peteski

Toy collectors like wheels which can roll freely. Scale model builders glue their wheels on so the models are static displays, and don't roll off of a table by accident.

Did someone say "tweezers"? Yes, those are quite important for handling photoetched parts, and for model building in general. I have accumulated a decent collection over the years.

I cringe every time I see people ask those "acrylic or enamel" questions. Long time ago, some uneducated modeler started this, and it caught on. Quick overviews:There are 2 main type of paints: lacquer and enamel. The liquid part of those paints is called solvent. It could be a very strong organic solvent (like acetone), something milder (like some type of alcohol), or even water. Or some combination of multiple chemicals. The other parts of paint are binder and pigment. Pigment is the color, and binder is what contains the pigment and makes it stick to the painted surface (it is the body of the paint). Binder can be many different things. Acrylic, polyester, epoxy and other resins can be binders. The difference between lacquer and enamel is the way they dry or harden. Lacquers dry by evaporation of the solvent. Once the solvent evaporates, the binder hardens and the paint (lacquer) is dry. This process can take from an hour to multiple days. But the lacquer (its binder) can be redissolved at any time by soaking it in the solvent. Enamels also initially dry by evaporation of the solvent. But that is only the first stage of the drying process. Once the solvent evaporates, enamel paints then keep hardening by a chemical reaction, which changes the properties of the binder. Once that process takes place, the enamel (unlike lacquer) cannot be redissolved using the solvent. The question which is often asked by modelers is whether the paint utilizes organic-based solvent (stinky paints) or some milder solvent like alcohol or water (those have low odor which many modelers prefer nowadays). But using "acrylic" to specifically identify the low odor (or water-based) paints is plain incorrect. There are lots of stinky paints (organic-solvent) which use acrylic resin as the binder. On the opposite end, stating that enamel=stinky is also wrong. There are many water-based enamels (actually most water-based paints are enamels). So the actual question should be: is that paint organic-solvent or water based? Or to greatly simplify it: stinky or low-odor?

That LePage stuff is just gel-type Super Glue (CA glue) - it says so right on the bottle. Is it really any better than all other gel-type CA glues?

I have owned a Badger 200 for over 30 years and I would never soak it in anything! The air valve has rubber seals which will be ruined by things like lacquer thinner! This AB has a very easy access to all the paint passages (which is the only areas you need to clean out). On the bottom you can pull of the paint bottle or paint cup, then unscrew and remove the needle, then on the front you can unscrew the tip protector and the nozzle (those are 2 separate pieces) . At this point you gained full access to all the pain passages. Just don't lose any of the nylon washers. I would then use pipe cleaners with lacquer thinner or acetone to clean out all the paint passages and inside of the nozzle. Cotton swabs can shed fibers which will get stuck in the threads of the airbrush body (where the nozzle screws in). I would also use a pipette with the solvent to flush out all the debris loosened by the pipe cleaner. I have done such a thorough cleaning only about half a dozen times in those 30 years. But I don't use water-based acrylics and I thoroughly flush the airbrush with lacquer thinner after each use. One thing I want to mention is that you might need a fresh nylon Teflon seal (the white ring) for the back part of the nozzle. The original one gets compressed and it might not tightly seal the air passage from the paint passage, and the AB will not spray well. I bought few spares after the first time I cleaned it and realized what the problem was after reassembly.

I agree 100% More info is needed for an accurate assessment.

There are vacuum pickup tools available for this type of work, but someone recently mentioned to just place a tiny ball of sticky substance at the end of a tootpick. It might have been Playdough. Then use that to pick the lens up and position it in the bucket. I use similar method. I found a roll of adhesive-only 3M tape (basically it is like just Scotch tape's adhesive on a transfer paper, without the clear. I make a small ball of the adhesive and place that on the end of a toothpick.

I have no problems when I swirl the bottle for a while. The airbrushed paint is thin, so it is easy to re-mix the metallic particles back into the liquid. Then, like I mentioned, I blow the "stale" paint out until it comes out properly mixed. But I agree, this would not work with a gravity-fed airbrush and a paint cup.

I assumed that TJ was telling us that his RAM seems to be only around 50% utilized. If he only uses his Win 7 computer for some simple tasks (like browsing the Web and streaming music) and not for some really fancy CAD apps, or serious video games, then he should be fine with what he has. My thought is that there is no need to upgrade anything unless there is a real need or a reason for it. If his 2Gb is only half utilized, adding another 6Gb will not be very helpful. A defrag is a good idea, but the cooling fan running fast while doing Windows updates is a good sign that Windows updates is the likely culprit. Sunning some sort of cleanup program would also likely improve the performance.

There are couple of active threads related to your question: Positive one: And a not so positive one:

In my experience with vacuum metalized plastic parts, the process is to first coat the parts with a glossy clear lacquer. Then it goes into the metalizing chamber where a very thin layer of aluminum gets deposited on the glossy clear. That results in a chrome-like silver finish. Sometimes at that point the parts are considered ready, but the metallic finish is rather fragile. So, in most cases there is another clear lacquer coat applied overt the shiny metallic surface. That makes the "chrome' a bit more durable. That final coat can also be tinted with a color dye which gives the final color. It can be any color like gold, red, blue, etc. That is how the colored metallic finishes are produced. And you're right - lots of items can be vacuum metalized not just plastic model parts.

You would probably have a reason to worry is you used water-based paints. But with organic-solvent-based paints (the stinky type), you worry about nothing. This is not a 2-part paint which will harden (by chemical reaction) inside your airbrush. You should be fine leaving it in the airbrush. I use a siphon-fed airbrush with a glass paint bottle on the bottom. When done with one coat I close the needle to stop the paint flow, but blow the air through it (to blow the paint off of the tip). When getting ready for the next coat, I gently swirl the airbrush around for a while to mix the pigment which might have settled down to the bottom of the bottle (not need to do that with clear lacquer). Then I open the needle and spray onto some unwanted surface (like a paper bag), to make sure the paint flows smoothly again, then spray the next coat onto the model.

I have a similar idea, using vinyl gutter downpipe. I will cut the downpipe into pieces long enough to hold the Evergreen bags, then glue then together into something like 2 X 4 or 3 x 3 array of "tubes". I will also need to use a flat piece of plastic (or wood) for the bottom. I bought the downpipe few years ago but haven't found the time to actually work on this low-priority project.

That is not what you want Greg for "chroming" plastic or resin kit parts. I explained that in my earlier post. You need vacuum metalizing equipment. If you want to go the electroplating route, even Micro-Mark (and other companies) sell setups for hobbyists. But not with real chromium (because that plating process requires some really nasty and poisonous chemicals). Chrome plating also requires undercoating of copper, and possibly nickel (to get that smooth mirror-finish). Just like 1:1 metal car parts to.

That is probably normal. Windows update process can be really hard on the CPU (which will make it run hotter). If you were to bring up the task manager (performance) while the fans are running fast, and show the CPU usage graph, it will likely show high percentage of utilization. Your PC also has a CPU fan (mounted over the CPU heat sink). That could also be clogged up with dust. The power supply (in the rear of the case) could also have another fan which might be partially clogged.

Greg, not too long ago (in another section of the forum) we were discussing this same subject. I'll quote my post there: To get familiarized with the terms and processes, some good info on both plating and metalizing (which is the process we want for plastic model parts) is in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallizing We don't even know for sure (or do we?) whether either Dale or Kystom Khrome own the vacuum metalizing equipment, or have it done by an outside company. While I have no actual info, I suspect that the cost of the equipment might be a bit much for an individual to acquire, and start a business catering to modelers. If the equipment was cheap and easy to use, why would all of the current companies which offer this service to modelers outsource the metalizing to an outside company?

Optiplex is a desktop computer - no batteries (well except the little coin cell). What does "acts like it is overheating" exactly mean? As for the number of processes running, that is not unusual, however the longer you own your computer the more cruft (programs and utilities which run in the background, and sometimes spyware) get installed and run in the background, slowing things down. The Windows 7 update process itself has some known bugs where it will hog the computer slowing everything down. If you aren't computer literate, it might be the best to find a local computer geek (hopefully some friend) who could clean it up for you.

<Old man's voice> Well, I remember when my computer had 256KB of memory. I upgraded it to 1MB, then all the way up to 4MB! </old man's voice> The amount of the memory (RAM) has nothing to do with overheating. The cooling fans and heat sinks are likely plugged up with dust and lint. And if you have lots of programs pegging out the CPU utilization, that will make the CPU produce more heat (as it runs at full clock speed). If cooling is compromised, it will run hot. Depending on what programs you are running, and how many of them are running at the same time, 2 GB maybe be plenty. Especially since only half is being used. If you were constantly running at 80% utilization then I would start worrying about it. Also, where exactly are you getting the statistics? Is your computer is also running slow or is sluggish? The problem might not be low memory. There might be too many programs sucking up the CPU cycles. There are all sorts of cleanup programs available out there. Or a full reinstall of the OS would clean things up.

I can think of 3 reasons: 1. Laziness 2. Complete cluelessness (not realizing that the quoted post can be edited) 3. Total lack of caring about others who will be reading their post (with lengthy quote), and lack of any sort of logical thinking in general. I suspect that #3 is most common reason.

The Tamiya transparent acrylic paints can be thinned with 90% Isopropyl alcohol to extend their drying time. Alcald II makes transparent colors too. But the paint is very thin (designed for airbrushing) and hot (acetone-based). But since the piece is metalized, it might not attack plastic.

Yes, the non-acetone remover should work. But be careful as it might also affect the plastic (just not as aggressively as acetone).

I also started seeing random unformatted loads of thread pages on multiple computers. I use Seamonkey browser and one is Win XP while the other one is Win 7. Yes, going back then forward fixes the problem. Page reload also takes care of the problem. This is what the page looks like when broken. Also note the browser's title bar.

Nice find! That is a great kit! I have one (not yet built). My kit's gold decals are really dull. I'm planning on making a reprint of the gold decals on my Alps printer.

Nice to see you back Thierry! What an awesome build!

Simon, you might be new to this forum, but you are a very accomplished modeler! Excellent model!