Paint & Tools Tools, Paints etc thread

[daz]

Quick question. Those of you that use airbrushes to do your painting, I assume you have some kind of spray booth set up? Did anyone have problems with not being near a window etc for extraction? I've seen one person use a paper towel(???) over the extractor so that particles don't get into the air, but I wasn't keen on the amount of noise it generated.

Photos of your setup would be appreciated

A cardboard box is what I use, either that or just a paper towel on the workbench - open the window when needed

 

[ches]

Quick question. Those of you that use airbrushes to do your painting, I assume you have some kind of spray booth set up? Did anyone have problems with not being near a window etc for extraction? I've seen one person use a paper towel(???) over the extractor so that particles don't get into the air, but I wasn't keen on the amount of noise it generated.

Photos of your setup would be appreciated

I have a convenient sheltered outdoor space I use but knocking up a booth is easy to do. Seen a few DIY jobs on the likes of YT that are decent. I've not seen or used one with extraction as generally air work is done with acrylics so the smell is negligible. My missus has never moaned about the few times i've done a few test runs with a new airbrush inside.
I'd look at cardboard box type of set up with it near to an openable window if needed.

 

[daz]

As to @celticguy question as to set up, one of these sets AS-186 Compressor & Two Airbrush Starter Kit - its available under various brand names, with or without airbrushes, from around £65 upwards on sites like ebay and amazon

 

[celticguy]

Next silly question,

Where do you get all your stuff? I was looking at the Tamiya extra thin glue on Ebay, and it was about £5-£7 a bottle including postage. Do you use fleabay, or local hobby stores etc? Basically, Where should I be shopping for my essentials?

My current list of things to get

Glues
Pin vise
Hobby knife
Sprue clipper (I did have some, but can I find them?? no I bloody can't
Masking tape

I'll leave the airbrush as it's outside my budget right now. The good news is, I have about 20 of these in my cupboard

Babylon 5 StarFury Mk1 1:72 Revell model kit Sealed 04819 Star Fury | eBay

 

[celticguy]

Next silly question,

Where do you get all your stuff? I was looking at the Tamiya extra thin glue on Ebay, and it was about £5-£7 a bottle including postage. Do you use fleabay, or local hobby stores etc? Basically, Where should I be shopping for my essentials?

My current list of things to get

Glues
Pin vise
Hobby knife
Sprue clipper (I did have some, but can I find them?? no I bloody can't
Masking tape

I'll leave the airbrush as it's outside my budget right now. The good news is, I have about 20 of these in my cupboard

Babylon 5 StarFury Mk1 1:72 Revell model kit Sealed 04819 Star Fury | eBay

Found my sprue clippers.... I have a bucket load of Citadel paints to use up before I go searching for Vallejo and Airbrushing

 

[daz]

Next silly question,

Where do you get all your stuff? I was looking at the Tamiya extra thin glue on Ebay, and it was about £5-£7 a bottle including postage. Do you use fleabay, or local hobby stores etc? Basically, Where should I be shopping for my essentials?

My current list of things to get

Glues
Pin vise
Hobby knife
Sprue clipper (I did have some, but can I find them?? no I bloody can't
Masking tape

I'll leave the airbrush as it's outside my budget right now. The good news is, I have about 20 of these in my cupboard

Babylon 5 StarFury Mk1 1:72 Revell model kit Sealed 04819 Star Fury | eBay

Most of my stuff comes from online rather than stores, mainly because there's no stores near me, and I cant be arrsed driving to Cardiff or Swansea in the hope that the stores limited range has what I need in stock, although Hobbycraft can be worth a look into if & when I'm passing

Looking at your list

Glues - Last lot of glue I brought was off flebay, that worked out with postage as £4.55 (Tamiya Extra Thin Cement 40ml ),

Pin vise - That came off amazon, however the micro drill bits I'm using currently came of flebay, the shipping can take a little while.

Hobby knife - heavy duty Stanley blades from, well anywhere, last lot were from one of the pound shops - craft blades mainly online, in fact, I just purchased some Swan Morton blades of amazon, might even buy the handle at some stage

Sprue clipper (I did have some, but can I find them?? no I bloody can't - Amazon, I also have two nail clippers that come in handy,

Masking tape - Flebay, Amazon online, Model shows & Hobbycraft provided I remember and don't get side-tracked looking at all the shiny stuff.

El Cheapo airbrushes off Amazon or Flebay - I tend to break them a lot

Kits, Online and shows

 

[offog]

my PE bending tool arrived today, £15 quid well spent as it goes. Here's an example, the top hatch internal handle, original blobby sanded off, and the new pe part bent to shape, four bends on a component less than 10mm, you can see them on the sprue frame, part number three.

the black knob raises and lowers to trap the pe part to be bent, in the picture is pe part number three the hatch grab handle.

this is my first use of it, it will come into it's own on larger folds.

thank you Gentleman, thank you

• View attachment 350238

I was in the process of asking for recommendation on an item like this and thought about opening a new thread but thought I would do a search first (Don't often hear that do you). Thanks.

6 months on is it still the dog's bits?

 

[SPROCKET321]

I was in the process of asking for recommendation on an item like this and thought about opening a new thread but thought I would do a search first (Don't often hear that do you). Thanks.

6 months on is it still the dog's bits?

yes it is, I used it yesterday to bend this to shape

my advice so many pages back I can't remember who took me up on it, was when you get your new bending tool, practice on one of those Metal Earth kits rather than the expensive pe in your kit. Can't remember who it was,built their model T ford, looked good too.

 

[SPROCKET321]

there you go, practice your steel fabrication skills on one of these
METAL EARTH - MODEL T FORD MOTOR CAR - 3D METAL MODEL KIT - BRAND NEW & SEALED!! 32309010510 | eBay

 

[daz]

yes it is, I used it yesterday to bend this to shape

my advice so many pages back I can't remember who took me up on it, was when you get your new bending tool, practice on one of those Metal Earth kits rather than the expensive pe in your kit. Can't remember who it was,built their model T ford, looked good too.

Still not got around to buying one

 

[SPROCKET321]

Anyone umming & ahhing about whether to buy a pin vice go for it . I picked one up off amazon a while ago for less than £8 & i'm wondering how i ever managed without one.


I've had a fun weekend of drilling out a pipe bowl on a 200mm bust plus the barrels on a few 200mm & 120mm gats for some other figs. The control you have over the bit is excellent compared to a Dremel or similar. I find i am able to be far more precise - an elec drill even at low variable revs can 'jump' when you start off a job. With a decent quality set of nice sharp bits you are on a winner.

I use mine all the time, the control you get is spot on, and for drilling through plastic you don't need a power tool, for drilling out larger location holes, exhaust pipe and gun muzzle ends, you can't do better.

 

[SPROCKET321]

Still not got around to buying one

well worth if for around 15 notes daz, the larger one's available have more options I guess, but they are larger and take up more space on the work area. that one is an ideal optimum size.

 

[offog]

there you go, practice your steel fabrication skills on one of these
METAL EARTH - MODEL T FORD MOTOR CAR - 3D METAL MODEL KIT - BRAND NEW & SEALED!! 32309010510 | eBay

It should be turning up today. I was very tempted by the Millenium Falcon but went for the Lancaster and Model T instead.

 

[SPROCKET321]

It should be turning up today. I was very tempted by the Millenium Falcon but went for the Lancaster and Model T instead.

Brilliant, my Daughter buys me a Batmobile metal earth every Christmas. They are interesting little trinkets rather than serious scale models, great fun to make, I'd start with the Model T, the Lanc, from what I hear, is more difficult due to the curves. the Tin lizzie is perfect for the medium, all angles and straight edges.

 

[SPROCKET321]

Airbrush cleaning.

Thought I might trade some tips on this most neglected but important step in modelling. I'd like to hear how others go about it, as has been said, if you don't clean it after you've finished with it, you'll end up chucking it in the bin, and now matter how much you pay out for a good one, without cleaning it ... blah blah. For most Ex and Serving Soldiers keeping it clean comes natural..

1. blow it through to remove unused paint that won't pour back into the bottle, especially if it's been mixed, you don't want to contaminate your stock paint.
2. remove needle and wipe toward the tip.
3.remove the nozzle and gently coax excess paint out from the tip using the needle. inward and outward. Making sure you don't enlarge the delicate brasss tip.

having image trouble, back in a sec when I'm sorted...

 

[offog]

It arrived over lunch (leftover cold curry between two slices of best of both if any one is interested). It would seem that I liked the MF more than the MT and that arrived with it. I was sure I ordered the MT!

As @SPROCKET321 said it is small, a lot smaller than I thought but it does have weight, about 100g. This was £20 which was the best price I could find that was not comming from China and taking 3 weeks.

As side note my little boy tells me that the Chinese Government pays the postage for a lot of the items purchased in China to make it more competitive, free postage. Not sure if this is true or not.

I stiped it down just to show what you get. The white bit are tools to help bend items and are hard plastic. Other makes use razor blades. We will see how they work latter today. It came with in depth instructions in more than one language for those who wish to practice their reading skills ( I may be being a little sarcastic).

And this afternoons work is the MF.

Fortunately it came with instructions.

 

[offog]

Airbrush cleaning.

Thought I might trade some tips on this most neglected but important step in modelling. I'd like to hear how others go about it, as has been said, if you don't clean it after you've finished with it, you'll end up chucking it in the bin, and now matter how much you pay out for a good one, without cleaning it ... blah blah. For most Ex and Serving Soldiers keeping it clean comes natural..

1. blow it through to remove unused paint that won't pour back into the bottle, especially if it's been mixed, you don't want to contaminate your stock paint.
2. remove needle and wipe toward the tip.
3.remove the nozzle and gently coax excess paint out from the tip using the needle. inward and outward. Making sure you don't enlarge the delicate brasss tip.

having image trouble, back in a sec when I'm sorted...

After getting some info on cleaning from a number of posters I found that my wife uses these to remove bit from her teeth.

They work very well and are cheap.

 

[daz]

Airbrush cleaning.

Thought I might trade some tips on this most neglected but important step in modelling. I'd like to hear how others go about it, as has been said, if you don't clean it after you've finished with it, you'll end up chucking it in the bin, and now matter how much you pay out for a good one, without cleaning it ... blah blah. For most Ex and Serving Soldiers keeping it clean comes natural..

1. blow it through to remove unused paint that won't pour back into the bottle, especially if it's been mixed, you don't want to contaminate your stock paint.
2. remove needle and wipe toward the tip.
3.remove the nozzle and gently coax excess paint out from the tip using the needle. inward and outward. Making sure you don't enlarge the delicate brasss tip.

having image trouble, back in a sec when I'm sorted...

Back blast cleaner though the system by capping off the nozzle after withdrawing the needle slightly ...oh, and sometimes boil washing it

 

[smeg-head]

Back blast cleaner though the system by capping off the nozzle after withdrawing the needle slightly ...oh, and sometimes boil washing it

Never heard of boil washing @daz, I tend to wash mine through with a mild solution of thinners and then rinse through with clean water. I make a point of drying all parts after use.

 

[daz]

Never heard of boil washing @daz, I tend to wash mine through with a mild solution of thinners and then rinse through with clean water. I make a point of drying all parts after use.

Very hot tap running very hot water directly into the semi stripped down airbrush, with the airbrush set to max air-pressure .....most likely not recommended by anyone with any sense