved that issue.
I also seem to have resolved the issues on my H&S Ultra (apart from the deadzone and stiff trigger pull) but I find myself going for the Veda these days when I am airbrushing. Spare nozzles/needles may be an issue for my Veda in the long term as Bartsharp have not done well this past year it seems (I get the feeling they've gone bust as almost all their products are out of stock on their website, although they still have some spares on their ebay store), but you don't have to spend big, i.e. £150 give or take, to get a decent airbrush to start out with. Fengda might be a "brand" to look at in that case, they make an airbrush that is very similar to my Veda WD-180, and spares seem to be plentiful.
By the way clogging can easily be prevented by storing your airbrush in a jar of water (minus the air stem) and thinning your paint properly outside of the airbrush's colour cup.
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Thanks all.
22 hours ago, Churchill said:I like that a lot. The colour palette and the overall feel is very good, there's some nice details adding atmosphere, a bit of humour with the NPC. The only issue visible in the pictures is the quoins being split at the corner but I expect you knew that. I hope you use it for gaming, I think it would really being a lot to any table.
Yes, the quoins are one of many many things I feel I should have done better. I could/should have disguised that with some of the "moss" that I used. Downside of doing modelling when tired/suffering with hot weather/lacking focus/struggling with poor light levels etc. - you think something is great at the time, then you come back to it sometime later, too late to fix it, and actually it looks terrible. Like I said in the OP I built this over 9 months, during that 9 months my "ability" was all over the place.
It was one of those projects that needed crossing off the bucket list. I wouldn't build it again.
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I went (was taken) to Mildenhall once some 25+ years ago, that was a great day out, shame they stopped doing those events, I think a year previous or after we (the family) did a Duxford day also. No way we would have gone to either if it cost £50. Wouldn't even go now at that price. Because it's not just the price of the ticket that you have to account for.
Sign of the times though, things have been getting quite expensive to do in recent years across the board, and Covid-19 will now be used as an excuse to bump up prices even more. And you've got to be some kind of special to do things if, like me, you don't drive and have to rely on public transport!
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I'm a "geek" "techy" [insert noun here] person but even to me this seems like another tech "solution" looking for a problem. Just so many of them these days.
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I wouldn't. You'll be forever going over with your top coat due to the Sharpie bleeding through. Although at some point when you've caked the model with paint it will stop the Sharpie bleeding through.
Plus it'll just look like a uniform grid of lines. Which isn't actually the idea of pre-shading.
Some advice on the idea -http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/91035.aspx
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It is possible on 1/72 models and isn't really related to tip size. Most of the trick is knowing when to stop putting down paint over the pre-shading.
See my Revell 1/72 Horten Ho 229 here as an example to show it is possible (my most successful/visible attempt at pre-shading actually) -
Pre-shading isn't supposed to be all neat and tidy though so don't worry if you totally blacken a few small panels or small hatches. One way to remedy that though is to get in closer to the model and, if you have to (you probably will), lower your air pressure.
And when you see the pre-shading disappear under your top coat, stop spraying, if the paint your putting over your pre-shading is thin enough the pre-shading should show through again once the top coat is dry. Keep spraying your top coat, stop when the pre-shading disappears again, wait for it to reappear, rinse and repeat until you have a decent looking layer of paint with pre-shading showing through.
Ball park figure to start with for thinning your paint is 60/40 thinner to paint. Some people recommend 70/30.
If you're not happy doing pre-shading perhaps look at black basing, it's kind of pre-shading in reverse.
Or you can do what is known as post-shading - going back in with a darker colour around the edge of panels, the same way as you would if you were pre-shading, after you've put your main paint down. Apparently Tamiya clear smoke works well for that, although I've not tried it.
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14 hours ago, Graham Boak said:
Your relationship is with the retailer, and stops there. It is not with Hannants, and to slag them off on the word of your retailer is possibly totally unjustified. They have been wrong to involve Hannants in the matter of their contract with you. You have a choice: either accept the flawed kit or return the kit and get the money back from your retailer. If there is, as it appears, no chance of actually getting the kit in the condition you require, slagging anybody off is a waste of time and energy.
^^ This.
Spot on.
On 17/05/2021 at 23:31, MrProd said:Graham Boak, consider the following before replying
I only got back into modelling in the last year when I found lots of time on my hands due to being self employed and a pandemic made it illegal to do my job.
Lacking experience, trying to put axles on the heaviest kit I've built, knowing that if it goes wrong I've ruined the most expensive kit I've bought doesn't sound like something I want to do.
Having spent £63 on a kit I could resent needing to spend more money on tubing, pin vice, drill bits etc. Maybe £63 on a kit is nothing to you but in my present circumstances it was hard to justify and I think it reasonable to expect it to be manufactured to a standard I can build it OOB.
If I'd spent £63 on a jacket and found the stitching holding the zip in place was coming away and the zip wouldn't do up, imagine if someone told me to go and buy a needle and thread because "diddums" people used to make their own clothes don't you know.
I hope you didn't mean to come across as patronising.
You paid £63 for the kit, you've only been back in the hobby since last year because you're self employed and the government took steps to mitigate a pandemic. So what? Do you even know or understand how that comes across? The term Karen springs to mind. Seems there's a lot of that attitude around at the moment.
What you paid for the kit and your employment status are irrelevant.
FYI Kitty Hawk kits have never had a reputation of being straightforward out of the box shake and bake builds like Tamiya kits are - some modelling is required and modelling is part of the hobby, including buying tubing/rod/wire etc., a pin vice and drill bits.
And I say that as someone who currently can only dream of being able to drop £60+ on a single kit.
Yes the kit should have had the parts, yes the kit should be buildable out of the box, yes [insert frequently heard/read complaint here] shouldn't be the case, however...
...I've just done a quick google search and at least 2 reviewers, with results very near the top of the google search, mention missing axles, in reviews of Kitty Hawk 1/48 Flankers, dating as far back as April of last year, both of them in the US -
July 2020 - https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/builds/kh/build_kh_80168.shtml
August 2020 - https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/builds/kh/build_kh_80163.shtml
April 2020 - https://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/su-27ub-flanker-c
And to quote the IPMS USA article -
"With some effort you will have a wonderful version of this awesome aircraft." "can't recommend this kit to a beginner; there is too much trouble shooting and fixing required"
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A year or two if I have any enthusiasm to build them. I only have about 12 kits in my stash.
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1 hour ago, Andy Moore said:
There are a few 3D files of the TIE Bomber available online for printing. I painted the three below last year after a friend printed them, and while the original digital model wasn't the most detailed, with a bit of work they turned out okay. They'll certainly do until Bandai sees fit to release one. Of course, you need access to a printer, but they're getting cheaper all the time so less of an issue than it was in the past.
When Round 2 first announced they'd aquired a SW licence they did imply that they would have some new tools in addition to the old AMT/Ertl reissues. Maybe a TIE Bomber will be among them, although I won't hold my breath. I'd much rather one came from Bandai though, given the choice.
Andy
Yes, 3D printing seems to be the way forward for a lot of things, but it's not for everyone at the moment. I've looked into doing it for tabletop wargaming (mostly terrain parts). The entry cost is still prohibitive though, unless you're going to use it a lot. When I was working out what I would print, there's not a lot really. £200+ to 3D print yourself a 1/72 TIE Bomber or a handful of wargaming parts is still quite steep. And I don't know anyone who would print stuff at a reasonable cost, even at "mates rates", compared to the cost of buying a plastic kit (if one existed) either.
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Hey all
Recently I noticed I was struggling to see whilst painting figures/miniatures or doing any modelling at all and I had noticed the LED daylight bulbs in the ceiling light in my "work area" weren't putting out much light, so I bought some new LED daylight bulbs (£2.89 each from Screwfix), and the new one's are, an illumination - the old LED ones had very obviously faded in the 5-7ish years since I bought them!
I've also got a garden floodlight suspended from the ceiling on fishing line, directly over my "work area" about 2ft above it, that I suspect also needs replacing (one of those cheap V-TAC one's that were popular among members of a certain private modelling forum a few years ago). It's been up for about 5 years now and gets used at least once a week.
So I'm considering buying an LED panel light, like this - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254645557698?hash=item3b4a0ed9c2%3Ag%3AIqoAAOSw1b5fAtHQ&LH_BIN=1
Anyone here use such panel lights for lighting up their work area?
I'm wondering how to wire it up - can I just put it on a standard 3 pin UK plug and plug it into the wall?
Thanks in advance.
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Yeah, that's not a mass produced widely available kit though is it, you might find one on ebay once in a blue moon. Fantastic Plastic back in 2008 were selling a resin TIE Bomber but it's discontinued. Might be some garage kits still being popped, but again, they're not widely available.
The TIE Bomber seems to be one of the more obvious subjects to produce a kit of that gets left out when major manufacturers start producing Star Wars kits. For what reason I don't know.
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Yes very disappointing. Before I bought the 1/144 AT-AT by Bandai I would have bought the 1/100 AMT kit. But not now.
Now if they filled gaps in the range, i.e a 1/72 TIE Bomber (why does no-one make one!?!), I might be interested. But then the Bandai 1/72 kits are of a reasonable size, and I still haven't painted/lit up the 1/72 TIE and X-Wing I have had for a number of years now...
Round2s "thing" is repopping old AMT/ERTL stuff though. Occasionally they make new stuff, like one or two of their Star Trek kits, but not often, and yeah, the pricing...
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Never had that before, but I have heard of paint coming out like silly string when it's had the wrong thinner used, i.e. lacquer thinners in acrylic paint.
Personally IF it's only the bottles of paint you've used that are at fault I'd chuck them and get new ones. No idea how that would have happened though other than that they've been sitting around - did you shake the bejesus out of them first? Or perhaps the temperature in your shed affected them somehow?
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Shouldn't pull up the filler. I bought some Dymo tape and in my experience it wasn't all that "sticky", maybe I got a bad batch or something. You could always detack some Tamiya tape and put that down first then put the Dymo tape down if you're worried.
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I had the Jolly Rogers boxing of the Academy B-24. Wishing I hadn't sold it now. The issue of an affordable half decent Liberator isn't exclusive to the Liberator though. But the thing is, despite it being produced in great numbers that doesn't really count. It's only us nerds who know that, meanwhile the masses all think the B-17 was the US's primary/most used bomber.
It's the Spitfire effect - ask any Joe public what was the workhorse (in fact ask them to name any aircraft) of the Battle of Britain and you can guarantee that they'll say Spitfire. Ask them to name a US WW2 bomber, and assuming they don't struggle, they'll say B-17.
And lets face it, kit manufacturers sell to more less knowledgeable (politest term I could think of) customers than they do people like us.
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Look for Mr Decal Paper or Experts Choice. They're the usual recommended brands. I've used both, but I can't say they're as thin as, lets say, Cartograph, or most other decal sheets that come with model kits, but they do the job.
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Ebay!!!!!!
in Chat
4 hours ago, Graham T said:This is the text from my listing, just as it appeared. Little ambiguity there I feel!
Offloading a few that no longer fit my collection & are just gathering dust but too good & representing too many hours of work to simply put in the bin. Here’s a 1/72 scale Airfix Douglas Dakota DC-3. Authentic colours & markings for an early post war RAF machine. Nice addition to any collection. See my other items for more 1/72 bombers & others. I simply can’t pack this well enough to post so for COLLECTION ONLY (please do not message me for postage costs) from near Stansted Airport. Please ask for more details or images if required.
For a lot of people that's too much to read. Many simply don't/won't read past a short sentence these days. It's why Twitter is such a hit, short messages, that don't take much to read...
I've sold about a dozen kits on ebay but never had a problem with actual buyers just problems actually getting stuff sold - my last kit for sale a KP 1/72 Mig-23UB didn't sell for months, despite a price no higher than the 1 other seller in the UK with the same item, so I took it down. Had a few kits I've tried to sell go that way.
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Not necessarily ebay's fault as a company, but for me as a Games Workshop miniature figure painter (and the same is somewhat true of scale model kits), it's how people seem to have an over inflated opinion of what their item is worth.
Another thing is that by the time you've sold an item, if it's low value, it's not worth selling because of the postage costs and ebay's 10% - you're not going to make your money back on a £20 kit as a private seller, you'll be lucky to see £15 from it.
Both things essentially boil down to ebay's dominance in the market.
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What’s flying over your house #3
in Real Aviation
Posted · Edited by RobL
Just had what appeared to be an RAF Puma fly over going north-ish from Braintree, Essex. Also had Sally B fly over earlier. Is there something on at Duxford for Armed Forces Day this weekend?