Admiral prune

Hi, I have put Vallejo paint through my airbrush before thinned with water, it does work but you may end up spending an hour trying to clean it out of your airbrush. I would get the Model Aircolor if you want to airbrush Vallejo paint. All the best Dean

Hi, If its the ordinary brush painting Vallejo paint, you can use tap water (i usually use boiled tap water) or even better use Vallejo Slow dry or paint retarder (Number 597). If its the Vallejo Model Air colour paint use the Valejo purpose made thinners. Hope that helps Dean

I use a soft paint brush to loosen the dust and my airbrush to blow it away.

Hi, When i'm cutting clear part off the sprue i generally heat a sharp knife in a candle flame. I use the hot knife the cut/melt the canopy away from the sprue. This method prevents any stress on the plastic that would cause fine cracks to appear in the plastic. To remove any left over sprue that is still attached to the canopy, i mask the window part of the canopy with masking tape and use sand paper to take off the remaining plastic. The masking tape prevent the canopy from getting scratched. hope this helps Dean

I got an electric toothbrush, cut off the brisles, attached a small cyclindrical piece of plastic the the moving part of the brush. Sand paper can then be attached to the plastic. You can get in to really tight spots with it. I'm not claiming it as my own idea, i saw it some where on the web, maybe even ARC Dean

Hi, I've just started a spitfire MKV and thought i would try a little more detailing using the Aber Photo etch set. The seat that comes with the kit (Tamiya) has a padded back, the Aber seat, for obvious reasons, does not include the padding on the back of the seat. My question were the original spitfire seats padded or is this some thing that has been added for the confort of modern day pilots. All my walkaround photos show padded seats. can anyone shed any light All the best and thanks Dean

I always use fairly hot water with my decals. This makes them more flexible and willing to conform. To keep the water hot i made water warmer, bsaically a tin held off the deck with a few long bolts. Under the tin i place a "tea tree candle" (one of the candles used in the aroma therapy kits). this keeps the water hot and means i dont have to keep running for the kettle. keeping the water hot has always worked for me. All the best Dean

Hi Steve, I unfortunately i bought the type that runs off the mains supply. It also has a digital speed control built in, which means it wont run at lower than 5000 rpm. I've seen the type that has a simple switch slider to control the speed settings. These can be run off a variact transformer to lower the speed of the Dremel. Unfortunately i bought the one that cant be run of a variact. Thats why i said in my experience was that it melted the plastic. I have no way of reducing the speed. ssorry for any confusion Dean

The dremel i bought runs off 240, unfortunately it wont run at less than 5000, its one of the new digital controlled types. :P

Hi, For what its worth, my experience of Dremels are that their RPM tends to be a little high and tend to melt the plastic. I just use mine to remove parts from the sprue and thats about it. Looked into getting some form of gear box for it to reduce the speed down, but never got very far.

I use an old exacto bloade heated over a candle. Rather than cut through the plastic it melts through and stop any cracks. Then i put masking tape over the clear part of the canopy, to protect from scratches and sand down the remaining sprue until it's smooth. Its fairly quick and does protect the canopy from scratches all the best Dean

Hi, You may be spraying it from too far away, try spraying from about 8-10 cm's away, the paint could be drying before it hit the model, also air pressure should be about 15 psi Hope this helps All the best Dean

hi Try the Tamiya paint mix database http://www.dana-nield.com/tamiya/

Hi, One other thing that occurs to me is that it may be a little bit of moisture in the air from your compressor. All the Best

Hi, I bought some of the new aircraft colors paints a while ago. The problem is that it seems to block up my airbrush after a short period of time. I've tried thinning with distilled water but this does not really help. Are there any tips any one could give me on preventing this. Thanks in advance Dean