The main techniques for applying decals.

In previous my posts on this blog I have already wrote about how to glue different model parts, and you can read how to remove paint and chrome from a model and best method to remove old paint from a model.

Today we will talk about Different and basic technique for applying decals to our models.
So lets go!
For Tricky Decals - Decals that seem to not to want to lay down can be coaxed into doing so with the following technique. WARNING - this is tricky - if you aren't careful you can make a big mess. Lift up the decal and apply a small amount of liquid cement to the model's surface with an old brush. Blow the decal down with your breath or use a light single stroke with a brush.
DO NOT TOUCH THE DECAL AGAIN!
The glue will melt the decal thus adhering it to the model. If you are careful this coes out great. If you touch the decal while the glue is setting it will smear like paint - the decal at this point it melted and until it dries is very susceptable to damage. Once it dries it will be fine. I've used this on old decals (from 1960's kits) and those tricky
German losenge patterns.
Wait 2-3 days before dullcoating - Always wait at least two days after applying decals before applying a dull or gloss laquer coat. The moisture in the decals will react badly to the laquer if you coat too soon and the decals will wrinkle.

• Cut away all decal film you can do easily. Use a very sharp knife, don't press hard as you don't have to cut the paper.
  

• Put a few drops of Micro Set into the water before you wet the decals.
  

• Wet the decal, but don't let it stay in the water.

• Apply Micro Set to the surface you want the decal.

• Slide it there.

• Press down with a soft brush, blot off excess water.

• Brush on Micro Sol, press down gently.

• Place the kit so the decal lies horizontally (if possible).

• Let dry slightly, apply more Micro Sol, press down. Don't worry about small wrinkles, but try to smooth down large ones. The decal will contract again when it dries.

Repeat about twice.
No guarantees, but this is what works best for me.
(Posted by Urban Fredriksson)

Tamiya Porsche Boxster plastic model car kit review.

(More photos of the final model are bottom of this page.)

Review was made by Trygve Isaacson.

Since I have been eagerly awaited delivery of my red Boxster Arena, I thought I would try a model of the building. I have never seen a pattern in my life, so I wondered if it would all come right. It has. The following are some pointers and advice from the building, with photographs of the process and the final outcome. Regardless of whether you are waiting for your Boxster to be built, or already have, I can definitely recommend creating your own model, which has your colors. It is not very difficult, and it's fun. Let paint for drying time between work sessions; You can probably project in a handful of 1 - or 2 hours.

The kit and supplies

I had seen a reference to the Tamiya Model Kit (# 24187, 1 / 24 scale, 7 cm long) on the Boxster Board, so I www.tamiya.com examined, and they even had a dealer list, which Hobby Shop five minutes from my house. I listened to and noted that, in order for me and you again in a few weeks. When it came, I had no idea what would be necessary to build, but the people in the hobby shop were so friendly to fix me with the necessary project returns. The parts in the model kit actually has specific Tamiya paint figures, but you can find correspondences.

The model kit was 30 dollars. Further information: Testors 3 ounces. Spray paint cans (FS36251 Navy aggressor Gray (primer), 1247 Gloss Black, 2905 Burgundy Red Metallic, which I hope, in the vicinity of Porsche Arena Red Metallic), Testors 1 / 4 ounces. Brush on glossy enamel colors (1145 white license plates, 1147 black for many things, 1111 dark blue for chassis), Testors 1 / 2 ounces. Melting custom brush on colors (silver chrome FS17178 for chrome pipes, 1780 steel for various metallic objects, flat black for FS37078 Cabriopersenning and other objects, Turn Signal in 2723 and 2724 Amber Stop Red Light for brake lights and turn signal), 1 / 2 ounces. Cyanoactrylate (uh, Super Glue), Testors 1 oz. Clear Parts Cement (special invisible adhesive for clear plastic parts), paint thinner, nail file / sandpaper x-acto knives, small wire cutters (to cut the parts from the plastic model forms), tweezers for holding by hand into small pieces painting, kids brush (sizes 2, 0, and 5 / 0). Total cost of the kit and all the supplies to about 65 dollars.

Paint primed

There are essentially three plastic parts with bars that you cut (01 mostly parts to be painted and the other parts usually painted on the outside, and with a clear plastic to left alone or spot-varnished), as well as the body, chrome parts and tires.

The first thing to do is to spray a coat gray primer on the parts, which are painted. Lesson learned: Let it dry! I have the bug starts to paint and paste some of the suspension pieces from the primer was completely dry. If you're going to glue a piece of paint or a paint primer, let it dry overnight. If additional layers of the same color to a piece, to do so may be within 3 hours after the last coat.

Color for the body pack (chassis, body, bumpers, exterior mirrors, and engine intake vents), apply several layers of the desired color. My mistake was to worry about the complete coverage on the first layer, a first in the thick mantle and some chunkiness. It is better to multiple thin layers, repeat until it is completely covered and solid. Be patient.

Once you've got the most important sections of primed and painted body color parts in your car is outside color, and it's all dry, you are ready to start cutting pieces out of the grid, from the grinding, painting and gluing.

Painting the Undercarriage

I do not know why they say blue for the chassis accents, but I follow the instructions. Is it really under blue? The engine and the rear deck are gray metal.

Assembling the Exhaust

The exhaust assembly used metal gray color for the pipes with chrome accents at the terminals. For the exhaust muffler, the color of paint instructions for something that I did not think would be until I tried it: Mix paint with chrome flasher Bernstein. The result is a somewhat tarnished chrome color. It works well for the muffler, which definitely is not too bright chrome. The stem is a separate piece from the parts chrome grille.

Construction of the Suspension Bridge

That is, if you add some complex assembly and bonding. Again, I recommend that you use the paint plenty of time to dry before you stick pieces together. Otherwise, you can use glue with a soft surface, which are not. Patience!

Follow the instructions in regard to certain items that you are not stuck together. Most important is the front suspension, which allows the wheels to turn, because they are not totally glued. You are advised to unplug from between the wheel wells and cross bars, but pivotable.

The rear suspension is the most difficult to stick. Once assembled, the entire assembly is the one on the engine and exhaust, in a large meeting, attaching at least eight points stick. It is difficult, they are all capable of quickly before the glue. I had two points glue that is not quite true, but at the end it is not really significant.

The rotors and calipers are glued to the suspension, but in each rotor is a rubber seal that is not glued. The wheels will attach using this seal, the remaining rollable.

Finishing the lower part of the body

With every piece of suspension in effect, the two pieces meet, which get painted radiator grille, and wheels and tires slide Customs This is a little nerve racking, because you have to pretty hard, and it seems like the suspension will Snap In the pressure. Actually, I had another Glue the rotors before that I was not completely dry when I glued.

Finishing the interior and exterior doors

Once you remove the non-interior pieces from the grid, you can spray all of the interior pieces still on the grid. My interior is black, based on the work easier, I could just spray the whole thing black. Interior with other colors you need to spray the inside of color, and then hand paint on many small black spots in the cockpit.

This is also a good time to paint the hand from top to bottom tonneau pieces and the upper piece until soft. I did not bother painting the hard top, because I am not always. It is also a good time to the various black trim parts as the windshield, brakes and engine intake grilles, and the bumpers and fender flares.

Finally, there's still a fair amount of outside work to be done. The chrome and glass parts like headlights, taillights, windshield, rear-view mirror, exterior mirrors, etc. must be painted and / or glued.

For fear of a permanent error, I chose not to the interior section adhesive or upper body to the lower part of the body. The fit is tight enough to simply good.

For the rear deck Boxster logo, I only have a little black paint on a piece of paper and touched them in the light, the lettering. I did not want to screw it up by brushing up and get it in between the letters.

The stickers suck. I had little success getting them to stop. I have two of the wheel Cap stickers, and participated in a small adhesive for the hood badge stickers and sticker brake light, which is also a little too big.

I left the soft top unglued, so that it lifts from the top down. It is not quite fit flush against the top of the windshield, but it could, if I had decided to permanently glue at the top of the soft.

The final product!

Here are some photos I have a Olympus D-500L digital camera. Click on an image to the photo in full size. (Actually, they are half the size. The originals were 1024x768.)

Plane Models Slideshow 1/72

Cool airplanes.

Model kits form Japan vs USA. Who is better

This is a subjective issue, which makes for discussion
at the net, but rarely solves nothing. As ammunition the next time
around, consider the following questions:

"Serious modelling" is much more popular in Japan than in the United States.
This probably goes back to the roots of Japan-modeling, simulation
Earlier pastimes for the rich, while in the United States it has become
From childhood toys. In any case, Japanese manufacturers are able to
to sell higher end (expensive) materials in their domestic market, and this could
better to justify production processes, such as high-tech part of many forms
, which can produce more sophisticated and better quality (and lower sinkmarks
seams) parts.

- What do you mean by "better"? accuracy? building quality? part match?
Want to be a absolute scale or quality / dollar? Although most
agree that the Japanese are more kits cubes quality debate
in r.m.s shows that they are not significantly better than others
fronts. Japanese kits are usually quite a bit more expensive, as
well, often 2-3x dollars of its competitors, often giving the province made in the USA
packages cost.

- The desire of producers reuse of previously existing forms
difficult to make apples to apples comparisons. Truly new
kits of the U.S. closed the quality gap, but many
The United States is now in production on the basis of sets of forms, which are 10 to 20
years, clearly they are not, and never will be as good as
a more modern set of any organ.

And what are you thinking about? !

How to glue different parts of model

When we build models, we always ask, how to glue together different non-similar parts. Here is some answers for yours questions.

What should I use to glue together dissimilar materials?
There is not one pat answer to this. 2 part epoxies and cyanoacrolates are probably the best. And depending on the application, one could also use contact cement.

What should I use to glue together to metal parts?
This is particularly important to figure builders, since many figures and parts are made from white metal. One of the oldest and probably best ways is to join metal parts is by soldering them. If you don't want to learn to solder, then adhesives can be used. If the parts mate
very snugly, particularly 2 flat surfaces, superglue works very well. For surfaces that do not mate quite as well, gap filling thick superglue is one option. 2 part epoxy is also something that can be used.

What should I use to glue wood to wood?
The best glue for wood is Alphatic resin, carpenters glue. It produces a joint that is stronger than the wood itself usually. [In the US, Elmers is a common brand - the yellow stuff sold in hardware stores, *not* the white glue sold most everywhere else.]

What should I use to glue wood parts to styrene parts?
There are several options. Some suggestions are:
1) You could try using superglue with an accelerator. This would probably have to be thick superglue, unless you are using a very dense wood. Thin superglue would tend to absorbed by the wood like a sponge.
2) 2-part epoxy would probably be best, since it works well at joining dissimilar materials.
3) If the styrene is thick enough to withstand heat, hot glue may work well.

And Gluing Styrene to wood or paper is a pretty typical thing to do when assembling flying model rockets. Tube type plactic cement works fine - that's what Estes recommends. CyA also works. Glue soaking into the wood really isn't much of a problem. I use thin CyA to attach balsa fins to paper body tubes all the time - hold the parts in place and add several drops of CyA. It does soak into the end grain of the balsa and the paper tube so you have to use several drops instead of just one drop like you might between nonporous surfaces, but it works quite well.

It seems that the super glue that I am using glues my fingers better than the model parts, why? :-)
This is quite natural, considering why cyanoacrylate was developed.It was developed for doctors as a way to seal wounds without sutures during Viet Nam. In the field, with the many wounds, if a way existed to quickly seal a wound with out stitches, more people could be saved.
So, biological things such as fingers are joined very well by CA.

Thank you.
materials from (www.ninfinger.org)

Interesting web sites about plastic models.

Hello! Today I want to give you interesting links to model kits sources:
--- Here you can check review of new Miniart Street w/Ruined House diorama review Miniart 36001
--- Here you can find three review of Antonov aircraft on different manufacturers (Roden, Zvezda etc)
--- Here you can check the new Tamiya releases

World War Guns on mules

During World Wars German mountain gun crews transported their guns on animals. The best was the mule. And you can check how this looks on photos.

Is-3 Stalin Soviet Heavy Tank. Model Review. 1/72

Hello friends. Today we will talk about Soviet heavy tank IS-3 "Stalin" by Roden manufacturer.
This will be a review of Roden 701 model kit in scale 1/72

History:

The Iosif Stalin tank (or IS tank, named after the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin), was a heavy tank developed by the Soviet Union during World War II. The tanks in the series are also sometimes called JS or ИС tanks.

The heavy tank was designed with thick armour to counter the German 88 mm guns, and sported a main gun that was capable of defeating the new German Tiger and Panther tanks. It was mainly a breakthrough tank, firing a heavy high-explosive shell that was useful against entrenchments and bunkers. The IS-2 was put into service in April 1944, and was used as a spearhead in the Battle for Berlin by the Red Army in the final stage of the war.

The IS-3, a heavy tank, developed at Experimental Plant No.100, under the leadership of M. F. Balzha in 1944-45, was the latest Soviet tank developed in the course of the Great Patriotic War.
A special commission was formed in 1943 to analyse the reasons for the horrible losses suffered by the Soviet military tank units in the Battle of Kursk (6064 machines were lost during the 38 days of battle). Based on the commission's proceedings and on the IS-2, a new heavy tank, the IS-3 was designed, this tank was considered a breakthrough design. Its hull was welded from rolled steel armour plate with the maximum possible slope on the front glacis plate. The tank was also provided with a cast gun turret, having the shape of a flattened hemisphere, which gave it a more streamlined appearance. The thickness of the frontal armour was increased considerably, owing to a reduction of armour thickness in other less vulnerable areas. Thus, the frontal armour plates of the hull were 120 mm thick, while the front of the gun turret was 230 mm thick. Having the same overall weight after the modifications, the tank had 1.5 times less frontal area. In addition this tank was equipped with a commander's control system for gun turret rotation.
Production was started in May of 1945, and continued up to mid-1946. At the end of the War 29 tanks were produced, with their total production number continuing on to 2311.
The IS-3 was not used in any military action during World War II, but on September 7th 1945 a tank regiment had taken part in the parade of Red Army Units in Berlin, being dedicated to the victory over Japan.

The IS-3 had been modernised by the end of 1950's now being named the IS-3M.
The tank was not considered an export model, although two machines arrived in Poland during 1946, while another machine arrived in Czechoslovakia with the purpose of familiarisation and instructor training. A considerably larger number of tanks were sent to North Korea, which in the 1960's had two operational regiments of IC-3's. 100 IS-3 and IS-3M heavy tanks were delivered to Egypt from 1956 to 1967.

Model Kit review:

So let check the box.

Box isn't so huge.

Number of kit is 701

So look up inside the box. We can see there some molds, resin details, decals and specification.

And now I want to introduce to all of you, my dear readers,

real photo of built this model kit.

Thank you for attention.

How to remove paint from plastic models

Have you ever painted a model and did not like the look of the paint or maybe you have an old model you would like to redo but dont know how to go about it.

Here are a few tips that will help you. When Stipping paint from plastic models you have to be very carefull what you use or you may damage the plastic. The best prouduct I have found to work is called Purple Power or CASTORAL Super Clean Engine Degeaser and it should be avalible at most Retail Auto parts stores such as Auto zone or advance auto. Warning: Besure to test the solution you are using on an unwanted part before putting your model in it to besure it does not damage the model.

Fresh Paint. If you have a model that you have just painted and the finish looks bad and you would like to remove the paint find a container that is big enough to hold the model. Once you have done this you will need to add just enouph Purple power or Degreaser of you choice to completely cover the model. On freshh apint it should take 24 to 48 Hours for the paint to completly soften. You will need a pair of latex gloves and an old tooth brush to help remove the paint from the cracks and creases. Once you remove the model from soluction take your paint brush and gently brush across the surface and in the cracks. I have found it best to do this in a sink or area were I can have a flowing supply of water to help rinse the paint and solution off of the model. If by chance you findsome areas were the paint did not loosen just repeat steps above.

Old Dry Paint. Here is were patience comes in handy. If you have an old model that has been painted for some time or has several layers of paint it will take a little more time to strip. Follow the same steps above when starting the process but you will have to repeat it a few time. The best way to do it it is let it soak for 48 hours then remove it and brush away as much paint as possible. Then let it soak for another 24 to 48 hours and repeat process. You should have no problem redoing any model using thes steps.

BUT REMEMBER ALWAYS TEST YOUR SOLUTION BEFORE ADDING THAT UNREPLACEABLE MODEL SO YOU DO NOT DO ANY DAMAGE THAT CAN NOT BE FIXED.

By the way, you here is interesting information indeed acrylic paint.