GeeBee

Very nice Jonathan, I'll get round to building mine one day ....

I managed to find an older copy on eBay, pretty sure I bought it as it had an article on the Moebius Hudson Hornet, I must admit I do prefer it to the "Other Magazine" but even with the shipping with a subscription, the other magazine doesn't cost me much per year.

I've looked into this before, but the only way you can get it over here is to take out a subscription and have it shipped over, I'd love to have the magazine but the cost is just out of the question, the "Other" magazine used to be easy to find but at lot of the W.H Smiths have stopped putting it on there shelves now, and at least with that one you can get a digital download option.

Finally got all the parts ready for a coat of primer, they can then get sorted so they can be airbrushed in their correct colours, the front wipers arms were so badly molded, I'm going to have to get them out of another kit until the replacements arrive from Revell, one of the rear parcel shelf support rods broke while clipping it off the parts tree, I've asked Revell if they can supply another, but again, I get pick that part out of another Trabbi kit, the body and body parts have been placed into a clear plastic tub, stops the dust monster attacking it while the rest of the model gets built up, also got the side panels masked up ready for a coat of brown enamel, the instructions say to paint the headlamp reflectors in silver paint, that just wouldn't cut it for me, so they were covered using chrome BMF.

Here's the K&S tool I have, don't use it that often, but when I do, it give a good cut, and of course the end is always true, so no filing is necessary

I suppose it depends on what side of the pond you come from, here in the U.K they are known and listed as Two Part Lacquers.

Use a K&S tube cutter, micromart should sell them

It's a clearcoat lacquer that has two parts, three if you count the thinners,

Only if you use a basecoat to paint your models with, basecoat will dry with a matt finish and will need a couple of coats of clearcoat, otherwise, no, the clearcoat is not necessary .....

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If that's your problem, I would get yourself a bottle of Microscale Micro set, http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MI-1

Just another name for Clear Laqcuer

As your from the U.K, I'll try and answer your question, again what has been said here is correct, there really isn't any need to put a clearcoat over the decals, but if you still want to, I know people who do it, in their eye's it protects the decals, but in all the years I've been modelling I've never felt the need to use any. But if you still want to try the clearcoat, try Halfords clear, I know people that do use it and it doesn't effect the decals, but again it's always best to check on the decals your using, 2 part lacquer should effect the decals either, but using 2K lacquer is a little trickier to use than 1K acrylic lacquer, which is what Halford products are. Anymore questions, please ask .....

Truly amazing, I got fooled into thinking the first photo was of the real thing, that's some serious and stunning scratch building .....

Hasegawa 1966 Beetle, only cost me £12 with the postage

I have been using GS Hypo cement for a number of years, great stuff, has to stickiness your looking for, and does dry crystal clear

Well the paint I'm using is the same that the full size Trabants would have been painted with at the factory, and after watching numerous video's on the production of the Trabant, they did indeed have a very shiny coat of paint when they left the factory, the paint they used was Alkyd based, and was listed as being "Weather Proof" they were only designed for a 3 year life cycle, where as many Trabant's ended up lasting for on adverage 28 years, so no wonder you've seen so many dull looking Trabbi's Many people wrongly think Trabant's are made of fibreglass, I've even heard people say they were made of papier mache, of course these are all incorrect, the Trabant was made of Steel, yes Steel, the stuff most cars around the world are made of, but because the factory were restricted in the amount of steel they could get there hands on, because no country other than Russia and other eastern block countries would supply them with raw materials, they had to use what they could, and Duraplast was used for the body panels, bootlid, bonnet, door panels (Not door frame), front & rear wings (Outer Only), and roof panels were made of it, Duraplast being a mixture of Phenolic resin and wool or cotton fibres. Trabants were used in Motorsport, the factory even had it's own Motorsports department, and transformed the 601 into the P800 RS, so making a model of it isn't such a bad idea and wouldn't disintegrate as you suggested. Here a photo of the Steel Monocoque body for the Trabant, of course the roof panel is made of Durplast and is bonded on at the factory, but the frame underneath is steel. Trabant P800 RS (Factory Car)

Unless your using resin or white metal .....

Welcome Aboard, you'll find a few members on here from Ireland .....

Tell me about it, I'll get the hang of airbrushing one day ....

Yes, bad for you though, almost 1.40 Euro to the Pound, but your only getting 71p for one Euro at the moment, the paint was costing me close to £15 a can last time I ordered it, this time I can 4 cans with shipping from Germany for £40

I think I left a comment on your build about the side panels being too recessed, how about using the rear windows as a template and cut the panels out of the same thickness styrene sheets, paint them the same colour as the body then fix them in place with some clear epoxy ..... As I have 3 more saloons and 6 more of the Universals, although 2 of them are the 25 years of the fall of the Berlin wall, so only one of them might be built, I will build a van version of the Trabant, I'm just going to order some more of the original Trabant paint from Germany, as the price has come down and the pound to the Euro exchange rate is pretty good at the moment.

This one has been sitting in a plastic box since have the paint stripped off, it wasn't until I finished the 601S saloon, I came to clean out the spraybooth and clean out the filters, but the green paint that was all over the front of the filter just wouldn't come off, usually when I spray using celluose or acrylic lacquer, the over spray just comes off with the vacuum, but the Trabant wasn't budging, so before renewing the filter to spray the Tamiya Fiat 500 I was going to start, I thought I would at least get some green paint on the little Trabbi. I decanted the paint from the aerosol into a glass jar, after decanting this paint in the past, I've learnt only to decant what you need for the job, as even if the jar is sealed the paint will still start to skin over and in a few days the paint has gone like jelly, very strange .... I used the same airbrush, set to the same pressure, I did absolutely nothing different, yet this time the paint came out so much better,in fact this time I don't even think it needs to be wet sanded, just a good polish and I think that's all it will need. These photo's are as they came out of the spraybooth, Small parts mounted on either wooden cocktail sticks or spring clamps ready for primer and top coat

I'm pretty happy with the results I get from using Alclad aluminium

It's not just a U.K thing Shay, and I only mentioned the U.K, not to tug your chain, but as the original post, the U.K was mentioned, the prohibited articles are pretty much worldwide standard, with liquids like paint, thinners, etc, it's all to do with the flashpoint of the paint, or liquid being shipped, which is why waterbased acrylic is fine to send through the post. Years ago when we had surface mail, i.e it went on a boat, it was o.k to send things like paint, thinners etc, but even if you send stuff inland, say from Birmingham to the North of England, chances are the package will more than likely end up being sent by air, in the hold of an passenger carrying aircraft, which is why you struggle to have paint shipped from a hobby shop even here in England, companies like U.K mail will handle packages like that, as all there packages are moved by road. Some companies like DHL will carry paints, as they use there own aircraft, which don't carry passengers, the Trabant paint I ordered from Germany was shipped using there service.