ctruss53

Attention Shapeways sellers! Please sell your parts somewhere else. Etsy, Ebay, or your own website. Shapeways is a ripoff. Your part might only cost $8. But after Shapeways is through with me that part costs $22 or more. I refuse to buy on Shapeways.

Please clean up the top post. There are many dead links. Altered States Models - http://www.alteredstatesmodels.com/ dead American Industrial Truck Models (AITM) - http://www.aitruckmodels.com/ dead Big Donkey Resin - http://www.bigdonkeyresin.com/ dead Billbozo Decals - http://www.bilbozode....com/index.html dead B-N-L Resins - http://www.b-n-lresins.com/ dead Competition Resins - http://www.compresin...1597/page/45029 dead Crazy Scale Auto Parts - http://crazyscaleautoparts.cybrarygoddess.com/ dead Dirt Modeler - http://www.dirtmodel...ute=common/home dead Firebird Designs - http://firebird-designs.ecrater.com/ dead futurattraction - http://www.futurattraction.com/index.html dead Owencraft - http://www.owencraft.com/handle.html#index dead P & P Resin Works - http://www.ppvintage....com/index.html Lands on Volvo haha Scale Modeling by Chris - http://www.scalemodelingbychris.com/ dead Scale Repros Plus - http://www.scalereprosplus.com/index.php dead Spaulding Trading and Shipping - http://www.stsmodeltrucks.com/ dead TDR Innovations - http://www.tdrcatalo...vlet/StoreFront dead Whoopie Kat Decals - http://whoopiekatdecals.com/ dead Wildhare Models - http://www.wildharemodels.com/

Never heard of them. Look like nice metallics. I would buy a box of plastic spoons and try them out. It says 2:1 with their reducer. Start there and see what you think.

This is exactly it. I always find 5 ways to do something and jumble them all together into my own thing.

If there was only one way to do everything this forum wouldn't exist. haha

There is no such thing as waiting too long. And the longer you wait, the more the finish cures and the harder it gets. I don't wait hours. But that is probably because I apply less paint than Steve does. I build up my primer in very light coats. And since the coats are light, they are dry to the touch in 15 minutes. So I'll apply 3-4 very light primer coats, 5-10 minutes apart. This way they are partially cured and can kind of stick together. After that I wait 1 - 2 days before I apply paint. If I am in a hurry, I'll apply paint the next day, but I try to give the primer two days. Then I also apply the paint in very light coats. I only wait 7-10 minutes between coats of paint, but again, I am applying it very lightly. I add as many light coats as it takes to get the color nice and even with as little paint as possible. usually 3-5 light coats. Then I wait at least 48 hours before I clearcoat. And then clearcoat, I apply clear in light coats as well, to begin with. I apply a few very light coats 5-7 minutes apart. Then I apply 2-4 heavier wet coats, 10-15 minutes apart. And once clear is on there, I wait at least a week before I'll wet sand it. But here is where I might do things really different. After a week goes by and I am ready to wetsand, I put time in between the sanding stages too. I'll start at 2000 or 3000 grit depending on how bad the orange peel is. I'll wet sand the whole body. Then I let it sit overnight to cure some more now that the "skin" is missing. The next day I'll wetsand with 5000 or 6000, again depending on the surface. I'll sand the whole body and then let it sit overnight again to cure. The next day I'll wet sand with 12000. And after I'm done sanding the whole thing, I'll let it sit overnight again. The next day I use rubbing compound. Then the next day I'll use polishing compound. Then the final day I'll apply Mequires Scratch-X and then wax it. I learned to put time in between all the steps from a guy I see at model shows. He is always winning best paint. His finishes are always flawless.

I am of the opinion that you should never sand during the paint process unless there is junk in the paint that you need to remove. Apply your primer. Only sand it if there is junk in it. Apply a little more if needed after sanding out the junk. Then apply your paint. Again, only sand it if there is junk in it. And if I know I am using a clearcoat, I apply the color coats very light. Build up the paint slowly and as evenly as possible. And stop as soon as the color is evenly applied with as little paint as possible. Then when you apply the clearcoat. Apply the first 2-3 coats very lightly. Slowly build up the clearcoat. Then apply a couple more final clearcoats that are heavier. Put them on wet so you can see the gloss. I usually only do 1-2 final wet coats for race cars. And I'll do 3 or even 4 final wet coats for show cars. Then I do all my wet sanding and polishing at the very end. But everyone does this different. This is what works for me. And it works consistently. So I stick with it.

If you get junk in your paint, stop where you are at and let it cure. Then wet sand to remove the junk. If you apply more paint over the junk you only magnify the problem.

Oh, wait. Getting that link from Splash Paints, I found this. Whitest White. https://www.splash-paints.com/product-page/whitest-white

I just looked back and saw your post about how you want a really bright white. If this is the case, and you are using an airbrush, I would suggest Frozen White from Splash Paints. https://www.splash-paints.com/product-page/frozen-white Splash paints work well on Tamiya primer. But you have to apply the paint in very light coats. Splash paints are kind of "hot" so if your first coat or two are too heavy, they can craze the plastic. And Splash paints cure to a matte finish, which requires a clearcoat. I use Mr Super Clear from Mr Hobby. Another tip if you airbrush the paint on. You can take your white primer and add just a little bit of pink or light grey primer to the mix just to tint the primer ever so slightly. This will help you see where you applied the paint. While I prefer white primer under white paint, it is sometimes hard to see whats painted and whats not.

Here, I actually just started a fillers discussion yesterday. I came to the conclusion that a CA with some filler powder in it is worth a shot.

Yes. It actually works very well. But it is very stinky. So be prepared for that if you use it in your home.

Tamiya acrylics take too long to dry??? Their flat acrylics dry within an hour. Their gloss acrylics dry in a couple hours.

I always heard that CA was harder than plastic so it was difficult to work with to fill in seams. I gave it a try last night. There were some low spots where I used Tamiya putty and it shrunk. I dabbed in some thick CA. Gave it 15 minutes to cure. Then sanded it down. Yes it was harder than the plastic around it so it was a little challenging to feather it out. But going into the work knowing this might happen and taking steps to fix it, worked pretty well. I am going to buy one of the fillers recommended above to add to the CA and give that a shot. Ace, if I ever need to do bulk filling, I will definately check out West. Knowing your background I understand that you have done the work and know those products are probably best.

If they are too thin you could apply a clearcoat.

If it is a race car and has a lot of decals I don't even use paint. I just use white primer and then gloss coat that. If you need a bright white and have an airbrush, Splash has a great Frozen White that is very bright. MCW also has a generic commercial white paint. If you need an off-white, Tamiya make Championship White, I think it is called, in a spray can. They also have a basic white spray paint. As for base coat, use white primer.

That is pretty affordable. Roughly how much volume is a poind of those microballoons. I mean is it like a cubic foot?

This might be worth a try. I'll have to do some microballoon searches though.

That is the stuff I tried. Very smelly.

How can CA glue be any good for a filler? It cures so much harder than the plastic surrounding it. I have filled seams with CA before and it was a struggle to sand smooth. At least in my limited experience. I had a feeling sprue goo had a limited effectiveness. When I putty, I sand and shape after curing. Then I primer to check for smoothness. It it needs touchups, I sand off the primer in those areas before I reapply. I really like what I am reading about that West product line. But I don't know if I want to commit to buying that much material.

Great info. I have no problems waiting overnight for something to cure. My problem is those modeling puttys require 24 hours to cure, then require multiple coats because they shrink. Meaning a 24 hour cure takes 3 days. I'll have to look up this stuff you suggested. What about smells? Is it really bad? EDIT: Oh man, they don't seem to sell those West products in anything smaller than a lifetime supply. haha

This topic has probably been covered, but I want to compile information on puttys and fillers. As you might have seen from my other thread, I am converting a 5 door hatchback into a 3 door hatchback. I have done a lot of the plastic work. Now I need to fill in the cracks and seams and all that. ---------- So far I tried my standard go to putty. Tamiya grey putty in the tube. I really don't care for this stuff. You only have a few minutes to work with it, but it requires at least a day to cure. Then it always shrinks, so you have to apply it two or three times. And it stinks. Then I tried a little Mr Hobby putty. Same thing as the Tamiya putty. It only allows a few minutes to work with, it takes a while to cure, and it shrinks requiring more than one coat. And it stinks as well. The other problem with both of these modeling puttys is you can't add on material where nothing exists. They are fragile if they are not bonded to something behind them. ---------- I also gave Bondo a try. It had a slightly longer window of time to work with. It fully cured in about an hour. And it did not shrink. But it stinks even worse than the modeling puttys above. It smelled so bad that I can't use it in my room. If I continue with Bondo I'll have to take it out in my garage. ---------- Then I watched some youtube videos and discovered 2 part epoxy putty. All the videos I watched used Tamiya. This Tamiya 2 part epoxy putty gives you 1-2 hours to work with it. It cures in 24 hours. You can build it up as thick as you need it. You can extend parts with it. This putty cures solid and it is strong. This sounded like it was just what I needed. Well, I couldn't find anyone with Tamiya 2 part putty in the US. So the soonest I could get some was weeks out. So I found some 2 part epoxy putty from Green Stuff World that I was able to get in a couple days. I followed the directions. This GSW putty never fully cured. And it didn't even stick to the plastic. It peeled right off. I might have done something wrong, but I am positive I followed directions. --------- I started mixing up some sprue goo. There are a lot of seams though. I am worried sprue goo will take a while to cure. Or it might cure too hard and be tough to sand it. My sprue goo is Tamiya cement in the orange cap, not the extra thin stuff. And I have a bunch of sprue melted into it. I have probably half a bottle all melted down and ready to use. So, What do you use for putty and / or filler? And if you suggest trying this sprue goo, can you give me any tips or best practices?

I have not tried it yet, but I saw a youtube video where someone put baking powder in acrylic paint so it was textured when applied. They appeared to have really good results. Again, I have not tried it yet, so I am not speaking from experience.

There are not a whole bunch of car kits of 1975 - 1984 subject matter as a whole. Those were dark years for America. haha

Yeah, I have the Tamiya Scriber, and I have a small cone-shaped scribing tool I bought on a Gundam site. But really I use the backside of a dull #11 blade the most often. I have created a plastic template. Once I finish the putty work I'll use it on both sides to try and create these new lines.