What is the technique you most need to master?

I don't know as I could ever master any technique in modeling as I am never satisfied with anything so everything to me 'Is what it is'.

I would most likely put gluing to minimize finishing work at the top of the infinite list

jhande

 

 

Don Stauffer

 I'm not sure what the OP meant, but I don't like to use glosscoat on older cars. It looks TOO wet.  It is fine for customs, and new factory stock, but I think a really wet coat looks funny on an older factory stock.  So I am also reluctant to use glosscoat on such a car, and work hard to get a shiny but not wet look.

 

 

 

Have you tried a Matte Clear Gloss Finish?

 

I'm nor sure what that is.  There are a few semi-matt finishes, but I find that getting the car looking right with it is a challenge, so I just do not bother to clearcoat it.  I think a polished gloss paint looks just right.

Getting a nice, smooth finish on car models. No orange peel.

I'd like to get a lot better at biplane rigging. And managing my time better to get things done ✅

Considering the date of my reply I would set my answer to The Twelve Days of Christmas. Weathering. Masking canopies.How not to be a general bungle butt.

There are so many things to master, maybe I compromise too much. A good goal for me is to go the next step in each step but too at some point you have to call a model done. I've kind of always gone for the flavor of the real thing in the model vs every single mini detail. Now with aging eyes and hands it's a little more challenging. I've been painting and modeling for 60 years or so and still could master brush painting a little more for sure. And especially detail painting, actually I rather suck at it lol !

But other things could use some attention too. In the last year I've had four models cooking a slow burn, one done. But is it really done, because more details can still go into it ? I call it done, that is the 1939 Ford sedan and the only reason I say it's done is because it was the subject of a build off with another forum member in another forum. I had to kind of wrap things up for the sake of emails and pictures where he had been done for two or three weeks.

Don Stauffer

 

 

the Baron

 

 

Tickmagnet

Trying to find a way to eliminate the gloss coat.

I'm not sure what the OP meant, but I don't like to use glosscoat on older cars. It looks TOO wet.  It is fine for customs, and new factory stock, but I think a really wet coat looks funny on an older factory stock.  So I am also reluctant to use glosscoat on such a car, and work hard to get a shiny but not wet look.

Yes Yes Yes ! Everyone shoots for that custom wet look gloss but it isn't natural on classic cars. They had a certain look to the paint, MM enamel pretty well produces that look without clear coating and without buffing if it's thinned right and put down well. To come close to that look with acrylics there will either still be a haze or else too wet looking. It's not the same. I call it "the look". I've been working with acrylics trying to get off solvents for two years now and it's working well for much of my painting. But I just shot the Mercer yellow last week in enamel and realize there is no comparison at least for classic car bodies. Lacquer is good too but I've shot more enamels even in 1/1.

I still need to master all modeling techniques, and “patience”, to rule them all. 

Don Stauffer

 I'm not sure what the OP meant, but I don't like to use glosscoat on older cars. It looks TOO wet.  It is fine for customs, and new factory stock, but I think a really wet coat looks funny on an older factory stock.  So I am also reluctant to use glosscoat on such a car, and work hard to get a shiny but not wet look.

Have you tried a Matte Clear Gloss Finish?

the Baron

 

 

Tickmagnet

Trying to find a way to eliminate the gloss coat. 

 

 

 

Can you expand on what you mean?  Do you mean, eliminate the gloss-coating step before decaling, for example, or, do you mean, your finishes end up glossy but you don't want them to?  Something else?

 

I'm not sure what the OP meant, but I don't like to use glosscoat on older cars. It looks TOO wet.  It is fine for customs, and new factory stock, but I think a really wet coat looks funny on an older factory stock.  So I am also reluctant to use glosscoat on such a car, and work hard to get a shiny but not wet look.

I haven't touched an airbrush in 40 years and the last one i used the most was a single action. So I'm thinking mastering the dual action airbrush is going to be my biggest problem, besides my old funky eye sight.

Tickmagnet

Trying to find a way to eliminate the gloss coat. 

Can you expand on what you mean?  Do you mean, eliminate the gloss-coating step before decaling, for example, or, do you mean, your finishes end up glossy but you don't want them to?  Something else?

Trying to find a way to eliminate the gloss coat.

modelcrazy

Nothing, I do everything great. 

Heh heh, you and Tojo both!  Kings of Modeling! 

Nothing, I do everything great. 

So many things! At the top of the list are seams and fitting canopies when they don't quite fit. 

The seams I can usually get, as long as my patience is greater than the seam gap. 

Ill-fitting canopies are by far the most common ticket to the shelf of doom for me. 

Great tips on stretching sprue. I see gloss coat mentioned frequently, I've found brushing 4-5 light coats of Future works consistenly over acrylics. It also seems that the decals settle better if they are applied when the Future has not quite cured. Not tacky, but 12-24 hours after the last coat is applied. I use Micro Set and Micro Sol, so that may also help them settle in.

GMorrison

Don Stauffer

I have never learned to stretch sprue to get a uniform thread.

 

Don, that was true for me as well until I learned a neat trick.

When I soften the sprue over a candle, I wait until the plastic completely separates into two blobs. Then I mash the two pieces back together, and stretch.

One of the guys in our Delaware Valley club is a ship modeler, who builds WW I and WW II subjects.  He uses stretched sprue to make railings, and to rig his ships, and he shared a tip he uses to get sprue as fine as human hair.  He hangs a hex nut on one of the many little nubs on a piece of sprue, warms the sprue over a candle, and then lets the weight of the hex nut provide the pull to stretch the sprue.  It works pretty well.

learmech

All of them

 

Same here....the only one mastered is hitting file 13 from 10 feet away with a kit that has done me in.

After a long hiatus from building .  .  .  sometimes I have trouble getting the box open !!

Yeah, I know, practice, practice, practice.

Thaks Don, I will work on that 

GMorrison

 

 

Don Stauffer

I have never learned to stretch sprue to get a uniform thread.

 

 

 

Don, that was true for me as well until I learned a neat trick.

 

When I soften the sprue over a candle, I wait until the plastic completely separates into two blobs. Then I mash the two pieces back together, and stretch.

 

I'm with you Steve , weathering can make or break a model , I've still got a long way to go .

Scratchbuilding details.  Never seems to look right. 

Don Stauffer

I have never learned to stretch sprue to get a uniform thread.

When I soften the sprue over a candle, I wait until the plastic completely separates into two blobs. Then I mash the two pieces back together, and stretch.

I have never learned to stretch sprue to get a uniform thread.

BTW, for a real gloss finish, my mantra is, "put down a final wet coat thick enough that it is just about to run.  How do you know just before it runs? Experience and practice.  Good lighting is a must- you must see reflectance of your lamp in paint coat as you spray.

time management. I need to make the most of the limited Modeling time I have..