Jump to content

ckw

Gold Member
  • Posts

    747
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by ckw

  1. Interesting questions. Some thoughts: - IMHO models of figures, animals are relatively easy to build, but difficult to paint well so perhaps 'unnatural' subjects are more satisfying for a broader range of model makers - For many of us, conflicts have been significant elements of our lives (directly or indirectly) and we want to commemorate (for want of a better word) them in some way - Conflicts always spawn rapid advances in technology, experimentation and variety. Look at the transformation in aviation between 1939 - 45 compared to any 6 year period since - Conflicts provide relatively simple opportunities to make a defined collection - We are, in general, fascinated by war at some level. Consider the preponderance of war based material on the various documentary channels. I'd guess 'true crime' comes a close second - perhaps a sad reflection on human nature - We are attracted to the unusual. I see airliners everyday, they are common place, hence ignored. Military aviation, for most of us, is much rarer. Consider the classic car enthusiasts ... few found anything remarkable about the cars for the general public when they were in production. Personally, my fetish is WWII aircraft because - the variety of types available (biplanes to jets). - ready availability of subjects in kit form - wealth of support material to assist in making them I am much more interested in technological development than the military aspect - many of my builds are actually transport aircraft. I think, all else being equal, I would be happy building and collecting between the wars types (civil and military) but the availability of kits is so much poorer. Cheers Colin
  2. Sadly not - as I found to my cost, Mr Color Levelling Thinner will, and I suspect other solvents will too. Shame, it would be very handy if you could use it as a protective coat before apply solvent based finishes. Of course the problem here is not preventing anything getting to the sharpie ink, but preventing the sharpie ink getting out... and it may take a while to work through. But I've just remembered a tip for painting over children's scribbling on walls - nail varnish over the ink first, so perhaps a lacquer based varnish would be seal the ink in. Cheers Colin
  3. Clever idea ... BUT in my experience sharpie ink bleeds through paint. If you plan to add a top coat varnish, the sharpie ink may bleed through and in doing so blur your lettering. Now I haven't tried every product on the market - someone may know of a topcoat that won't allow bleed through Cheers Colin
  4. I like the Trumpeter too - some seem to think that it is more a trenching than scribing tool, but I find it comes pretty close to matching 1/72 panel lines in most cases. The main problem is its sometimes not possible to get in to acute angle joins (e.g nacelle/wing joins). I often just use the naked blade as the handle gets in the way. A better tool but MUCH more expensive are the Tamiya fine engraving blades sold in a variety of widths, starting with a very tiny .1mm. They are also capable of getting into the tightest corners. But fragile - I dropped one and the blade broke. And, I repeat, stupid expensive - over £20 per blade. Cheers Colin
  5. ckw

    Shiny Decals Problem

    Difficult to say - the silvering is going to remain regardless. It is quite possible that in certain light reflections will make the silvering more difficult to see - but at other times it could make it worse. In my experience 'adding stuff' to solve an underlying problem never turns out well! I this was my model I think I would attempt to cut around the decal to isolate it from the carrier film using a very sharp scalpel and a light touch. Then I would lift away the carrier film, possibly using a piece of masking tape - just make sure you don't touch the bit of decal you want to keep! Alternatively just remove the decal completely and replace it. I know I'd have something in the spares box that would serve in a pinch, other seem happy to print their own. Cheers Colin
  6. ckw

    Shiny Decals Problem

    That looks very much like silvering to me. Once that has happened, no amount of varnish can remove it - the problem is air underneath the decal. Sometimes this can quite easily be fixed before varnish, unfortunately sometimes it is not obvious before varnishing . Once varnished I don't know of a way to fix this. Depending on how much it bothered me, I might try carefully painting around the problem area an then varnish again to help blend it all in. As to why in this case - well old decals are always a bit suspect. Perhaps the part of the sheet was exposed to damp. Alternatively, the paint may not have been as smooth in that area as it needs to be. Cheers Colin
  7. OK, so I've not used it - others may be able to be more helpful - but a general problem with brushing acrylics is that the paint drys so fast. In the case of metallics this can lead to little clumps forming on the brush which end up being transferred to the model. You can get retarder for acrylic paint which slows the drying process and makes it easier to brush (but of course longer to dry). With luck others here will have used the same paint and be able to offer more help. The performance and characteristics of paint can vary a lot between brands - and even between colors of the same brand in some cases. Cheers Colin
  8. Sorry to be pedantic, but which brand? There are many variations and each one has its quirks Cheers Colin
  9. What paint are you using? Sanding may work, but sanded areas will probably end up with a flat finish and look grey instead of metallic. Paint type may help others identify the root problem. Cheers Colin
  10. A very impressive way of getting around the nose weight problem! Cheers Colin
  11. Milliput is great, but be aware that if rescribing is required it has a tendency to crumble at the edges of the scribe. And yes, ironically, the precision design of the Airfix new tool (and some other companies) can make part fit a challenge - there is very little tolerance. The slightest misalignment or surplus paint/glue at step 1 can lead to problems at step 17. I find one of the biggest risks is being overly aggressive when clamping of parts as this can cause minor, often undetectable changes to the profile. Remember that polystyrene glue melts plastic, so squeezing two drying parts together too tightly can change the profile from the design. Cheers Colin
  12. Maybe the catapult should be re-assessed - a solution to all the fuss over new runways at Heathrow & Gatwick. Revive the central London scheme! https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/14/london-kings-cross-airport-outlandish-plans-almost-got-built Cheers Colin
  13. My experience of this stuff is that it is extremely fragile, and certainly won't tolerate masking - or for that matter handling. I'm told the Super Metallics are better in this respect, but I haven't tried them. I use Extreme Metal AK, which is supposed to withstand masking but I have to say my experience with Tamiya tape has been a bit hit and miss. I now mask metallics with Parafilm, which works fine with the AK stuff, but I suspect that standard Mr color metallics would still suffer with that. Yes, a clear coat of some kind might solve the problem but IMHO any clear coat takes away from that metallic look. I did see a YouTube video comparing the effect of various clear coats on a metallic finish, and in this test Future came out as having the least impact. But of course any clear coat will result in a uniform high gloss finish which I don't think is appropriate (except perhaps for highly polished aluminum). I think a key part of a metal finish is the variation in the amount of shine. Cheers Colin
  14. Lead flashing is readily available from builder's suppliers like Wickes. I bought a roll of 6" flashing there about 8 years ago (it now costs about £42) and am still only half way through it. It saves huntinf for weifgts to use My mistake - but when I looked locally a couple of years ago, all I could find were substitute materials and it was no longer available. Clearly I was misinformed or misunderstood ... perhaps it was a short term Covid related supply issue. Cheers Colin
  15. I think the key words in this section are 'as required' - I would interpret this as meaning if you need anti-glare panels, this is what you should do. But if you don't (as in the case of an OD aircraft), ignore this. Cheers Colin
  16. Been there, done that - and worse ... when a young lad I secured fishing weights into the nose of a 737 with a generous amount of polystyrene cement. Not pretty, As mentioned earlier, I find the adhesive on my preferred golf handle lead tape good enough. If not, PVA does the trick. Cheers Colin
  17. Hmm - every time I think I'll cancel my Apple TV account, they come up with something new to keep me hooked. I'm no Apple fan, but of all the streaming services I've tried Apple seems to have the best quality to dross ratio. Cheers Colin
  18. Have a look at https://www.amazon.co.uk/lead-tape/s?k=lead+tape. The stuff I have (can't remember which brand) is self adhesive, which can be handy. But the adhesive is easily removed if you want it plain. Back in the day I had some lead flashing, but these days it doesn't appear to be available (without stealing it off church roofs!). Cheers Colin
  19. I suppose manufacturer's could address the problem by providing alternate metal parts for the nose gear, and if necessary other components of the forward fuselage ... but I'm not sure people would be happy with the increase in price. I think there's always a way to get round the problem. I use the lead tape intended for weighting golf clubs or tennis rackets. This stuff is easy to work and you can fashion your own replacement parts (e.g. nose gear doors or bay interiors) with it. Yes, but unless you have access to depleted uranium, finding space for it is a bit challenging! But having a weight guide is certainly useful as long as people are aware that 'where' is just as important as 'how much'. Testing using methods suggested above is always essential. Cheers Colin
  20. For mine I pretty much filled the radio compartment (there's little scope for adding weight further forward). I added a 'curtain' behind the little window for that compartment so you can't see the weight. There's nothing to look at in there anyway. I think I remember adding a little weight behind the engines as well, just to be safe. I certainly overdid it a bit (been caught out be skimping before!) Anyway she nose sits quite happily and the gear seems to have had no problem with the extra weight. Cheers Colin
  21. I don't think there is anything which will remove lacquer without removing the polish. In any case it is quite likely the lacquer will already have eaten into the polish. Mr Color Levelling Thinner is my go to paint remover, and will not damage the plastic or fog clear parts. But it will remove your polish. Just be very careful not to get any on paint you want to keep. Whatever you do, I think you will need to re-polish the canopy. Cheers Colin
  22. For me 'constant scale' is really important - my models are all displayed together, so mixing scales would look odd to my eyes. I have been tempted on occasion to do something in 1/32 or even 1/24 so I could go all out on the cockpit and engine details - but I don't have anywhere to put it. My interest is exclusively WWII, so I know what my most space demanding kits will be (Me 323 and BV-222) and have sized my display case accordingly. Cheers Colin
  23. Yes, the Italeri kit. I don't remember any real issues with construction but they were probably overshadowed by the challenge of freehand airbrushing the mult-colour mottle scheme! With clever engineering biplane kits needn't be so challenging as Airfix demonstrated with their new tool Swordfish. But I have a couple of Special Hobby kits in the stash (Vildebeest and Goblin) which I look at from time to time, shudder, and return to the stash! I know I can build them, but I'm going need to be in the right fram of mind to take them on. BTW I favour real wire for rigging, attached with PVA. I find this a good balance between realism and practicality as you can make multiple attempts at attaching the wires without risking marking up the painted model. To my eyes at least, the distinction between round, braided or profiled wires is just not worth worrying about in 1/72nd. Cheers Colin
  24. I think the inherent difficulties of assembling biplanes (or triplanes!) coupled with the challenge of rigging puts many people off. They're never going to be a quick build, and sales novices are always going to be small. I'm a 1/72nd WWII guy, but that includes many stick 'n' string types - I must admit I always take a deep breath before tackling them! Cheers Colin
  25. A compass cutter is good, but only down to a radius of about 1cm - for smaller stuff I use a punch set. I should add I've tried neither on decals which can be quite delicate. Instead I use Tamiya tape and create masks for painting Cheers Colin
×
×
  • Create New...