Thommo

After successfully cleaning the needle seal, I've stupidly stuffed it by putting my finger over the end of the nozzle while spraying paint. I took the seal out again and cleaned it (it was not dirty) and everything else, but now the needle is much harder to push through the airbrush body/needle seal & the trigger much tighter, and the whole thing not performing so well. It seems the needle seal may have swollen and is grabbing the needle too tight. The Iwata lube does not seem to help. Any suggestions? Can the needle seal be carefully sanded a bit wider internall

Yeah, we're all doing really, really badly here Downunder without any AR-15s 😁

Yes, I agree we've been pushing the envelope, but it is fascinating (and scary) to hear other points of view. Regarding the 'conspiracy theorists', there are 2 things that simply defy logic to me: 1. What scientist would want to go down in history as the one who invented the vaccine that killed more people than any other vaccine? 2. Governments love their tax revenue. What government would implement rules which severely curtail their tax revenue (i.e. lockdowns) if they did not think it was really warranted? 😆 Yes, let's go there and d

Yes, to a degree. If the vaccine stops you getting sick from Covid (which it clearly does) you are not coughing & sneezing your s#$t germs over everyone else. Common sense really? But more importantly, it stops the medical system getting swamped with Covid patients, so when you need a hospital bed because you've rolled your car or have cancer, you can get one. There is. Here in Oz, many govt programs aimed at getting people off the smokes & the Maccas. But moreover, doing those things only hurts one person - yourself. Being a muppet by not followi

Fully vaccinated now. Those unvaxed here in Oz won't be going anywhere soon. I've been thinking for months that lockdowns won't solve this. Too many recalcitrants of the tin foil hat variety or just plain selfish/soft. Only high levels of vaccination can move us forward now.

Probably why I've moved onto scratch building.

And you are young too. Just goes to show, that sounds pretty drastic. Do you have any underlying conditions? Are you fairly fit? I've heard of some very fit people who have been smashed by it & have problems still. I wish our eldest daughter would just get the AZ (she was booked in for last week), but now she is holding out for Pfizer which her age group can get from next month, but God knows how long the waiting list will be.

Our whole state (NSW) is in lockdown for a week now because too many Mungbeans in Sydney can't follow the rules 🙄

Did it. Filmed it on my GoPro. Getting the needle seal in/out was much easier than expected.

Our little city (a town really, but it is called a city as we have a cathedral) of 29,000 is now in lockdown for a week, thanks to Muppets in Sydney who broke lockdown and went to Newcastle, which caused an outbreak in Newcastle, then we had people in Newcastle who came here. One was a nurse who was working infected in our local hospital, and away we go. Lockdown for my wife & I is not really a big deal as we've been working from home anyway and can still do our windtrainer cycling on the deck & go for a run (as long as we don't go more than 10kms from home). No gym or sw

Thanks mate. I'll get into it !

Thanks for that. I can see now how that seal easily screws out. But I'm not sure what the spring is you refer to?

I don't think it is the death/survival rate is what they are so worried about down here, it is more the risk of the health system getting swamped with sick people. Especially with this new strain which is more contagious. When it all began I was thinking "meh, it's just like the flu", but now I think it's more contagious. And it came from animals...animals in China...in cages pissing on each other 😬. Diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans are called Zoonoses and docs/scientists tend to take those pretty seriously. My boss has recently had 2 zoonoses

Yeah, we used to do lots of shooting/hunting when we were young, had semi-autos, pump action shotguns etc. but I lost interest and focused on fly-fishing & now do a bit of guiding. I can release the fish alive to catch another day, because I'm too lazy to clean, scale & cook them. Meanwhile, the Covid cases & deaths in Sydney are still rising. Vaccination is our only way out now I think. Lockdowns are not bringing the curve down.

Thanks for that. I've done all of the first 5 steps before though can do all that with fingers (no need for pliers?), just not the last step of removing the needle seal. Might have to give it a crack. Might look at some how to vids first though so I don't stuff it up.

Yeah, it works incredibly well. While the nutter is packing the barrel of his muzzle loader to shoot some innocent kid at school, the cops just walk up to him and slap the cuffs on and off he goes to the slammer. Everyone is a winner.

The needle seal is definitely dirty! I've not been game to take it out though - not even sure how, I think it needs a special tool? I've shone a torch up the back of the airbrush and can see a bit of gunk around the rubber? teflon? needle seal. I've stuck screwed up tissue dunked in thinner up there from the rear & managed to clean some off, but obviously not all.

I have an Iwata HP-CP. I find I often get 'gunk' buildup and blockages in mine after using Alclad. I think it might be because the Alclad reacts with the residue of either the cheap Bunnings lacquer thinner I use to clean the thing out after each colour, or some of the acrylics paints I use before shooting Alclad. I often shoot a bit of Alclad cleaner before using the Alclad though, and always after using the Alclad. It often necessitates removal of the fine tip nozzle and cleaning it out with a fine dentists root-canal tool 😬 as that's where the blockage is. And oft

Very nice. Bloody contractors eh 😉 Looks like you have several builds going on at the same time too.

Yup, back in 1996. Not a single mass shooting since. It's pretty much just the crims who shoot each other here now - go your hardest boys! Happy Dayz! Edit to clarify - they did not take 'all guns', they just tightened up the system a lot, got rid of many illegal guns and banned semi-auto guns except in special circumstances (e.g. farmers who need them for feral animal control). You can still have a licence for a gun, join a gun club etc. But the nutters find it much harder to get a gun that can kill dozens of people in seconds. On a worrying

Common sense is rapidly leaving the room in Sydney (thankfully I live 600kms away, but our daughters live in Sydney, though one is currently in Tokyo covering the Olympics). https://www.9news.com.au/national/sydney-cbd-lockdown-protests/ed46d68f-5396-4cc5-8c92-1ac19fd09fcc Even if you don't believe in any of it, don't be a dick. Just follow the rules. The authorities are doing the best they can to deal with something that they have no experience with. Errors will be made, but don't make their job any harder. Most of the problems are is SW Sydney with a high immi

Just finished this one. Pleased to say Swiss driver Romain Grosjean got out of this shocker with just minor burns despite being stuck in the flames for 27 secs. The new halo structure around the cockpit & his helmet which keeps hot fumes out saved his life. He now drives IndyCar (which from my motorsport watching, has more and bigger crashes than F1 !). First use of Cricut Maker for masking & vinyl logos.

What about more complex shapes? I'm finding about 3mm is the limit on my Cricut Maker for small letters.

Got myself a Cricut Maker ($450 Aus). Have been using it to cut masks out of artists frisket and vinyl transfers for my models, now that I'm mostly scratch building and not using kits. Can cut masks or vinyl transfers of letters down to about 3mm in height. You can't really go any smaller than that. The trick is to use the Washi setting and reduce the pressure setting to 'less'. This gives the most delicate cut. The machine is bloody amazing and even a Numpty like me learned to use it in no time. The Design Space software is OK, a bit clunky for edit

Thanks guys. The ice wall is made from AK carving foam, 10mm sheet. Here is a build video showing some of the process. I'm getting the hang of LEDs now & how to wire them in parallel so several can run of 2x AA batteries. Jaycar is your friend here - heaps of really cheap electronic bits. Explosion using the Bjorn Jacobsen methods - https://miniscaping.com/guide/38/pic/view Star Wars Build Video.mp4