Chief Joseph

Jeremy, you know what I would recommend. If you want it right, do it yourself

Waterslide decals have a hard time holding on to flat or matte paint-- too many microscopic peaks & valleys that trap air underneath the decal film. Military modelers will apply a gloss coat to the entire model, apply all the decals, then go back over the whole model with a clear flat. If you just have a few small decals, one way to get decals to snuggle down to the flat paint is to paint a small patch of Future floor finish in the spot the decal needs to sit, let it dry for a day or so, and then put the decal down onto the shiny spot. After the decal has set up and dried for another day, go back over it with some a flat clear such as Testors Flat Clear Acrylic. You should be able to apply a couple of very light coats by either brush or airbrush to even out the sheen to match the rest of the paint job.

Got my coveted Fine White primer today, and noticed they had Tamiya weathering sets A to D on the pegboard now. So that's Putty, Primer, Tape, and Weathering Sets. If they'd add the paints and aerosols, we'd be set. They've obviously boosted the price a little on the Tamiya products because they know people are using the 40% coupons to buy them.

Dish washing liquid will remove the normal mold releases, and isopropyl alcohol too.

They go on kit tires just fine. The tires I make in resin and rubber already have correct sidewall lettering on them, but the lettering on the hard white resin tires is easily sanded off if you like.

Hugh, here are a couple of photos that might help illustrate how I make two-part wheel molds: The basic idea is to attach sprue blocks to the tops & bottoms of the wheels and connect the blocks at the bottom with a runner. As you pour resin into one hole, air is pushed out the other hole. Ideally, you would use a third pouring channel that allows the resin to drop to the bottom sprue and fill each cavity from the bottom up, but I'm frugal with my silicone. Alternately, you could forgo the sprue blocks and use a squash mold. But then you'd be wasting resin, making big flash layers in your wheel holes, and throwing out about 25-30% of your castings because of trapped air bubbles.

I've added an additional 25 designs to the original 25 for a total of 50 tire lettering designs! Many factory stock and popular aftermarket tires from the 70's and 80's. Ordering information is up on my website at http://www.fireballmodels.info/wl.htm Full-size Charts showing the different designs are here: http://fireballmodel..._List_Part1.jpg http://fireballmodels.info/images/White_Letter_List_Part2.jpg Thanks for looking!

I was in Hobby Lobby today and they had two of the large cans of Tamiya Gray Surface Primer in the model paint section. There were no prices on the cans, but they should be very affordable with a 40% coupon. If it were the Fine Surface Primer instead of the regular primer, I'd have two new cans of Tamiya primer sitting on my shelf.

Thin the plastic from the inside with a Dremel, but go slowly so you don't melt through. When the plastic is close to scale thickness, use a either a scribing tool or other type of pointed tool to punch a hole through the thin plastic. You want the edges to bend inward just a little around the edges, so that it looks like the metal deformed as the bullet penetrated it, and it's best if the hole is not perfect but rather a little ragged. That's for an entry hole. An exit hole will look a little different, with the torn metal edge coming outward instead. Hope this helps. This is a common technique in military modeling, so you could do a Google search and find more info and tutorials.

LOL, the tire I used for my reference is an actual 1:1 Goodyear Power Cushion redline spare tire from 1969. The Monogram 1968 & 1969 GTO kits came with wheels that scaled out to about 15.5" in real life, so I made some proper 14" scale wheels and tires so that I could make models of the GTO's I have owned. I have all kinds of mods for that kit to turn it into a proper 1969 GTO. From left to right, the Monogram GTO wheel & tire (with a vinyl redline), my scratchbuilt G78-14 with "proper" 14" wheel, and my "proper" 15" wheel on a Monogram Radial GT tire (with my lettering decals): Here is the tread on that G78-14: The redline is machined into the sidewall so it can be painted.

FWIW, I have a 1/24 scale G78-14 redline that I patterned after the original spare from my 1969 GTO. It has photoetched tread detail, much like my earlier hand-built tires but in this case the tread pattern is much, much more detailed. It is not in production. I think it might be too tall in sidewall height for 1/25 scale, unless it were going on a big car. I have also been messing around with cut-vinyl redlines decals in accurately-scaled 3/8" width, but they are a booger to apply because they are so thin. They look perfect once they are on a tire, though.

The front tires of the "real" Tumbler are also the same tires as on the Batpod, 'cause it's the "same" vehicle. So theoretically, the Tumbler kit's front tires should be virtually the same as those on the 1/25 Batpod kit. The Batpod kit is a lot cheaper...

Were you spraying it onto a primed surface? I use Wicked Colors a lot and it only works over a primer. On bare plastic it'll bead up and run all over.

Silicone molds actually don't require a mold release, but it will usually extend the life of the mold. You can spray a coat of lacquer paint on the inside of the mold and that will serve as a very good mold release. You can also thin petroleum jelly with naphtha and brush or spray that into a mold (caution, highly flammable!). You'll probably have better luck just not using any mold release at all. You can always dust the inside of the mold with talcum powder to help prevent bubbles, but the powder does not take the place of a mold release. You can usually get away with waxing a master before molding it if you are using condensation (tin) cured rubber. Addition (platinum) cured rubber might have a problem curing against the wax; it depends on the particular rubber and the wax. Always do a test with platinum rubber if there is any doubt. Hope this helps a little. You can do a google search for these topics and find all kinds of information.

Hey Jay, I know someone who may have an interest in getting your conversion body cast in resin. He's the same guy who did your wheels, LOL!

It's just amazing that you were posting a question here about decals about 15 minutes after I sent you an email reminding you that I had your artwork ready... and then a few days later you replied to my email and said you had forgotten all about them. You are absolutely correct... you are not obligated to buy anything from anyone, and I am not obligated to sell anything to anyone. Case closed.

Yep. Just send me an email with your needs.

Here's how I do it: after I spray the body or part, I leave it alone for a while to go tack-free before moving it to the dehydrator (or hot box). If I try to move wet paint, every bit of lint & dust around me gets stuck to it.

Soooo.... you are are trying to print decals from the low-resolution sizing proofs I emailed you after I spent a couple of hours researching and drawing your decals. So I'm guessing the check's not in the mail, either. LOL. Attention everyone: I now have 1/25 scale F-Bomb Camaro decals available. Anyone can have them except my man Clayton here.

Hi All, Here's a project I was working on for myself and thought I'd make them available to everyone. White Letter Tire decals. Initial batch of designs is 25 different brands/styles: Sample 1/24 decals applied to Monogram tires: I'm making them available as individual sets with enough decals to do 5 tires. PM or email for pricing info. If you don't see the particular lettering you want, drop me a line and I can probably make it. Thanks for looking!

Sounds like you either have a reaction between the paint and primer or you have a texture caused by your spraying technique. Was the red a TS spray color or a PS spray color? TS colors are meant for styrene models, PS are not. If it's a TS color, did you hold the can too far away from the model as you painted it, or did you move the can too quickly as you sprayed? Here's an article that might help you understand what is going on and how to fix it: http://www.tamiyausa.com/articles/feature.php?article-id=35 Tamiya makes probably the best hobby paints on the planet, so you should be able to get good results if you follow their instructions.

My opinion is that if they aren't at least a semi-active participant on the forums, or on Facebook, or some other version of social media, then they aren't really that serious about selling. Lots of guys like the idea of selling hobby items but they don't realize how much work it actually is to sell hobby items.

I was thinking about UV-cured paint for model car bodies the other day when reading the recent urethane thread. UV-cured ink has been around in the screen-printing biz for years now and the UV-cured nail polishes are starting to be a common thing. A small UV oven would be simple to build and not that expensive but the lack of proper paints is a problem. It's definitely something that could be adapted to modeling.

No. Something blew up in the hand-off to the PayPal website for the payment authorization. Is the item still in your shopping cart?

Yep. I hope that this discussion has caused some guys to re-think the way they use 2-part paint and if they've been a little cavalier with the safety, they'll take extra precautions. Maybe this thread should be a sticky.