robdebie

If you cannot find a sheet from the regular aftermarket decal makers (S27, Shunko, etc) you can order a custom printed sheet at SpotModel in Spain: https://www.spotmodel.com/product_info.php?products_id=54181 Rob

The brand is 'Fein Design Modell', a German brand. The T70 looked very nice indeed! Rob

If you're lucky, the full-size stickers were made by a company specializing in commercial vehicle stickering. If so, vector artwork of those stickers must exist. If you could lay your hands on that vector artwork, you can scale it down 43 times, and you have your decal artwork. Here's a list of custom decal printers, that can do the printing for you: https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/decals.htm#other If the artwork needs work before it can be printed, be aware that those manhours cost money. Here's a custom decal sheet that I had printed recently, to give you an idea of what's possible. Good luck with the project! Rob

I suggest reading some older threads on that subject: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/search/?q=%22custom%20decals%22&type=forums_topic&updated_after=any&sortby=relevancy&search_and_or=or&search_in=titles After the homework, ask yourself whether you want to learn how to do it yourself, or do you want to outsource the job? Looking at the car, you could maybe do the drawing work yourself, but not the printing, since you need white ink to go under all the colors. The only consumer printer that has white is (was) an Alps, but it cannot do the beige / orangy / faded red colors that you need. So you will need to outsource the printing. Also, be aware of the costs, it's probably more than the kit itself. Maybe even a lot more. So make sure you really want these custom decals. Rob

I have a 'working thesis' that solvent glue results in a brittle joint. Our model plastic is 'high-impact polystyrene' (HIPS) that behaves totally different from pure polystyrene, called 'general purpose polystyrene' (GPPS). GPPS is clear, and if you ever dropped a CD case, you know how brittle it is. HIPS has tiny particles mixed in, consider them rubber particles. These particles stops cracks from growing, and create a totally different material behaviour. You can drop a car body, and nothing will happen, most of the time. I have the impression that in a HIPS to HIPS joint, made with solvent glue, the contact area is pure polystyrene, since the rubber particles are not dissolved. So you get HIPS-GPPS-HIPS. And that GPPS layer creates possibilities for breaking the joint. It seems that freezer cold does the trick, and my own method of using ultrasound. Rob

I had a similar problem, and I discovered a method to go from photo 1 to photos 2 and 3: It started out as an attempt at fast & thorough paint stripping, but as a side effect the whole kit disassembled itself! The process is described on my website: https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/ultrasonic.htm I haven't heard of other trying it, so I cannot report more user experiences. No guarantee it will work on your kit! Rob

Agreed, cover your master with one final layer to achieve a uniform texture, otherwise there's the risk of imperfections showing up after mold-making. Here's a bomb that I did, as an example. I used Mr Surfacer from a spray can, but basically any paint / primer will do. Peteski is right that platinum-cure silicone rubber is sensitive to some materials and then will not cure. But I never had that happen with cured (!!) paint. Rob

Those Monogram 5 and 9 spoke wheels are actually very nice underneath the chrome, and even better when you sand down the backs so the spokes are opened up. I was quite surprised. One strange thing was that the 9-spoke wheels were a tad smaller: 17.5 instead of 17.7 mm. This meant that my 5-spoke tires were a loose fit, I could fit two layers of paper between the wheel and tire. Rob

I have an aircraft model with similar problems. I concluded that only one filler worked: thin superglue. All others did a bad job of actually filling the hole. I explored a few pinholes with a needle, and found a cavity (air bubble) beneath each one of them. The photo shows how all the pin holes that I found and opened up with a needle. If you look closely in the canopy coaming area, you can see some of the pinholes as they appeared originally under Mr Surfacer. The other side of the model was even more badly affected. Here you see all the holes filled with superglue and sanded flat, ready for another coat of Mr Surfacer. I used a needle or a pointy knife blade to apply a small quantity of glue to each hole, preferebly leaving a slightly domed amount of glue, to allow for shrinkage. It's a lot of work, but it can be solved. Good luck! Rob

Ha, I did nearly exactly the same! But I have plans to make a 3D CAD design of the headlights, and have them printed. And like you I closed the louvers. For the rest the model is far from being finished. I've rebuilt the floor plate, the Heller underside is fantasy. And I've widened the air tunnels leading to the radiators - you might see it in the above photo if you compare it to your model. By the way: my kit fits fine with a few tweaks here and there. Like the sawcut down the middle of the lower nose part; the sawcut alone was enough to solve the fit problem of that part. It's not Tamiya, that's for sure! Rob

I don't want to spoil your party, but I don't think these castings look that good. I see a surface structure that maybe can be described as 'pebbly'. And I recognise it from my own castings: after using the mold for 20 castings, I get the same. The castings still releases fine, no problem, but all 20+ castings have a surface structure that looks a lot like what I see on the hoods, especially the left one. Since I noticed the problem, I made 'counters' on my molds, to retire them after 20 castings. Works fine. You can sand it off, yes, but that's not a nice job. I would ask the manufacturer whether the masters are the cause, or the molds. Rob

Nice, yours is the first I've seen with headlights! I've added this thread as a link to my Airfix/Heller Peugeot 905 review page: https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/905review.htm Rob

Here's my Monogram ‘85 Elliott Coors T-Bird chassis, that I did many years ago (20+ maybe, oops..). I painted mine after total assembly, so there would not be gaps between the parts. But I remember waisting a lot paint on it while airbrushing the tubes of the rollcage. If I were to do it again, I would use a glossier paint. The rather flat color is Humbrol 128, supposedly satin. Rob

You're close: it's Kurzheck (short rear) and Langheck (long rear). Maybe the designations were shortened to 'Kurz' and "Lang' but that sounds a bit un-German to my Dutch ear. Rob

If you're looking for the one on the right, I have one extra. PM me if interested. Rob

The earliest version of Revell paint was indeed produced by Humbrol, see the tin below. But that did not last long, I would guess from 1980 on, Revell produced the paint themselves. With Humbrol getting worse in quality every year (in my perception), I'm starting to like this Revell paint more and more. Quite a few of the range are matched to RAL colors. The pictures are from my Humbrol tin evolution webpage. Rob

Yet another route: apply some Tamiya Extra Thin to the plastic card part, and let it soak in. Do not use it (yet) to glue, it's just to make the part softer and more pliable. Wait a few minutes, then curve the part. I used the same technique to wrap a piece of plastic strip around pullies. It kept breaking beforehand. Rob

Can anyone identify the following two sponsor markings on Hiro Matsushita's Lola T93 at the 1993 Indy 500: 1. on the nose, the sticker directly below the number 15 2. on the rear wing post, the sticker below the STP sticker. I think it looks like a front view of an open seater, but it could also be a faucet! Thanks in advance! Rob

Or a variation on this theme: use Albion brass micro tubing and roll it to a semi-flat shape, using two supports of the right thickness. Roll it on both side to take out a curve. Albion even sells a special tool for this, that you can install in a vice. Rob

I've been slooooowly building mine too, and reported all problems that I found here: https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/lc2.htm Here's an overview of what I did on the body so far: Rob

Another vote for working in layers! Sometimes it helps to 'lock' the layer with the bitmap, since without locking, the 'pen' of your own artwork layer wants to follow the bitmap that you want to copy. I never understood that behaviour though. And another CorelDraw tip: try different view settings under the 'View' menu. Sometimes the 'Wireframe' setting makes for far easier drawing on top of a bitmap. It makes your artwork lines clearer, and softens the bitmap that you're copying. One last tip: for everything that I draw as decals, I set the line thickness to zero. Just use the 'fill color' to create the letters. Otherwise your artwork will look just a little 'fatter' than the original. And if you scale artwork, the line thickness (if not zero) will often not scale accordingly, leading to other surprises. In short, always set the line thickness to zero, for everything you draw. Rob

I've been using CorelDraw for some 25 years now, and my methods are 100% identical to Peteski's. This is the way to do it. One thing that I haven't read explicitly in this thread: the signs that you want to duplicate are all handpainted. So you will not find a font that matches them 100%. But by changing the fonts to curves, and the manipulating the control points, you can make them look like the handpainted lettering. Here's one example that I made long time ago. It's a data block as painted on a 1939 Fokker G1 fighter. I started with 'VAG Rounded' and modified nearly each letter to make it look like it was brushpainted. I rotated many letters a bit to add some randomness. Still it might look a bit too perfect. CorelDraw isn't easy to start with, but you need to learn only a few things to do your decals. The program can do 100x more, but you don't have to learn all that. Have fun! Rob

Seeing how far off these models are, I would guess they were mastered in the Far East, where no-one knew these cars for real. We're now seeing the same thing with many Trumpeter models (aircraft mainly) that have lots of shape problems. Rob

I tried a different approach. I made a line drawing over a nice straight-from-the-side photo. I put it over the only K3 drawing I know, from an old Scale Models International issue. The fit is mediocre, and especially the 'greenhouses' are rather different. Sigh. Then a smart person pointed out that the drawings for the painting instructructions of the kit were probably derived from the 3D CAD model. So I overlayed my line drawing on that. The wheel positions and wheel openings are quite wrong, the skirt too tall, the front headlights too large, but the rest isn't bad. Especially the greenhouse matches pretty well. Amazing!! It's slowly becoming a case of 'man with two watches never knows the time' Ron, I still have to measure the windows on my kits, hopefully later today! Rob

Yes, sure, I already felt unconfortable doing a sort-of-review in this section. Rob