David Hingtgen

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions, I have a lot of things to try when the weather warms up. Which leads to the next big impediment: No basement or room to do modeling. It's almost all done in my bedroom, except spray-painting/airbrushing which is done outside. I can only paint for a few months of the year. It'll likely be years before I have a place with a dedicated spray booth or something, but I can't just "not model" until then. (Fall/Winter is mainly researching/purchasing, and gluing together assemblies and puttying them when possible, so they're ready for painting when the weather allows)

I burnish with my nail and sometimes toothpicks--are the specialized burnishers noticeably better? I do believe better airbrushing will help with buildup---but what about small parts that are brush-painted, that still need masking? Missles and the like. wm_cheng----not sure if this was covered in the YF-21 build or not, but how do you mask canopies? Hasegawa ones especially give me a tough time. I am currently in a big "learning" stage---I am just starting to get into airbrushing and trying to make a really seamless model. (I mastered decaling at an early age IMHO, but I actually find applying over gloss actually messes me up---I think it's because my "gloss" coats tend to be so orange-peel they're bumpier than dull flat paint--once I can airbrush a smooth clear gloss my decaling should be IPMS-winning) One impediment I have is "I want to build a neat model I have that I have awesome decals for, but don't want to experiment/risk messing it up---but I can't learn if I never try". I really should just buy a cheap $9 F-15 at Wal-Mart and just BUILD the thing. I try to experiment a little on each model, but I think I really just need to "waste" a half-dozen kits to try things and build up skill. Still, I think ADHESION may be my #1 problem (all other things are far naught if something 5 layers down flakes off taking everything above with it---even thorough soaking in dish-soap and water, and using Tamiya often makes it peel off in sheets. Just can't explain---part of the reason I've been primering EVERYTHING lately---most acrylic paint seems to adhere to enamel very well, as well as enamel does to plastic---but it does add a step, and a layer of thickness over details. (Thus my search for the perfect primer---I can do ok if I have a primer underneath, but the primer often has problems too, since it pretty much must be a spray-can for cost/time reasons) And I can't primer EVERYTHING. (I think--anyone ever sprayed an entire kit still on the sprue to primer it?) My USS Iowa model is currently stopped due to: 1. Paint build-up along camoflage colors. (I needed many heavy coats to make the hull opaque---don't know why, maybe the primer was the exact opposite color---pale blue-grey paint over pale warm-grey primer---the brown of the primer just REALLY seemed to show through) The main camoflage is painted nicely (just a few tiny leaks of paint) but you can easily feel the build-up along where it was masked---will sanding them down preserve the razor-crisp color division? Alternatively I am considering sanding them down heavily and switching to the feathered-sprayed version of the camoflage--but I'd need to greatly improve my airbrush skills for that. (I currently have like 3 hours experience airbrushing, if that) There's a lot of parts that need to be re-done enough that I should just strip them. (main guns, funnels, upper superstructure) 2. Flaking/chipping along waterline. Quite a bit of it chipped off along the tape edge---it seems a lot of the paint build-up along the edge of the tape really liked to stay with the paint, and took paint from the surrounding areas with it. PS--final question---does Pactra thin masking tape (usually sold with the r/c car stuff) really suck? I liked it when I was younger, but it seems to leak more than ANYTHING nowadays. Have pretty much abandoned it, last use was USS Iowa bits. (I found new stuff at HLJ--seems 99% to be Tamiya tape pre-cut into itty bitty 0.4mm widths--well worth the money if it works) PPS---I will finish my USS Iowa someday. Even if it takes a decade--it's one of those "you want one so bad you'd strip it down and repaint it twice just to make sure its right". Then I have to learn how to apply photoetched railings--1/350 demands it.

Zoid? Which one? I don't customize them, but am fond of them.

Yup yup. Started with the McDonnellDouglas airliners, but they soon realized--"hey, we can rename ALL the planes whose manufacturers we bought out".

Boeing claims (and flat out phrases as such on their website--they talk about how the BOEING DC-3 was so important and the legendary BOEING F-4 Phantom) any and all aircraft from all manufacturers they acquired. The Wright Flyer is about the only thing they can't claim nowadays. At least Airbus doesn't claim the Concorde nor Bf109, even though they "own" the designs just as much as Boeing owns the F-15, etc.

I'll vote that I suffer from both AMS and PMS. I just wish there weren't so many seams to fill. I can never, ever understand how someone can build a 1/72 kit in a few days. I can spend a few days on the seams in the main fuselage alone, then all the other parts, then gluing, painting, etc. They just seem able to fill/sand/putty 10x faster. (And get better results--I'm always doing 3 more sessions to get that last little section/crack that appeared) I've only just barely started to airbrush, but even poor airbrushing looks much better than my best hand-brushing, so I am encouraged there. But my #1 thing is still painting--specifically masking. I can mask the exact same parts the exact same way, and half the time it's perfect, and half the time they "leak" so bad it's like I didn't mask at all. (Though I suspect airbrushing will help---atomized 2-seconds-from drying paint doesn't creep under tape nearly so much as flowing-straight-from-a-brush paint) If I could mask, and be confident that it'd actually STOP the paint, I'd build a lot more. But as it is, I ruin/stop a lot of models due to paint getting where it shouldn't. And my perfection demands razor-sharp lines for paint colors. Secondary effect: getting an opaque coat usually leads to paint build-up along the tape, even when airbrushing. Suggestions? (Primarily how to prevent it, not how to fix it after the fact--but I need both) Summary: I can sand/fill/putty fine, it just takes time. But with painting--I can spend a LOT of time and be very careful, yet still have it come out horribly with big build-up along the tape edges, and big areas where it leaked underneath. Combined with tape pulling up the paint! There's a reason my last 4 planes have been one color...

Reports on the merger are few and far between, try google news. It's why I phrased it as "there's been news". Above a rumor, but not much, seeing as how it's not widely reported in aviation news. PS---Boeing is king of renaming. Boeing DC-3, Boeing P-51, Boeing F-4, Boeing B-1B, Boeing Space Shuttle, Boeing XB-70 Valkyrie, Boeing MD-11, and worst of all, the Boeing 717.

I've read good things about the Citadel spray primers, but the price is insane. Have yet to try then.

My first act as mini-mod: To pin this thread. Edit: Unless of course the board's not letting me, despite it being on the list of things I'm allowed to do at the bottom of the page... How am I supposed to mod if I can't pin/unpin topics?

Very impressive and all---now why can't they do a YF-19 like this?!?! Also--I still plan to hold out for a VF-0D. The standard VF-0 is still too close to a VF-1 for me. Side note since it's come up so often: Pitot is pronounced "pee-toe". It's French. Not "pit-ot".

Flo-Quil? Yup. The standard for model railroaders, and also what was used to paint the original Star Trek Enterprise. (Kirk's ship has BN green accents, SP scarlet stripes, and UP yellow markings IIRC) Anyways--it dries FAST, and it is MATTE. It is the dullest, flattest paint you'll ever see. Quite opaque. Has its own unique thinner known as Dio-Sol. I like PollyScale myself for model trains---Testor's new MM acrylic is based on it (they bought PollyScale) but PollyScale is still superior. PollyScale is easily the best brush-painting acrylic IMHO. Haven't ever airbrushed it. (I buy all my trains pre-painted, but I extensively accurize them so I need to match railraod colors) Awesome color range--I see SO many plane/ship modelers search everywhere for certain colors that Tamiya or Testor's doesn't make, while totally ignoring the massive color selection of model railroad paints. Trains have been painted every color, and there's a zillion extra green/brown/grey shades for scenery and weathering. Though PollyScale (like MM acrylic) does have a higher than average "bad bottle" rate where you open it up and you just know something's wrong with it--it like gets a "skin" on top. (Always open the bottle in the store and check)

Next video: Much better footage of the MiG-29OVT. http://www.flightlevel350.com/download.php?id=5327 On a related note there's been news that MiG, Sukhoi, Ilyushin, Yakolev, and Tupolev are to merge. It's been approved by the govt, Putin needs to sign.

I'm tempted to mod at this point, but I'm still waiting for some sort of guidelines or even "training" at this point from either Graham or the full mods. I'm hesitant to act on any thread with newly-granted mini-mod status.

The WW2 designs are from the "super dark and gritty" one. On which some pages you had no idea what was going on. "Blackness--and a red dot!" The other comic series had TF's that turned into GI Joe/Cobra vehicles and was set in modern times. (TF vs GI Joe and GI Joe vs TF's---I can never remember which is which)

Woah, Accu-Paint? I know that stuff (being a model railroader). I bought 1 bottle and found it to be more like colored extra-thin cement than paint. WEIRD stuff.

Lacquer/Enamel/Acrylic is generally far more important for the factors you mention, than if it is for models, cars, etc.

That actually made me smile.

I always get depressed when I see cars like mine at the "cheap used cars for high school" type dealers, and being driven by highschool/college kids etc. My car was brand-new when I got it, and despite the excellent condition, mine is now seen as no better than an upper classmen's.

All depends---I have a bottle of Testor's metallic green I've used for a decade, same for brass. Then I can have bottles go bad in 6 months--it's all about that particular bottle's lid's seal IMHO.

Generally, Tamiya "everything" is universally praised as among the best. Their tape and putty and lacquer paints simply rock. Acrylic paint---better than most acrylics. But I do think thinning with water is probably it--I generally don't thin Tamiya to brush paint. And Japanese paints (Tamiya, Gunze) do seem much more "discriminating" in that they prefer their own brand of thinner--substitutes don't work as well. Finally---are you sure you got fresh paint? I mean, I could easily drive to a store and buy a 5 year old bottle of paint. It all depends on what that store sells.

That primer coat's smoother than a lot of my final finishes! --where do you get it? Craft stores, Wal-Mart, hardware stores?

Echo gets my vote for fugliest car ever. I still remember the first time I saw one, it was that ugly to me.

400HP in a 3200lb car was still significantly better than I've experienced before. Sigh---my driveway, but not my car.

Not sure quite which forum to put this in, but since CCFL's are popular among case modders, I figure this is it (being the quasi-gaming forum). Anyways, I'm looking at some CCFL's for lighting up model starships, since my preferred EL sheeting supplier is no more and no other brand will do. However, too many CCFL kits have too much extra stuff, or big inverters, or excess mounts/covers at the ends of the tubes, etc. Basically, I want to get just the tube itself (with leads) and an inverter, and nothing more, as every millimeter counts in installation space. (As in, packed inside the 0.5 inch wide warp nacelles of a plastic model kit) I've only found one place that sells "raw" tubes so far, but they only have white, and I want "spaceship engine blue". There's plenty of cheap CCFL and LED kits in the auto aisle of Wal-Mart etc, but I don't want to disassemble them for parts, especially without having detailed specs. Also, I'd like a 7.5 to 8 inch tube, whereas I can generally only find 6 and 9 inch. And 4.5 inch tubes or so. Almost every length seems to exist, but actually finding them for sale is hard. Or, if anyone knows of rather easily disassembled brands (or with the least excess stuff attached to the tube itself) available at Autozone etc, that'd be helpful. PS--rapid light-up to full brightness is highly preferred, some brands seem to take a while.

Still it would have only taken 30 secs of programming to fix flat-out errors. There's a big difference between not using an entirely new script, and not fixing "He is are the silences".