Grey Ghost 531

Boyd's white primer covers very well. Unless you're painting over orange or something it should cover in one coat. Although the name says "primer" it isn't a thick, detail obliterating paint.

Epoxy putty is a two part product. You get two strips of clay-like stuff that you knead together. It doesn't harden until the two parts are mixed. Epoxy putty hardens because of a chemical reaction between the two parts. Two part Bondo isn't epoxy, it's more like very thick resin that you which catalyst is added to make it harden. It won't attack the plastic (it doesn't even stick to it very well) and it also generates some heat while curing but probably not enough to hurt anything. One part Bondo is solvent based. Tamiya putty is solvent based. It hardens when the solvent evaporates. If you

Or http://www.bearair.com

I started leaving the caps off mine after the last time M.F. posted his method. It seems to work for me in not terribly humid but certainly not arid Vermont. I'm only using the 1 oz bottles and I don't expect to use them up before they clot but I do spend less time drilling open the tips and cracking off hardened glue this way.

Like Rusty says, it's thick and goopy. You're not going to be able to make landing gear struts or prop blades out of it but it can be used to duplicate side consoles and such. I doubt you would have satisfactory results if you tried a whole cockpit tub.

That would depend on the who, when and where. What aircraft, airforce and war are you talking about? I have a number of books that show pics of grafitti on bombs but it wouldn't be appropriate to have something about Hitler on a gulf war Tornado. Verlinden and others have decals that are bomb grafitti.

I use a candle. The hardest part about it is staring at the light from the candle while you're heating the needle closes down your pupil so it's hard to see the model part to accurately poke it! I close one eye while I'm heating the needle to get around that. Since the candle and model part can be right next to each other I can usually do my poking while the needle is still hot enough. Since I'm only using it as a "center punch" it doesn't take much.

Since I build in 1/72 I don't mess with guns but I do open up exhausts. I use a heated needle in a wooden handle to "centerpunch" the end of the exhaust. Just barely touch the needle to the plastic. I like it better that doing it with a cold needle or xacto tip because you need absolutly no pressure. Then I use either a brand new xacto blade and/or drills to hollow it the rest of the way out.

There is brass airfoil strut stock available under the brand name "strutz". I have not seen or used it. Might bear a google though...I've used Contrail plastic strut stock but it's kind of soft and flimsy. I googled and aeroclub carries "Strutz"

1) The only time fuel tanks are punched off is if there is an emergency or the aircraft needs to lose them because it's going into an air to air combat. Otherwise they're brought home to be re-used. 2) Weapons are brought back if not used as well. Also, they get moved from place to place during shipping, testing, deployment, etc. So, it really depends. A missile is stored in a container until needed so it avoids some weathering that way, but a missile (air to air that is) is much more likely to be brought back as there aren't that many times when they're fired in combat. That means the same m

hahah Same here, so don't worry :D B) Eg: The exact same kit, before and After ARC Primer is a thing that you spray on models to reveal sanding flaws... plus it prepares them for the Base color of paint. THey are usually gray, gloss white or a Metallic Color. In any case, I usually just paint silver over the seam in question and see the flaws, sand and keep going... HTH Take Care Hey Mario, which one is "before"? ;-) (just kidding!) Now for on topic, if you use putty on seams a coat of primer is needed because if you just paint over the putty it will have a different texture tha

Interesting! What make and model is it? Do you use a storage tank of any sort?

It is unlikely that an aquarium pump will have a high enough air flow for an air brush. It probably couldn't maintain the pressure that an airbrush needs. Maybe if you hooked it up to a storage tank and paused to let the pressure build back up frequently.

:D Hmmm, I'll go for some hard liquor. :huh: After some of the nasty little kits I've had the pleasure of seeing (during my beginner days) I think I'll take a nice shot of vodka. Now there's an interesting group build idea - let's see what you can build after drinking a six-pack(or six shots). ;) :o Matt I'M IN !!!!!!! :o :o :o Not me, what ever I built, guaranteed it would have blood stains on it after a six pack.

As far as shops not being in the finder, tell them about them and I imagine they'll add them. That way they'll be there when someone else does a search. Just as I'm going to tell them about the shop that is in their finder but when I got to the address I found that it is now a tobacconist! Hint, don't try finding "Models Plus" in Meredith, NH any more...

Here's a site I stumbled upon that may answer many "Are there any good hobby stores near..." Hobby Store Finder

Most of the liquid masking agents have ammonia in them which will attack the acrylic paint. That's why you're not able to get it off. The only place I use liquid masking is on top of tape. Sounds weird but it really helps avoid that nasty overspray that gets into where you have multiple tiny bits of tape filling in an area. After I tape I glob liquid masking over the tape to fill in any little holes I missed. Other than that it's only really effective on gloss enamel paint. It tends to stick to well to flat paint I find. As others have said, Tamiya tape. The stuff is great.

Being cartoons of the real aircraft "scale" doesn't really apply. They are pretty small in size and I think all of them are the same size no matter what they are. The Zero is the same size as the space shuttle and SR-71. They are all about 100mm long.

From what time frame is your model's prototype? If it's before about 1980 the missiles should be white. If it's after 1990 they should probably be gray. If it's in between it may be either. Active duty will have gotten the gray ones sooner, especially deployed units; Guard and Reserve may have had the white ones for a while longer. We had a few white AIM-9s in the VT Guard up until '90 or so.

The answer depends somewhat on the wheel. If there's a distinct, sharp-edged rim to the wheel, paint the wheel the hub color and then run a thinned wash of tire color around the ridge. Then you will have an easy time filling in the tire by brush. If there isn't a nice ridge to run the wash around I've had luck painting the hub color and then punching out a disk of Tamiya tape the size of the hub for a mask. I make the punch by sharpening the edge of a piece of brass tubing. I got a bag of mixed size bits and pieces of tubing from MicroMark for about 6 bucks. So far it's had the size I needed.

Gel CA would work but plain old white glue should work pretty well. PVA or "Elmer's" is one brand here in the US. Epoxy would work but is probably overkill. I don't think rubber cement would hold very well as it's flexible when set so the pieces would shift. It would probably peel off easily as well.

Windex or any other window cleaner with ammonia is great for cleaning acrylics. Then water to flush that out. Works good. Thinning is another story. It's very brand specific. What's good for one brand of paint may clot another. The manufacurer's brand thinner is probably safest. Distilled water should be safe but maybe not the best for a particular brand.

CA doesn't have a very long shelf life once it's opened. Maybe six months. Then it thickens in the bottle but then fails to harden completely or clearly when applied to the model, with or without accelerator. At least that's what I've noticed.

He might mean goache. Opaque watercolors that come in a tube like artist's oil paint.

Two decal sheets from the Bobs: a Modeldecal sheet with Viet Nam era 531 markings for an F-4B and an Xtradecal sheet with markings for a VMFA-323 FJ-4B. That and my federal tax refund check...I wonder if I can get my wife to sign it without seeing what it is...