bigbluesd

Yes, the Explorer is much different but it would at least be a start. I just wish it were in 1/24 or 1/25, my OCD wouldn't let me build it at 1/20. I have only found one diecast Bronco and it was 1/64, if I could find a Ranger from the previous generation I think I could make it work as well, with a new grill they weren't all that different. Scratch building would be fun but I am definitely not capable of what that guy is doing with the Falcon!

On the iPad so I will be brief... I want to tackle building my first car, any ideas as to what I could use as a base? An 89 ranger would make it easy but I haven't seen any kits or resins of this model...

I'm just glad I'm not the only one that feels sometimes like I'm modeling in a Benny Hill sketch. Looks fine to me!

I use both but I suspect that the acrylic paint is the culprit as that is the last thing that sprayed well out of the brush.

Bill, would an air leak cause the kind of problems I described (no output at all except occasional "burps" of paint)?

Before I got my airbrush I rattle canned nearly all of my parts. First thing I'd do is pick the most common color in a kit and mark every part that was this color... then use wire snippers to cut the sprue into sections with all of the like-color parts in each section. A little time consuming up front but after I got that done it would take me 5 minutes to have every piece of the kit painted. The only downside was that there is so much wasted paint and it was hard getting detailed parts to look good because of the amount of paint I was throwing on them. Also some hard to reach spots (like the corners of an interior tub) were hard to get without drowning the rest of the part in paint. Also orange peel on all parts was a constant when I did it that way.

Duplicolor in all shapes and sizes seems to craze like mad for me. Your gloss looks good in that photo, I always use just enough DC to get the job done and then not a lick more for fear of messing it up. I would give you feedback on the other question but I'm not good enough at this stuff yet to make my opinion worth listening to!

Bill, that workflow sounds really good and that is something that is very important to me because I only get an hour and a half or so at a time to work on these things. It usually takes me a couple of painting sessions to get basic color on all of the parts when you factor in setup time, clean-up time and breakdown time.

No, I don't strain it but I do mix the everloving #$&^$#* out of it before shooting. I think I am going to buy the Paasche set. I also saw this Badger model on eBay for like $10, does anybody know if it would be useful for general use? http://www.badgerthayer.com/350.html EDIT: Okay, I ordered the Paasche VL on Amazon for $65 and I think I will try and grab one of the 350s as well since it is so dirt cheap. For $75 I will have two airbrushes, one double action and one external single action. I'm a little hesitant about the siphon action but I figure the big benefit is that I can keep a few bottles premixed with my most used colors (aluminum, satin black, etc.) and use the cup for the one-offs. Thanks for all of the feedback!

I didn't read every post on this thread, so somebody may have beat me to it, but here is a contribution: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O8D0IC/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Ignition protected, 235 CFM and only $30 each. My custom built booth runs two of them powered by a PC power supply that is housed underneath the booth. Not exactly quiet but I have no concerns about melting my skin off if I get too heavy with the fumes.

Follow-up question since I am looking at a Paasche VL set on Amazon at the moment... the cup that comes with some of these sets, it looks like a gravity feed cup that you can use instead of the siphon cups, does it work the same way?

I thought the same thing, I like the idea of a siphon feed because changing colors seems so instant and effortless. Is the cleaning/maintenance any more difficult with this type of brush?

All of the seals that I can see are O-rings and are external to the paint flow (on the outside of all threads), could these still make it clog? They appeared to be in good condition until I l got frustrated in the middle of all this and soaked the nozzle in mineral spirits for about an hour, that killed the O-ring on the nozzle. Are there ever any kind of seals on the inside of the airbrush body (in areas that are inaccessible?)

I'm at the end of my rope and I need some help. I bought this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004KNFOLS/ref=oh_details_o00_s02_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 at the end of last year along with a small compressor. At first it was great and I was convinced that airbrushing was the way to go (especially since I was getting tired of all the waste of rattle cans and the cumbersome brushing of small parts). I did one model car with the airbrush and it went really well, no real problems to speak of. Fast forward to my second car though and it's a nightmare. The airbrush will not consistently shoot paint, period. I have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and everything appears to be immaculate. I can even shoot water through it onto a CD and get a nice fine mist, but as soon as I put any paint (regardless of how thin I make it) it just stops spraying. I can turn the pressure up to 45 (I have been going around 20) and get occasional spurts of paint but it just won't spray continuously no matter what I try. The needle does not appear to be damaged, nor does the nozzle (as far as I can tell, that booger is tiiiiiiny). It's a 0.3mm nozzle. I am assuming that "buy a better airbrush" is the answer, is that right? Would I be better to buy something with a .35mm or .4mm nozzle, will that help this problem? Dropping $100 on an airbrush right now is out of the question, should I be okay buying a used Iwata or Paacsh off of eBay, or are they usually junk if used?

Sounds like a bit of a dog but might be fun to play around with... Thanks!

For the love of god, please share! That s the only way I will ever be able to cope with buying one!

Just won this bad boy on the 'Bay, curious if anybody was familiar with this kit and had any thoughts on it? Can it be built into a decent model? Googling didn't pull up much on it.

How well does that stuff work? I saw it in the grocery store the other day and was tempted to buy it instead of the other but assumed it wouldn't work nearly as well.

Beautiful... Where did you get the stool? One of those would look sharp in my model/music cave!

Cato, I prefer yours to mine!

I ordered some 1/8" aluminum tubing from eBay, will post after it gets here and let you know how it went! One more question, what do you guys normally use to cut aluminum tubing? I have a small hacksaw but I don't know if it will be too aggressive for such a small part.

Is there any trick to bending the aluminum or copper without it creasing or puckering? Heat I guess?

Any ideas on how I can make a better side exhaust tip for my Shelby? The exhaust on these cars to me is a signature, I really don't want to have the solid-core kit piece. I would normally drill it out but with the turn in the pipe at the tip I don't see how I could do it to any significant degree without destroying the pipe in the process. Also, to add a little challenge... I don't have any hobby shops in my area that carry scratch building supplies so any scratch building needs to be with repurposed materials.

Very nice, love that shade of blue! What did you polish with?

Paint looks phenomenal, what did you use?