Some modeling techniques

[Sall]

Very nice Jonbius!!

[draken35]

Sorry, I have completely forgottent to present here my technique for weathering...

So, after the primer I airbrush metal color (generally alu) as base. Then with a sponge, I make some "blotches" with maskol (or equivalent products, like Neo from Gunze) at the locations the paint of the aircraft is suffering the most from manutention, vibrations, etc.
I airbrush the final color and, after having let the time needed to dry, I gently remove the Maskol with a Q-tip...

[Sall]

Thank Daniel!!
I'm very glad to see that this topic is alive,and growing every day...

[No.1]

So you have discarded plastic frets after removed parts.... just cut them into pieces and get mixing sticks for your paint.

[Sall]

Nice idea!

[Second Air Force]

I have a nice "sprue pile" here too. I use it for antenna wires, scratchbuilding, etc, etc. Eduard has really nice frames with some of their kits and I've enhanced my collection!

[jonbius]

A friend of mine actually uses old pieces of sprue to make figures. He melts them down, gives them a rough shape, and then carves them into some great looking figures.

I sometimes use longer pieces of sprue as a back-scratcher.

[draken35]

Good...

[Second Air Force]

Here's an old trick I've used over the years when doing conversions. Sometimes there is a need to reshape an original fuselage or wing section that is almost the right shape, but not quite. Often the reshaping will make the plastic either too thin or remove some of the original completely leaving a void. In these cases I merely make a temporary bulkhead in the area and pour a small amount of resin into the cavity I'll be working on. This gives me a solid plug that will allow the reshaping to be completed without ruining the process.

Some modeling techniques

[draken35]

[Sall]

 

[Second Air Force]

Masking spinners and other complex shapes sometimes can be a headache. Here are a couple of masking methods I use that have worked over the years.

First is simply to paint the spinner one of the colors. Preferably you will paint the small-end color first so that the masking tape is easy to apply. Then, just spend some time carefully making a round tube of tape the diameter needed for the size of color band you need and stick it on the spinner.

Some modeling techniques

I also use a hole template to do this. Simply stick the spinner in the appropriate sized hole and very carefully align it, then spray. Be very careful to lay on light dusting coats of paint so that it doesn't bleed around the template mask.

Some modeling techniques

Some modeling techniques

Another nice masking aid is aluminum tubing of the appropriate diameter. This has the drawback that you can only paint the larger portion of the spinner, but it still works quite well.

Here's the finished spinner that prompted this entry in Sall's thread, done with the masking tape method:

Some modeling techniques

[No.1]

Good method mate

[Sall]

Yes,great!!!

[Second Air Force]

Here's another masking idea that I just tried, and it worked great!

Masking canopy frames can be a test of patience and vocabulary. The clear parts I needed to mask have a very faint frame molded in making it really hard to cut. Out of frustration I CA glued two brand new X-acto blades together. All that remained was to apply my favorite tape to the transparency and cut along the frame lines.

Some modeling techniques

Here's the first experimental transparency:

Some modeling techniques

If a wider frame is required I'll just glue a spacer shim between the blades to get the right width.