datahiker

I've decided to get him a Badger 350 (Thanks, Don!) since it's the price range I was looking for and would be a great starter brush for him. I have the HF brush so once he gets bigger he can practice with that one to get used to the double action. (Then maybe, just maybe, I'll let him use the Iwata). I never thought to clean the HF up, so I appreciate you posting the steps, Curt.

It's a lot of work, but yes, it can be done. It works better if you run the thinned paint through a filter, too, like one from Micro Mark. That gets the coarser pigments out and leaves you with a decent sprayable paint. I find mixing future in gives it enough "bite" to stick to plastic.

My 8-year-old is getting into modeling and wants to airbrush. His hands are probably too small and weak for a regular double-action. I'm contemplating getting a pistol grip if I can find one. Something like the Badger Marksman single action, or even a regular external-mix single action, which is basically just a push button. Any parents out there with advice?

Yeah, the "Airbrush Color" line from Createx is for airbrushing T-shirts and fabrics. I got a bottle to practice with from Michael's/MJ Designs when I bought my first airbrush because it's thin enough to shoot straight out of the bottle. It's great for practicing basic techniques on paper, but my bottle was too watery to adhere to plastic. I've used Model Master (Testor's), Tamiya, Citadel and even the cheap craft acrylics. The cheap craft acrylics are doable but it's a pretty big hassle and some brands and colors work better than others.

There are adapters (about $5) for Paasche-to-Iwata and Badger-to-Iwata. Maybe the Iwata fittings are metric?

Add me to the years/decades list. It's definitely lack of time, as none of my models could be considered awesome, especially when they are all partially built! I have three young kids and they break things faster than I can fix them. Add kids activities, normal house and car maintenance, a wife that also works full time, and all the other daily/weekly/monthly chores and I'm down to about 10 minutes of free time a day, right before I pass out. And even if I did have more time, I have other hobbies to squeeze in like backpacking, camping, reading, etc. I find that I won't touch a model for

Agreed. The touch-n-flow is for liquid cement (like Testors, Tamiya or a solvent like MEK), not any kind of CA. I hope you're able to get the CA out, because it's a fantastic tool.

I'll be there but won't be entering anything.

I also submitted for the free sample, got the verification and I'm still waiting as well. I highly doubt I'd buy any at the regular price but it doesn't hurt to try something new.

If we're talking non-aircraft, the 1/35 Italeri Desert S.A.S. Combat Car has me in fits right now.

Before the web I'd buy books and magazines but now it's primarily Google searches. I also hit PrimePortal, Airliners.net, DoD or the military branch sites and some Russian sites for walkarounds. Sometimes you can find some good pics on Photobucket or flickr. I do my own screencaps for sci-fi subjects like Star Wars. Stuff in the public library is almost always outdated or too general. I'll look for out-of-print stuff on P2P sites if there's something I really can't get any other way.

well, started decals, and all i can say is low-vis is not meant to be "no-vis" is it? grey just disappears (decals are Super Scale set 72-532).... The last air show I went to had a V-22 Osprey that had insignia I could barely make out from a distance. I was surprised at how much the low-vis blends in. I'd say they look perfect!

Gotta love the "it was too slow so we removed the encryption" excuse. Productivity trumps security every time.

For those of you who are interested, I just finished a great book titled "Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It," by Richard Clarke. It's fascinating and easy to read. And scary. I thought most SCADA systems were not supposed to be connected to the internet but evidently some are. And that doesn't even count the private infrastructure companies where security is a joke.

Camping and backpacking - I just finished section hiking the 560+ mile Finger Lakes Trail in New York. Amateur astronomy on the few nights a year it's not cloudy in my area. And with a public library across the street from my house I do a lot of reading.