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My next project is going to be the AMT USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E from Star Trek Nemesis. I got this kit several years ago and assembled the kit without painting. It has been sat on the top of my bookcase gathering dust. As I have completed my Type 45 destroyer and Sea King helicopter, I am going to paint this kit. Luckily, I had not glued the engine nacelles and pylons into place, so I have been able to mask up all of the clear parts in preparation for painting. Photos will follow of this painting project as I go along.

Here is my finished Christmas present that my fantastic boyfriend bought for me. I love the novel and have studied it at A Level and now I teach it to my GCSE students. I enjoyed this kit, it was VERY easy to build and went together easily. My favourite thing is figure painting so the building part is necessary but not my favourite pastime. I am pleased with the finished result and, if I was to do it again, I would consider doing a black and white version which would be tricky but interesting.

I'm now getting back into the hobby after a 30+ year absence, and I need to replace my old dried up Humbrol Enamel tinlets, and wanted to go the Acrylic route. Are the Xtracrylix range ok for hand brushing?

Hello modellers I have been using an airbrush for about 3 months now and I am loving the experience. BUT, recently I have had some trouble with it (splattering and such) it has worked (for me) very well in the past but I am looking at purchasing a better quality airbrush that ins't overly expensive but still decent quality. (so maybe not H&S, Iwata, etc) Any recommendations? P . S I use windex and various other products that contain ammonia.

I've been reading the build reviews in several modelling mags & it often refers to 'dry brushing', especially when talking about finishing a section e.g. a cockpit. What is dry brushing? Surely when you dip a brush in paint it becomes wet (or am I just being a bit thick here?!). Perhaps it's using a dry pigment like ground up pastel or a weathering powder. Can someone please enlighten me. Thanks, Andrew (Currently saving up for a compressor so I can use my airbrush properly & finish the 1/72 Airfix Sabre that's all built, pending painting. May have to start my Airfix 1/72 Vulcan while I wait)

I'm hoping someone out there can help me! I've come back to scale modelling after a 30+ year hiatus and am loving it! My first attempt was a 1/72 Airfix Mosquito (see my profile pic), which I brush painted. I started reading around the subject and learnt loads of techniques which I enjoyed trying out. Next stage was clearly to move to airbrushing so I searched the t'interweb and ended up buying a Badger 200nh single action suction feed airbrush. As I'd already forked out a load setting up my work bench I couldn't justify a compressor so I'm using canned air for the time being. The problem is that I simply can't get any control out of the brush! Instead of controllable fine lines, I get a random sequence of large wet splodges, nothing but air and then a very thin dusting of colour. I tried in vain to pre-shade the panel lines on my 1/72 Airfix Sabre (using gloss black, that someone had recommended in an article I read) and pretty much painted the whole model. Nothing like it looked like in the article with nice narrow lines over the panel lines. In a review of the 200nh, the reviewer sketched a little smiley face no wider than a scalpel. I must be doing something wrong! I tried spraying while twiddling the needle adjusting screw and that didn't seem to make any real difference. Seemed to be simply on or off. Are you supposed to be able to vary the intensity of the air? I've ended up using a whole small tin of Badger air and half a big tin with no meaningful results. Is the tinned air the issue? Perhaps it's the paint? I'm using Humbrol enamels thinned with Humbrol thinners. I've read the ratio of paint to thinners should be 50:50, to a milky consistency. But are we talking full fat or skimmed?! Or even gold top?! Dosing thinners is easy with a pipette, but I'm struggling to dose the paint. Any tips? Could it be that the mix is too thick? or thin? I'm using the glass jar with siphon pipe but perhaps a Badger metal cup would be easier? I'm getting good at stripping down the brush & cleaning it and to a layman's eye, there's no apparent damage. So I'm feeling pretty disillusioned at the mo - got a new toy but don't know how to play with it. Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks in anticipation for a bit of inspiration Beardylong (and the irony is I haven't got a beard any more!)

I am finally underway with my Spitfire Va 1/48 Scale. My wheels are a mess. I have resoted to hand painting them with a fine paintbrush. I go over the silver rims onto the tyres and then when I try an touch up the tyres I get black paint on the rims. Has anyone got a clever trick to this? It's the on bit of detail that is going to spoil what is starting to be a very good model. Why are some wheels flattened. i.e thier bottom upon which the aircraft rests have been flattened. I note in picture of real aircraft that this does not seem to be the case. I do WII aircraft. I would understand some allowance for compression but at this scale. We Spit and Hurri tyres not solid, anyway?