UPDATE: Given the minimal response, I’m extending through the weekend!
It’s been a while, but I’m back with another Monday Giveaway! This time I’m giving away a Tamiya BMW R75 German Motorcycle with Side Car.
Here’s the rules for this time around:
- Share your favorite tip/trick related to scale modeling
- Points for the quality of the tip (depth, detail, etc.) and uniqueness of the tip
- You have to post in the comments of this post by Wednesday midnight CST. I’ll pick a winner shortly after that and send out the kit.
- Be sure to leave your email address so can contact you if you win!
Good luck!
“food for thoughts”
Or how do you scratch built with(out) styrene? I have been adding details other than PE so i found that everyday consumables offer us plenty of materiel for modelling. Other than beer can (replacing simple PE) or copper wires (for various grab handles, that become my obsession), i found a great source for styrene. Namely, i started to use packages of local Chinese take away. Other packages compete as well (various ice creams, boxes etc.), but my local Chinese restaurant used to be a winning combination. Unfortunately, they switched to cardboard packages, but i made great pile of styrene. So, they used to pack 400g food in 15x30cm packages, dimensions being relevant for the box cover lid. So this source enabled me to construct relatively great parts such as side skirts, roof top for soft skin vehicles, along with minor details. Until few years ago, styrene was unavailable in Serbia, and one had to purchase it on a competitions abroad – Hungary provided the source every april on their Central European contest.
To begin with, my stash of styrene is about 1mm thick, so for something thicker, one should use several layers. As the quantity isn’t an issue, it became a practice. This helped me to expand my skills, and never to build OOB any more, as that is not a challenge. This T55A has skirts made of such styrene
[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r157/iguanac/T55A/marko%20milosevic%20tenk%20016.jpg[/IMG]
Sherman Firefly, to be built in German markings, according to existing photos, has odd cover for smoke discharges, and no manufacturer offers that in plastic, so i had to construct it.
[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r157/iguanac/projekti%20u%20radu/DSCF8070.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r157/iguanac/projekti%20u%20radu/DSCF8066.jpg[/IMG]
And my favorite is Dutch YPR 765. This is originally AFV club model, with M113 turret previously belonging to Dutchbat UN from Srebrenica. That vehicle was captured by Bosnian Serbs, and after Dayton, it ended up in Serbia. It was upgraded with hinges for rubber skirts all around. I used styrene to replicate these items:
[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r157/iguanac/YPR765/DSCF8384.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r157/iguanac/YPR765/DSCF8381.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r157/iguanac/YPR765/DSCF8386.jpg[/IMG]
real vehicle:
[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r157/iguanac/YPR765/Picture010.jpg[/IMG]
Next time you order food, take a closer look, as it might have alternative usage 🙂
For about a year now, I have used “selective filtering” on every model I’ve built. The aim of this technique is to place emphasis on the different shapes of a model without being too obvious. I use very, very thin yellow oil paint to apply filters to hatches and other horizontal raised details to separate them from the main surface; recessed areas are picked out using burnt umber, olive green, or dark grey, depending on the color of the vehicle. I also use this technique to break up the monotony of ERA blocks or square Zimmerit patterns. In this application it’s similar to a dot filter, but more selective in distribution.
When lighting up my models is an option, I’m using optical/glass fiber to conduct light to places where even the smallest LED packages would be too large (or whenever I don’t feel like soldering wires to SMD LEDs). Usual fiber gauges would range from 0.25 mm (e.g. cockpit lights) to as large as 3 mm (e.g. screens, position lights).
The PMMA sort of fiber is the easiest to work with as it is robust enough, can be cut with a regular hobby knife and fixed in place with white glue.
Lighting is then usually done with 1.8 mm or 3 mm through-hole, wired LEDs. The color is either the final color of the light I’m aiming to reproduce or in case there are too many different colors, white LEDs and I’ll paint the visible end of the fiber the color I want using transparent colors (a 50-50 mix of say red and gloss clear).
Fixing the fiber to the LEDs is done either by heat shrink tubes (for bundles of 3 mm or more) or by putting a small hole in the LED’s plastic housing, not touching the internal “wires”, followed by some clear gloss to make the hole walls clear again and some hobby glue that dries transparent.
An optional step would be to use electronics that can control (pulse, fade, etc) the lights. This is either a simple circuitry or in most cases a small microcontroller board.
Thanks, everyone! I’m going to pick Cristian’s tip. Mainly because I think we should all be pushing lighting a lot more than we do!!