Grey Ghost 531

Scotch "Invisible" Tape does work pretty well. You can see the framing to trim easily. It doesn't do compound curves as well as Tamiya tape though. If it does leave any residue you can pull it up by sticking tape to it and yanking.

MoFo, about how much liquid soap? I tried it the other day and it wouldn't wipe off after it dried. Panic set in...luckily Windex took it off without stripping the decals too. I think I didn't use a large enough fraction of soap so the paint stuck like....paint. Are you not supposed to let it dry? I thought the point of the "sludge wash" was to let it dry and the soap prevented the paint from sticking. Pliler: As for "chalk pastels", do the art stores around you sell "Soft Pastels"? Those are chalk pastels. That's what I bought. I had the choice of Oil and Soft.

Roll Models carries the Waldron sets. Whether they're "reasonably priced" is a matter for your budget to decide.

You don't have to take it all apart. After preliminary cleaning and back flushing solvent: Unscrew the back cover, loosen the needle retainer nut just a little bit, pull the needle out and clean it, then, take a good quality, non-shedding pipe cleaner and wet it with solvent and stick it in where the needle came out. Spin it around a little and then pull it back out, put the needle back in tighten the needle retainer nut and put the back cover back on. Spray a little more solvent through and it's done. If you're careful you can do that without disturbing the air button. That's all I do unle

Could be the needle isn't all the way in. If I remember correctly the collar for the needle is tapered. If the needle isn't seated all the way the set screw might force it off center. Could be too, that it's buggered up. I don't think replacements are very expensive. www.bearair.com and I think there's a couple others dixie something and one with atlanta in the name.

Roger, Roger; and don't call me "Shirley"

Call it weathering... As far as ventilating a cabinet, the clean room in a microchip plant works by exhausting the air through the floor and having the incoming air pass through HEPA filters up near the ceiling on the way in. It isn't positive pressure, they just filter all incoming air.

I've found that using the back side of a dental pick works well for burnishing down the edge of masking tape. Use the back side and always drag it backwards so the point doesn't catch. By dental pick I mean one of those two ended steel tools with a wide semi-circle hook on each end. The steel is nice and smooth and the curve lets you get it into tight spaces.

It's a little bit important which ink you use. Don't use waterproof india ink. It will be very hard to clean if it dries.

Photoshop I say! Okay, you got me there so I'll amend it to, "with exceptions". In truth, that Viggen's skin problem would be better replicated with a panel wash than pre-shading.

Hi MoFo, umm.... care to share more, why you had advised against the technique? cheers, Go look at a real airplane. Does it look like it was "pre-shaded"? I didn't think so.

There is no general answer to, "where should I put RBF flags." It depends on the aircraft and its status and what armament it carries. If an aircraft is armed or it is carrying jettisonable fuel tanks it will likely have RBF flags on the weapons, racks or rails. Where exactly depends on the weapon type and version. If the aircraft has uplocks, downlocks or jury struts installed they will certainly have RBF flags on them. Ejection seats have safety pins that have RBF flags. If you have a specific aircraft and know what you want to hang off of it for weapons, post that and I bet there's a re

It looks kind of old and dirty. You'll still need a moisture trap and pressure regulator for it I think. I don't think I'd bid very high for it but if you can get it for close to what it's at now it's probably worth a try.

Thick super glue applied with a toothpick works pretty good. It's the paint that really makes it look real though. Paint the main burnt metal or titanium or whatever color of the exhaust, then airbrush a band of a very dark mix of that color over the glue "ridge". The band should extend an 1/16th inch or so on either side of the weld bead to simulate the burned metal from the welding process. Then drybrush a light color; silver or gold or something only on the ridge so you get a banded effect. The base color with the weld a fairly bright metalic with a band of dark burned looking color on eith

Micromark has a starter kit, maybe even two sizes. It comes with RTV, resin, mold release, mixing cups and popsicle sticks I think. Probably about 50 bucks.

Use your references. In this case, look at tires all around you. Generally, the sidewall rubber appears a very dark gray with maybe a hint of brownish unless the tires are very new. The tread where it contacts pavement will be very close to black because any dirt will wear off. The grooves of the tread will be tinted with whatever the material of the environment provides; mud, dust... The sidewalls of modern jets won't have any dirt or dust on them but those of aircraft operating from dirt strips will, but not so much as a truck or jeep. Snow will cake in the tread and recesses of wheels

I've had some luck by just cutting a card stock stencil and holding it about 1/2 inch from the model with one hand and spraying with the other.

If you go the polishing route instead of finding a vac formed replacement you'll want to be very careful to not flex the canopy outwards. It will crack. Support the outside of the canopy with plasticine clay or something so it doesn't bend outward. You can't polish out cracks!

I don't give Squadron Green putty very good marks. It has a comparatively high shrinkage ratio and tends to chip off easier than I think it should. I use 3M Acryl Blue auto glazing putty. I don't know if you can get that brand in the UK but if you go to a store that sells automotive body work supplies I'm sure you can find a local brand that's equivalent. Glazing putty is the stuff you use to fill the bubbles left over when you use plastic body filler. I think you Brits refer to it as "bog". It's laquer based, doesn't shrink much, is very fine grained, dries fast, sands very well and stinks

Any glass cleaning product with ammonia in it will clean Klear/Future very well.

The brass wire trick works well and has the added advantage of letting you fine tune the attitude and orientation of the weapon on the rack. You can bend the wire slightly to get multiple bombs on a TER lined up for example.

Not only a copyright violation but I don't expect a 1/48 instrument dial would scan all that well. I doubt a scanner has anything like that fine a resolution. Buy 'em from Waldron on-line.

I've had good luck using Boyd's primer white. I use an airbrush but it might be available in spray-bombs too. It covers very well. I use Boyd's for gloss white too. It's marketed for car models. By the way, MoFo, I think Floquil has re-formulated their paint and it isn't so "hot" to plastic as it used to be.