David Hingtgen

If a Millia (or Emilia etc) becomes available, I vote for BBi compatability.

Desert what? Testors has added a lot of various desert tan/sand/yellow colors to their lines recently, most anything you could need. (Except desert pink I think, which is actually about the best, most "normal" looking desert color their is) PS--Australia's current version of the chocolate chip camo schem is awesome, way cooler than ours (US). ::Edit:: Camo sheets! All the info diagrams/colors you could ask for: PPS--the coolest desert camo there is, is what Israel uses on their F-16's. http://users.skynet.be/exotic.planes/pictu...or/f16c_iaf.jpg http://users.skynet.be/exotic.planes/pictu...or/f16a_iaf.jpg Here's the USAF's standard generic sand scheme: http://users.skynet.be/exotic.planes/pictu...lor/f16sand.jpg Lots more schemes: http://users.skynet.be/exotic.planes/htm/o...her/schemes.htm

I saw this somewhere too but forgot to post it. (Mari doing the voice) Also, the most recent issue of PSM had a demo of the game on it (non-playable). I just wish Jet was one of the main characters. Who's idea was it to make the redhead a secondary character?!?!? (Yes, I own the Jet figure--can't resist a redhead in black)

Well, after 3 entire bottles of 5L 1943 grey (I have to go back to the hobby shop tomorrow and buy more, and tell the owner to order more--I've used his entire stock up) the majority of my Iowa is in its overall color. My super-el-cheapo $18.44-at-Walmart airbrush did fine. To VF-19: Thanks for the tip about the propellant can--I unscrewed the adaptor about 1.5 turns, and I do think it lowered the pressure coming out. I got much better results than I have before, using the same paint/thinner ratio. All in all, it went better than I hoped. Of course, nothing ever goes perfect, and I'll have to totally strip 2 parts, sand and repaint two more (might strip them anyway, could be easier), go over all the 5-in guns again (despite them getting more coats anyway), and try to remove dust/lint from one entire batch. (No matter how hard you try, some parts will get lint on them RIGHT before you spray). But all in all, it went quite well. For only having 5 parts come out poorly out of probably 40 major and 70 minor parts, that's a great ratio for me. (Hey, for my starship, I had to redo the ENTIRE saucer and shuttle bay after dropping it about 20 secs after painting it) To redo a few parts like this is nothing. Finally---since the lower hull isn't ready yet, I didn't paint my 30.25 inch long piece. That'll be a few days from now, when I do "round two". (Which will be the masts, radar, gun tubs, and anything that needs to be redone from the first round). Then we're on to actually painting the dazzle camoflage pattern. Maybe after I'm done with this and the Tirpitz and The Sullivans, I might do a Yukikaze plane. (I'd paint it black and titanium, it'd just look cool)

1/6 Millia would sell better.

But as I said--if there was any color even close to what I need in a spray, I'd use it. I got acceptable results last time, but that was the first time out of several attempts. I'm looking for advice so that I can consistently replicate what I got a week ago, rather than trial and error every time (wasting much paint and thinner).

Airbrush: super el-cheapo Testors. (Hey, I plan to airbrush like 3 kits in the next 3 years--I'm not spending much---90% of what I need I can get in a spray, this is ONLY for those colors I cannot buy in a spray) Yes, I plan to do it from a can of propellent. (Hey, I've got several by this point) I know I know, everybody on this forum would say get a real airbrush and a compressor. But I'm not going to spend that kind of money for the few models I do. If anybody made a spray-can color even close to what I need, I'd use it. Paint: Model Master Acrylic Marine. So assume I'll have little control over the PSI, as it's pretty much on/off with these. (And rather high AFAIK). But I am used to this, for it's all I've ever done with airbrushing. Paint flow/thinning is about the only variable. Anyways, my main problem lately has been the paint clogging/clumping, as right at the nozzle. It sometimes doesn't even get to the air stream it seems. Will sometimes leave "clumps" of semi-dry paint deposited onto the surface. The only reference I can find (and it matches my symptoms exactly) in a Fine Scale Modeler indicates I should thin the paint even more. --but I'm already thinning it more than recommended. (3:1 paint/thinner)

Ok, *TURBOFAN* intakes are clean. Even 30-year old F-14's I've stuck my head up in are smooth and shiny.

Lightning 06---yeah, that's the one thing it can do well---a stealthy faster Harrier. (I think it'd be a much better Sea Harrier replacement than Harrier II replacement, but that's a whole 'nother thread) Nied--pretty sure it's still 339.

Impulse crystals are the brightest part of the entire ship (left), followed by the warp field generators:

It's actually much brighter than this, BTW.

Lit!

Unlit

Lit

Well, nowadays they make brass templates for the aztec pattern, too. Covers the whole kit--just spray the whole kit white, then apply the templats, and spray your "not white" and you're done. (The trick is getting them all lined up--it's like 16 segments for the saucer). And the Excelsior kit is small/bad enough it's usually not worth it. I've only seen two lit-up aztec-ed Excelsiors ever. (Both were Modified Ent-B styles however, like mine) Unlit:

I see the point for the "first day" thing, but I mean--F-117, plus B-2, plus the almost-sorta-stealthy B-1B should be more than enough. We've got a lot more stealthy stuff now than for '91. (When B-1B's were still pretty much nuke-only, and B-2's not in service). And, with plenty of F-15C's, that opens up the F/A (blech) -22 to stuff JDAMS in its belly for the first day and act like an F-117 (though less stealthy). J A Dare---the F-16XL was in direct competition to the F-15E. And the F-15E was even cheaper than the XL, since there's very little to change between an F-15D and E. Thus F-15E was chosen. (I do believe the 15E was superior in most aspects, though I bet XL won on range--I'd have to look it all up though)

Ok, if all goes well, I plan to airbrush the majority of my USS Iowa kit tomorrow/this week. I have a grand total of about 1 hour of airbrushing experience. Now, this is a 1/350 battleship, which means I have pieces from 4 to 30 inches long. (Most 1-3 inches though, only a half-dozen surpass 6 inches ). Now, I've got it primered with a nice light grey, so I should definitely be able to get one-coat coverage. (Since it ALMOST did it with a much darker background when I was doing some testing on the undersides). Anyways, unlike most "fine spray/dot/camoflage/weathering" uses for airbrushes, I'm using it to cover BIG areas with a nice even coat. Any hints/suggestions for thinning, air pressure, etc? I just want to cover several square feet (it's big, I can sit Yammies on the aft deck) with a single color. (And then repeat the process late for all the decks with a different color).

Last pic for now, will post shots of it all lit up later. (.8 amps to light it up, BTW) (might move to a new thread, this is getting OT) (it's REALLY hard to photograph at night lit up---comes out very dark no matter what--trust me, the thing is blazing bright at night, can light up the room--it's not just your standard bulbs, it's flourescent bright---it's actually the same tech used by the Air Force for those bright glowing position light strips on the wingtips and tail) (yes, the underside of the pylon joints are ugly with visible seams---they're not designed to have wires run through them, nor do they fit at all well in the first place--so they are as they are (and most people don't look at the bottom of the pylons anyway)--it's the one place I simply couldn't fill the seams without really messing up detail/wiring)

Only shot I have of the grey (and the ship is dark when not lit up--the warp engines are hand-polished inside and out with buffed transparent blue paint, BTW, they look amazing when the sun hits it--like sapphires) (impulse engines are not buffed, they're too inset to catch the light)

Gerwalker--very nice battroid. As for bare finger--not totally bare, covered in microset. Info about my USS Lakota: Ertl kit of course, which is basically an Excelsior with aftermarket parts. (They DON'T fit well, I used 1/8" styrene to fill gaps, not .020 or something). Clear resin replacement planetary sensor dome (clear lights on saucer bottom), replacement impulse crystals (light blue), replacement bussard ramscoops (deep blue), replacement torpedo tubes and launcer, fore and aft, replacement deflector dish (deep blue). Carved out the trench in the deflector dish (missing from the kit), and carved out all the opaque parts to replace the pieces mentioned about. Resin parts here: http://www.federationmodels.com/products/d...dlm/default.htm (quite a ways down for Ent-B parts) Most importantly, I lit it up. There's dozens of wires in the thing, but only 1 resistor. Lit via lightsheet, which is the ACTUAL WARP ENGINE GLOW stuff used for Excelsior class ships on DS9. It's the perfect color, amazing stuff. It's paper thin, but glows as bright as flourescent bulbs, is naturally light blue, doesn't heat up. And easy to wire. Warp engines, ramscoops, and deflector dish have this. Impulse engines and saucer use micro-bulbs, crystals have full-size bulbs run at lower power. (Was going to use LED's, but it was easier to just use bulbs at low power due to how the saucer is wired). I really wished I'd take some pics of the wiring before I sealed it up, the thing is PACKED with electronics. (I had to sand the interior of the warp engines to stuff the wires in---24 vs 26 gauge wire made the difference-it's THAT packed in there). If something truly horrific ever happens to the model, there are quick disconnects from the saucer just above the deflector, and forward of the nacelle mount above the shuttlebay. Anyways---decals are from http://www.thomasmodels.com/. VERY complete, as I said, I didn't paint any blue or grey. (Except for 2 stripes on the pylons). You can order any ship there is (Ent-B and Lakota being the most popular for the Modified Excelsior clas) Windows are decals, (only about 4 per side, I wasn't to cut the clear from hundreds of black dots). THAT was a lot of work to get what is basically a big clear decal with black specs to lay down over the grid pattern of the hull painted flat white. Saucer windows generally in groups of 6. Here's the decals:

Want weathering? 1. Don't weather inside the intakes themselves. Even old planes have clean shiny intakes. (Because its very important that they do). 2. DIRTY VENTRAL FINS. F-14's usually have horrendously dirty ventral fins, right where they join the fuselage. 3. Do each rivet individually. (This is an F/A-18C, left side, right above the stab).

Landing gear generally retract at "straight" angles--i.e. straight forward/back or straight left/right. Rarely do they swing at an angle. Anyways, here's how it *should* work, based on real-life planes: Gear doors open fully, and the gear retracts back WHILE the wheel rotates 90 degrees to lie flat. It's simultaneous, not a two-step process. When the gear is half-way retracted, the wheel should be half-way turned. Wheels rotate at the oleo strut. (The shiny chrome one, just a bit above the wheel itself). It's not JUST the wheel, nor the whole thing--more like the lower third or so of the gear. If you get REALLY technical, I would guess that the rotation is actually inside the oleo strut, so the visible of the exterior portion of the oleo itself wouldn't appear to move. VF-1's have very very simple main gear struts. Simply move forward and back 90 degress. Not a whole bunch of retraction stuts, door struts, drag struts, scissor linkages, etc. Just the one main strut and that's about it. (Very similar to a YF-23's gear actually, which is basically a slimmed-down straightened-out F-18 gear). If you want a real-life example to follow, check out an F-16's nose-gear. It's a single-wheel gear that rotates 90 degrees as it retracts backwards. That's what you need, isn't it? PS--for detail, I've got lots of F-18 gear well pics, even an A-10's nose gear well. And of course, F-14 pics.

Grayson--that's exactly it. Microset does too---it just takes longer! Microsol will destroy many a decal. But you can soak a decal in microset for an hour, and it'll be fine. It will go down snug against the paint just as tightly as the paint adheres to the plastic. As I said, microset+time will let the decal pick out every panel, rivet, surface imperfection, etc. Sheesh, I can make sanding marks appear, if I've got a decal over a thin layer of paint. Microsol is too strong and unneccessary 99% of the time. Here's my USS Lakota, for which I only painted white and steel. All blue and grey and red is decal:

Radar range is said to be 90 miles---2/3 that of the F-22. It's the same radar basically as the 22, just a lower-power version. Missile stand-off range should be about the same as the F-22, whatever that is. (AMRAAM's range is still classified. 30 miles is a good guess, but 10-20 is optimum. However, when launched in supercruise, range goes up. How much, still classified). F-35 is like a slower, less stealthy F-22. Overall the same idea, just cheaper and not quite as good. And WAY less payload. That's the F-35's main suckiness (I'm not an F-35 fan, BTW---it's the F-16 replacement, even though it's worse than the F-16 in many ways). It carries *two* weapons. Either 2 JDAM's, 2 AMRAAM's, or one of each. That's it. And, since the AMRAAM is a medium-range missile, the F-35 is so totally screwed in a dogfight. And it's not manueverable enough to to use its gun well. (Though the gun should be superior to most any other gun). Now, the F-35 should be decently manueverable, it just won't have any weapons. The F-22 is designed to be quite fast, quite stealthy (but still less than a F-23), and carry 6-8 missiles, both short and medium range, and take out a lot of bad guys quickly. As it gets close, it still has great manueverability, short-range missiles, and a gun, so it can still dogfight if things come to that. But the F-35--I don't know WHAT it's supposed to do. (Neither do a lot of people). F-16 replacement is often cited, but it's so not. F-16 is originally an AWESOME close-range dogfighter. Unbeatable at "knife-range", can turn on a dime. Designed to use short-range missiles. So how can a plane without short-range missiles be a replacement? Also, F-16C's and such have a very good bombing ability. Because they can carry lots of weapons. No point in a bomber with only 1 or 2 bombs. (Except the F-117, because it's ULTRA stealthy, and is used to deliver a few big bombs to very well-defended, high-value targets)---F-35 can't do that, it's not stealthy enough, and doesn't carry as big bombs. F-35 is designed to be "as good as the F-16/18" in the strike role, and have a secondary air defense capability. Well, if you add the extra pylons on to it the F-35 can carry as much stuff as an F-16/18, but then it's lost its stealth. So you have a new, expensive F-35 that's only as good as the 16/18. And it's certainly 2nd-rate as a fighter. What's the point? It does have good range though. Lots of fuel. More than an F-15. (Not a lot more, but more---but since it only feeds one engine, instead of two like the F-15, it can go quite far) However, F-15's usually load up on 3 huge drop tanks--another 50%. And then add FAST packs to an F-15 for even more. Can't do that on a F-35 without totally losing its stealthiness. (There is NO POINT in a stealth plane that can lose its stealthiness, IMHO )

I've always found "smooth surface" (and the 20 steps associated) to be over-rated. I rock at decals, and apply directly to whatever the paint is. Flat white and flat dark ghost grey lately. The secret is TIME. Give the microset TIME to work. It's not going to work in 30 secs. Give it like 5-10 minutes, 30 for a BIG decal. I never ever use microsol, there's no need--it's just for impatient people (unless you're trying to do a 120-degree bend in the decal). Microset and time will allow ANY decal to conform perfectly even to a flat, rough finish. How *I* decal (with amazing results). 1. Trim the clear! ALL of it. The factory job is never good enough, unless they're the best of the best of aftermarket decals. 2. Brush microset over where you'll put it. 3. Put decal in water for a few secs. Just dunk it then pull it out---just enough to saturate the paper. 4. Brush microset over decal (while still on paper). (I don't always do this, but definitely for big decals). 5. Apply decal to model. Soak the thing in microset. Microset is your friend. (This is opposite of what Gerwalker said, and opposite of how most people do it--but I get perfect results, so I say do it my way) (I've had decals silver ONCE of all the models I've built, and that's when I forgot to use microset) Don't remove the excess early--for the first 5 minutes of that decal's existence on the model, it should be soaked in microset, with a puddle on top of it. 6. Use brush, fingers, q-tip, whatever to push the decal on so it's nice and snug. 7. Most important step: NOW (not earlier, not until you've got it in place and nice and snug) carefully soak up the excess water/microset using a napkin/paper towel. Get ALL of it. PRESS the decal, you want to basically squeegee it. Water under the decal it what causes silvering- (air bubbles are created by the water, thus water is the true cause). It's also what causes them to lift off. So you want to really get the decal RIGHT against the surface, and remove all the water. The microset helps with this. 8. Clear coat. (Well, more like "let decals DRY then clear coat")