Cracked it!

I got some of the tresemme hairspray and gave the technique another go.  I had sprayed a wing with tamiya XF-69 nato black, thinned with lacquer thinners (cellulose thinners for those in the UK), after reading Adam Wilder's recent article on armorama, and used this as the basis for the test.

I applied three thin coats of the hairspray as described.  I allowed this to dry for half an hour or so and then (as I was spraying some jet intakes), I sprayed over it with tamiya XF-2 flat white, again thinned with lacquer thinners.  After another half an hour or so, I applied some water to a couple of sections and started scrubbing at it gently with a paint brush I use for occasional dry brushing.  The paint lifted in a nice, random and controlled way, and I further added damage with a cocktail stick.  It was very easy to control and I'm really pleased with the results.  It's only now that I realise that I missed out the future stage in between (to protect the base coat), but it doesn't seem to have mattered.

I'm rather pleased, and look forward to trying this out on a model, rather than a test piece.  At some point I'll give it another go over a metallic base coat.

Thanks,  I should have used a lighter green to start with.  I used Tamiya xf-62 olive drab.  I should have lightened it and agree that I should have been a bit more adventurous with the post-shading.  Still, you live and learn.  I have the 1/48 version of this kit (Glacier Girl) and I built this as a practice run.  A bit daft really, as I'm sure the 1/72 is harder to build due to its size.

Hi All,

Here's my latest offereing, it's not mecha or armour I'm afraid!  It's the Academy 1:72 P-38J Lightning, "European Theatre"

This is kind of my 'return to modelling' piece, except that this project has been shelved countless times due to lack of motivation and to make way for other kits.

It's a lovely kit to put together, it needed very little filler, but due to its shape and size, it was a pain to sand. I lost some of the panel lines, so this was also my first attempt at rescribing them. It went OK I think, but as you can see in the pictures, I should have rescribed more of them to complete the effect.

I'm fairly happy with the outcome; I don't usually build in 1:72, so it was more fiddly than I'm used to. The pre and post-shading worked well, and I'm pleased with the weathering effects I tried out on this one (I like heavy weathering). I did however have to abandon certain painting aspects, like the yellow noses and spinners, the white band between the chrome and olive drab on the nose and (my biggest regret) the invasion stripes. I decided to ditch those, as I painted it in the wrong order and the masking was just going nowhere, resulting in me itching to throw it against the wall. To prevent it from being a tail sitter, the nose is full of lead shot held in place by dripping superglue over it.

It's painted with tamiya acrylics (the wrong ones!), except for the nose which is alclad aluminium and the superchargers are mostly alclad jet exhaust. The decals were horrible! Some are out of register (the fuel cap ones are particularly bad) and they battled with the decal setting solutions I tried and needed some major persuasion to settle into panel lines. It's weathered using the Promodeller dark wash (top and bottom), the chips were done with a silver pencil, and the exhaust stains with thinned tamiya acrylics (my first with an airbrush). The staining on the underside was done with oil paint and turpentine.

Hope you like it.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/ajlorton/frontal.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/ajlorton/top.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/ajlorton/bottom.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/ajlorton/starboard.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/ajlorton/port.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/ajlorton/lights.jpg

Ok, well I'm stumped then!!  Maybe it was just because I'm using the cheap stuff. I'm pretty sure it's not the paint's fault, as the future coats were brush applied (again an experiment of brush vs. airbrush) and cured weeks ago.  I'll get some of that Tresemme spray and give it another go.

Ouch.

Indeed, but thankfully it was just a test piece.

I've just got back from the supermarket and found that every single brand of hairspray they stock (including Tresemme) has denatured alcohol listed as the main ingredient.  So it looks like I'm not going to be able to try that technique; Unless anyone here knows of an alternative product in the UK which works?  I'm guessing that we have different rules and regs'. on the ingredients that aerosols can carry.  What a pain in the arse.

Here you go, so you can all have a good laugh at the muppet who sprayed his model with alcohol ...

It's pretty cool if you're aiming for a very tarnished natural metal look!

You're right of course, and oh brother do I feel like a donkey now....

The first and main ingredient in the hairspray I tried is ... denatured alcohol.  I'm no longer surprised the damned stuff dissolved the paint and future.   Yours clearly didn't have alcohol in it.  I'll be off to the women's hair department again then!!

Hi All,

I've had a go at the hairspray technique for adding paint chips, but it's all gone a bit wrong!  I sprayed (using the can) two coats over a model which had been primed, painted with alclad2 steel and then sealed with a couple of generous coats of future.  Within seconds the hairspray had dissolved areas of the future and started to dissolve the alclad!! It has also dried in a horrible mess.  Is this normal?  I am using a cheap (Boots own brand [for uk posters]) regular hair spray.  I wonder whether the ingredients in the UK are different to the US which is causing the problem.

Mr. Fichtenfoo - Could you take a look at the can you use and post up the ingredients listed?

Thanks,
Ant.

Hi All,

Thought you might be interested in these links to a professional modeller's effort at doing a digi camo scheme on a Hornet.  It's featured on this forum: http://www.britmodeler.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9769&st=0

You can search for the real aircraft on airliners.net. http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1177794&size=L

The chap who did it, has a video tutorial available on his website: http://www.promodeller.com/  You have to pay a small fee to subscribe to his videos.  I have, and I'd say they represent good value for money.  There are a number of lengthy (all aircraft) picture tutorials also which are free to view.

Ant.

Hi,

I've been airbrushing tamiya acrylics for a while now with good results.  However, I recently tried using some of the metallics in the same way (thinned with around 50% tamiya thinners, sprayed at around 10-15 psi) but get poor results.  Either my brush constantly clogs (It's an Iwata revolution CR) or the finish is poor.  I've tried adjusting the thinning ratio and spray pressure, but don't seem to be getting anywhere.  Is there a trick to using them I've not figured out, or should I just stick to Alclad for metal finishes?

Thanks,
A.

Thanks Justin.

There is no visor to make transparent!  Out of the box, the eye in the head is just a pink sticker on a black cylinder sandwiched between the upper and lower parts of the helmet. 

(See part 2 here for details: http://www.dalong.net/review/seed/d104/p/d104_m0004.jpg)

I just drilled the right sized hole in it for the LED to fit snugly.

Thanks for the feedback on my scheme ideas.

Instead of starting on the tedious job of sanding, I decided to add an LED eye to the Zaku. Here's how I did it ...

I started by doing some surgery on the internals of the main body.  There's quite a bit of room in there now, but I couldn't find anywhere convenient to locate a switch to turn the thing on and off.  So I decided not to have a switch, and will instead control the LED by simply having open wire contacts that complete the circuit when the head is in the right position.  I'm not 100% happy with using this method as the head has to be precisely positioned for it to work, and when the battery runs out, there will be no way to replace it without cracking the chest open.

Anyway, here's the battery that will eventually be inside:

And here's the chest cavity:

The head obviously also needed some surgery.  I chopped out the insides of the head to make way for the back of the LED and drilled two holes for the wires to exit:

So it looks like this underneath:

The contacts come out just behind the head and will be re-done a little neater before finishing:

With the power off, it looks like this:

And with the head positioned so the power is on, hey presto ...

I'm pretty happy with the result.  The resistor I'm using isn't quite right, so it's probably a little dimmer than it should be at full blast, but I like the way it looks (it's better in the flesh) so I may leave it as is.

I did consider putting the battery inside the backpack, but I'm not sure I'll even be using it as it's just too ugly and seedy.  TTFN.

Hi,

I've heard micro mesh polishing cloths mentioned a number of times in modeling magazines.  I've been thinking of buying some for polishing gloss finishes and aircraft canopies.  I was wondering whether anyone here had any experience of using them and if so, a) are they any good? b) Would you recommend any particular grades? & c) Are cloths or pads better for modeling?

I'm tempted by the 'craft kit' of pads or the simpler sheets (cloth) kit MMK-2. Info here:

http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/craftsman_kits.htm

Ant.

I shoot future through my iwata airbrush straight from the bottle at around 15 psi.

I tried using lighter fluid to thin oil paints and run into the panel lines, but I found that it dried too quickly and was more trouble to remove than using artist grade white (mineral) spirits.  If you have used flat tamiya acrylics, you will definitely need to lay down 1 or 2 coats of future before you attempt to highlight the panel lines this way.  The flatt (matt) acrylics will just cause the thin wash to disperse across the surface and will be near to impossible to remove without ruining the rest of the paint.  At least, that's what happened to me before I realised you need a gloss coat.

Right, I've tweaked a couple of the schemes and added a quick camo to them.  I'll be going for one of these two ...

Time to crack on with the sticking and sanding.  Being a HG kit, it has some tricky seams to get rid of.  I'm not sure whether to putty them or cover the whole seam with thin styrene sheet.  I've been experimenting with milliput (not my usual filler of choice) whereby I've wetted a sculpting tool and smoothed it into shape so that it needs minimal sanding.  I might give that a go for the awkward spots.

 

So, here's something I'd appreciate feedback on ... paint schemes.

I used the Foo's photoshop tutorial (Thanks Foo!) on using line art for trying out paint schemes and have come up with a few alternatives for the zaku.  Here are my current three favorites ...

Light grey & orange:

Light grey & dark blue:

Dark grey & dark blue, aka "Darth Zaku":

I'm planning on using Tamiya acrylics for the armour and alclad II metallics on the shield spikes and thrusters.  I'm leaning very strongly towards the darth Zaku scheme, possibly with an urban camo pattern to add interest.  I'm going to go for a clean look with just some panel lining.  Hardly very exciting, but hey, it's one of my first mechs.  Any thoughts / preferences?

Hi All,

This is my first WIP.  You may want to turn back already as ... it's only a practice piece, it's a HG model & it's a seed model (aaargggh!).  I'll admit, it's a pretty ugly thing, but I'm another 'returning to modeling' type and am doing a few HGs as practice before starting on some MGs, and would appreciate any feedback & tips on offer.

My plan so far is to build it pretty much out-of-box, with possibly a few modifications as decoration as I go along.  This will probably only amount to sticking on a few styrene bits and filling unsightly holes with putty and maybe a few extra panel lines being scribed.

I also want to give it a 'custom' paint & decal job which will be better than the horrible white and lilac that it comes in.

Here's the kit snapped together pre-sanding and filling....

Hi Redstar, welcome to the gang.

I'm in the UK also (Swindon, Wilts. to be precise).  I'm relatively new to gundam also, and I don't know of anywhere specific to go to for gundam modelling in the UK.  I can point you in the direction of these guys ... http://www.gundammad.co.uk/  I've ordered a couple of MG kits from them although they are quite expensive.  They attend the AmeCon which is in Leicester (http://www.amecon.org/) in August.  I hope to go, but my wife's due to give birth around that time (twins!) so might not be able to. 

There are some amazing modellers who frequent this forum, so stick around (but read the rules!) and you'll learn a lot.  I've been getting up to speed with Gundam with the aid of a few practice HG 1/100 kits.  They're much cheaper than MG's and you get all sorts via ebay.

Regards,
Ant. 

Hi FilmMkr,

Could you provide some detail on which alclad paints you used on the internals?  I could guess, but I'd like to know for certain!

I run an Iwata revolution also with tamiya paints at a similar PSI, and haven't had that problem.  Are you thinning with IPA or tamiya thinners?  I would suggest you are perhaps not thinning enough.