QUICK TIPS

For the graphite (pencil lead) users in the crowd.

Go to a drafting store and purchase a Staedtler Mars mechanical pencil #780, a Staedtler Mars lead sharpener #502 and a small quantity of leads for the pencil.
By using the sharpener you can create a large amount of ground pencil lead for weathering quite quickly and with no mess because the sharpener has a little container to catch it all.

Nice one Shermanfreak cool tip (my fave sherm is the Firefly by the way)
come on guys 'n' gals don't be shy...Gregers

Hi Guys!

I made this little gizmo by wire-cutting a hanger and bending the shoulders of it into a fork. Now i just stick the ends into whatever gaps are available in my a/c (exhaust ducts, propelerless-engines, lights) and have a handy holder for spraying my models. When it's sprayed, I put a big jar of change on the end with the hook/tape to hold the stand supsended off the edge of my desk for drying. Merideth

Place your airbrush compressor on an old computer mouse pad to help dampen vibrations and keep it from scooting around.

HEY,
When i am painting a model part, i like to keep it on the branches that they come on so i don't get paint on my hands and when i set the part down, it is lifted of whtever surface it is on and it does not get a flat spot on the bottmom where the paint dried to the surface.

Randy

hi all , my quick tip for the day is one i found by chance today , i was throwing out some wine bottle corks and one was a new type a sort of compressed plastic , i pushed my knife blade in and inserted a very tiny part i wanted to paint , a new form of paint holder , great as it free after the drinks cheers ian

Stir sticks for paint and epoxy:
I found a bag of wooden sticks called "Handy Sticks" in my local art supply house. They're chopsticks (apparently rejects) bundled in a bag of 100, and it cost me $0.99 for the bag. Since then, I've been grabbing an extra set of chopsticks whenever I get Chinese food, and I've got a never-ending supply of disposable stirring sticks for next to nothing.

Hi y'all one i found yesterday. I was sanding my vacform Blackburn Beverley and when i had finished i was left with the usual dusty white mess and i had a brainstorm. I remembered that there was a thread about making mud for car and a.f.v kits i got some dark brown paint mixed the sanding residue with it, painted it on some scrap plastic, let it dry, then highlighted it with lighter browns and a bit of "mucky"grey and a little green slime color the result was very pleasing so i am going to use it on my next Landrover model (Tamiya field ambulance) i will let you all know how it turns out...Greg

Just letting you all know that the Landrover is starting to look great. nice and muddy just like Landrover intended them to look....Greg
thanks for that gizmo Merideth i made one for the Russian Spitfire that i am working on it works just great ...Greg

Before using a scribing tool, airbrush a clear flat coat. The rough surface gives a better 'bite' for a scriber, offering much better control.

RE: Gregers first tip...you can also use a hole punch to knock out small discs from those sticky pads and use them on the end of a piece of dowel, sprue, etc to get into small areas. They're also available in very fine grits in small discs, maybe an inch or so in dia.

I use plastic straws for mixing/transferring paints. Cut to a length that suits you; stick into a jar of paint, thinner, mixed paint; put a finger over the top, lift and transfer to another bottle, airbrush cup, whatever. Works great for stirring too...

I've started using Castrol Super Clean for a lot of things. I keep a RubberMaid container on the counter that holds about 3/4 gallon of the stuff with a couple inches to spare. If a paint job goes horribly wrong, it goes straight to the tub. Fresh paint strips very quickly. When I'm done spraying, the paint bottles, feed tubes, air caps, needles, etc takes a dunk and clean up easily. I keep a little flour sifter with the handle cut off and bottom flattened in a corner of the tub so the small parts don't get lost.

I realize at times you may need a stronger paint remover and you shouldn't use CSC on resin but, for 99.9% of my paint removal needs it works just great. And isn't nearly as messy as brake fluid or Easy Off. Filter out the sediment and use it for a drain cleaner when you need a fresh batch. Bio-degradeable. Simple Green, Greased Lightning, Westley's Bleche White should all do the same. Just wear rubber gloves...(and test first of course)

dont use aztec airbrushes

QUOTE: Originally posted by unnamedplayer dont use aztec airbrushes

HaHaHa.... funny tips...btw i'm still using it for general coverage..my main ab is Tamiya superfine

Always buy your wife something when u're taking home models...but be sure the things u bought is half the price of the kit but bigger than the kits... (buying dinner is a good choice also... i took here on expensive dinner when i bought my compressor..that's make the compressor a little bit more expensive..)

I started using an old drawing pad as a working surface. I'm an artist, so I have tons of these things laying around, but they're not expensive to buy. I took the biggest one that I have, about a foot and a half by two feet, and tore the cover off of the front. Make sure that you don't buy the spiral kind and just get the largest one that you can find. Now, when the top sheet gets drops of glue or paint, or sanding dust, or lots of little plastic chaff from scraping seams all over it, just tear off the top sheet. You can even tear it out from under parts and tools. Voila, clean new work surface. You can cut on it without worrying about damaging anything, wipe off excess paints for drybrushing, puddle superglue for use, anything really. It's cheap and effective and there are about 50 to 100 sheets per pad.

madda

HEY Maddafinga cool tip. i'll try that. at the moment i have a piece of 10mm toughened glass thats 2 1/2 ft by 4 ft ( 75 x 120 cm) with smoothed and rounded edges on my workbench and so far have managed to keep it pretty clean. one advantage of using glass is it is ideal for taping sanding paper to for vacforms as it has a near perfect flat finish and when your cutting it won't carve up your bench...Greg

Yep, I have a thick pane of glass on my table too. Between it and the pad, I'm pretty well covered.


madda

I have never thought of using a drawing pad. I just recycle all the flyers and newspapers we get and it works pretty much the same way. Plus they're FREE!!! Always a bonus.

Ray

I use an old dropper from eye drops to transfer paints when mixing colors.
The other thing is I have a small piece of glass that I put small puddles of glue on to work with once done allow the glue to dry and just peel it off

dont dip your face in hot fat..!! it really hurts bad ..and so do skin grafts

I hate to mess with a thread going so well, but where do you guys find things like plastic card, decal paper, and these pieces of glass I've been hearing about?

I don't have much advice, except that you should wear gloves...
drops of paint or cement (you can probably tell I'm a beginner ) can become annoying.

Also, the tip about drinking straws is a good one, especially if you can find one of those big boxes with an ungodly number of straws in them.

Great idea for a thread by the way!

Hi, I got my sheet of glass from a builders merchants cut to the size i wanted, plastic card and decal paper should be available from your local hobby store....Greg

I got several sheets of glass at a garage sale. They were panes out of a storm door maybe or something like that. Anyway, they are nice and thick, the edges are all beveled already and they're a long, narrow, rectangular shape. Perfect for laying across the front of my workbench.

Once you have an idea of what to look for, you can find stuff in the most unexpected places.

Ray

Don't stick your head in a bag full of angry squirrels.

i got my 1 pane of glass at target...i just bought a 1.00 document frame and threw the frame away and kept the glass...i got a larger 11x17 sheet of glass for 6 bucks from a shop that replaces windows...i do recommending folding a strip of tape down each edge and over the side...avoid the little cuts...oh and i too do my modeling on a giant sketchbook...

I got a painters tray from the local arts store. It is about 24" by 15" with a 1/4 " lip all the around. I buid my kits on this. It is a soft tan color and I have not lost any more small parts that used to disapear in plane sight. It keeps all the parts contained. I glued a square of fine sand paper at the top center of this tray for sanding parts.

Re Mer1122

Meredith when you go to a glass shop to buy a piece of glass to work on try the following...1. ask if they have a small piece of used plate glass ( it's 1/4 in thick) you can have, often they will and will cut it for you into a useable size for free if you tell them it's for a hobby project... 2. if you have to buy it they will generally seam it for free (at least the glass shops around here will), Seaming is done with an emeery wet.dry belt and takes the sharp edge off the corners & edges, so you don't need the tape to keep from getting cut.
Bruce

I found a great use for all those little plastic scraps that you shave off your model. Take testors glue in the toothpaste like tube and mix the two together to the thickness of putty on a piece of aluminum foil and spread on those huge cracks.

thanks bruce! great tip!