Panzersgt

Thanks to all much appreciated

thanks. i forgot i,ve built the Tamiya F16 1/32 best kit ever and the F4 similar. the F14 from Tamiya was a but of a disappointment no landing gear well detail and raised panel lines. have taken the plunge and bought a FW109 revel with plenty of eduard kit too. I'll try and post sone pics as go. cheers

Hello all. Hope this is the right area for such a question. I've always been a bit of a Tamiya snob when it comes to 1/32 and 1/48 for that matter. What with the cost of living crisis I was wondering what opinion was like on cheaper, much cheaper Revell kits and alike. You seem to be able to pick up a kit for £25-35 which seems too good to be true. I've made the Tamiya Spitfire forget which mark, P51D, F15E x2, F15C and a trumpeter Su27 and Hobby Boss tropical Spit. All have been superb but coming in at £100 they are well pricey. Any idea very gratefully accepted.

i've had and still own all the Harder Steenbeck brushes infinity, evolution, Al CR+ right down to an ultra. I have Iwata Revolution, eclipse and neo as well as some Chinese knock offs over the past twenty years. I use automotive lacquer thinner to clean the high end brushes and water and IPA for the ones that I cant retro fit PTFE seals in. Which is easy by the way. Strip them down once a month and clean the seals and pop them in an ultra sonic cleaner. pop a bit of lube on which in my case is either veg glycerin or the sort of lube you get from Anne Summers water based personal type, if you know what I mean and I've never had a problem. As for servicing an airbrush, lets face it, its a small hole with a needle and a spring. If you pull it apart with a screwdriver you wont find anything special. Your car needs servicing, your airbrush does not. Look at the exploded diagram and rip it apart, clean it and you'll be surprised how easy it is. The chrome is still chrome even on the cheap Chinese brushes. This hobby is full of myth smoke and mirrors and snake oil. Iwata lube is just glycerin but it cost £6 for 5ml. I just bought a L for £11. Don't be fooled. The manufacturer of cleaners etc don't have any special additives that you can't buy cheap off amazon.

You can buy cheap replacements from amazon £4 for 5--- .2 .5. Some say its a false economy. I say its cheap and they still work. Use a but of bees wax to seat then and dont over tighten. I've us them on my neo no grief

Bent needle. Put the needle in a drill so that about 3 inchs are poking out , thats if the chuck is deep enough. stick some 1000 grit wet and dry to a good solid flat surface, a tile or glass is best. then gently run the needle on it at a shallow angle, 1 or 2 degrees until the bur on the end is nice and smooth. Failling that buy a new one.

Water base personal lubricant. if your feeling brave over the counter at Anne Summers or like me off amazon £5 for 500ml not £5 for 5ml with Iwata written on the side

Sorry I haven't read all the replies but in in short your spraying too heavy. light mist coats are the way to go, and make sure there no oily finger prints on the surface

Yeah but amazon sell it at half the price

Shot glasses plastic 50 at a time off amazon £10

Don't wast your money on a spray booth. look on ebay for an old cooker extractor fan. plug it in and stand it at 90o . It will suck everything nasty away. either straight out the window (you can buy attachments for the hose) or out of an air brick likewise with an attachment off amazon. they are twice if not more the power of a spray booth and you can get right close to it without it throwing shadows over your work

Just dive in and have a go. its really not that difficult. Get a scrap kit or some plastic card and fiddle with your paint thinning ratio and pressure. there are so many variables its difficult to say with any certainty whats good or bad. Rule of thumb thin to milk consistency and start at 20PSI. If no paint comes out try more thinner. if you get spiders legs its either too thin or too high PSI. Just get stuck in. And dont spend a fortune on a brush.

I've had and still own all the Harder Steenbeck brushes infinity, evolution, Al CR+ right down to an ultra. I have Iwata Revolution, eclipse and neo as well as some Chinese knock offs over the past twenty years. I use automotive lacquer thinner to clean the high end brushes and water and IPA for the ones that I cant retro fit PTFE seals in. Which is easy by the way. Strip them down once a month and clean the seals and pop them in an ultra sonic cleaner. pop a bit of lube on which in my case is either veg glycerin or the sort of lube you get from Anne Summers water based and I've never had a problem. As for servicing an airbrush, lets face it, its a small hole with a needle and a spring. If you pull it apart with a screwdriver you wont find anything special. Your car needs servicing, your airbrush does not. Look at the exploded diagram and rip it apart, clean it and you'll be surprised how easy it is. The chrome is still chrome even on the cheap Chinese brushes. This hobby is full of myth smoke and mirrors and snake oil. Iwata lube is just glycerin but it cost £6. I just bought a L for £11. Don't be fooled. The manufacturer of cleaners etc don't have any special additives that you can't buy cheap off amazon