MechTech

In the future, use Pine Sol to strip paint off your models. TEST it first on something expendable just in case. I've safely used it before. - MT

What a masterpiece Arbit! That came out great! That is something show quality AND cool. Its one thing to build a model and another to make it come alive! Congrats on another great build! @ Jaustin89 - If you paint your parts, just make sure to wash the parts first thoroughly and rinse/dry thoroughly too. The models have mold release waxes or grease on them and the paint or glues won't adhere properly. I think you will find the Frame Arms kits go together easily. Assemble pieces first and decide if you want to paint. Some of the kits won't need much paint if you just want to have fun. See if you like the hobby first. I think you will enjoy though! My son and I love building robot kits together. - MT

That came out AWESOME Arbit!!! Somebody's video game privileges should be revoked! The only thing that struck me funny was "Darth Vader's Theme" from the first video. One couple had that played at their wedding as the bride came down the isle The Viggen and VF-1J are looking great too guys! - MT

Looking good guys! I've been so busy building, I haven't been posting pictures or getting on my PC much at home. On the computer all day drawing at work, don't wanna come home and get back on the PC. - MT

Some cool stuff everyone! Derex, have you tried poring some resin into the old canopies and made some new ones out of the plugs? Vacuum forming some new ones really is not too tough. Plus you can use the skills on some other projects later on. - MT

LOTS of AWESOME stuff guys! I wish I had more time to get online and keep up with everything. Arbit, that Falcon is going to be an engineering masterpiece when you're done! - MT

That came out great! I would have given up and got a wig to put on her. That is some crazy folding! - MT

That came out great Electric Indigo! I like the color scheme. Very different from a lot of conventional schemes. That looks great Urashiman! Nice n clean, but well colored in the panel lines. - MT

Looking cool Arbit! There are several types of solvents that melt styrene, but Lacquer thinner, Methyle-Ethyl Ketone and Acetone are most common. MEK is what a lot of glues like Testors are made with. I just got Tamiya for the first time (love their tiny applicator brush) and it smells like lacquer thinner to me. PLEASE test on scrap styrene pieces. Sometimes pieces will craze, so test first to also check bonds. Pure solvents also dry faster too. - MT

That looks cool! Nice photography too! - MT

Hey Arbit, that will look cool! Two things. Don't worry about lightly sanding and then buffing it out to get rid of the outer seams. Its a pain, but not too difficult. Second, make sure you use a solid solvent type glue. Those with acrylic fillers in them will eventually yellow a bit. I've got old models I never painted and that's what happened to them. You may be able to place one or two lights around it and get it lit up. Clear parts are cool in that they conduct light like fiber optics. I think this will look cool! - MT

Your modelling and samples look REALLY good! I'd love to see how this turns out! - MT

This thread brings new meaning to the term "Coming to life off the paper!" This is looking great! - MT

The print looks pretty good. It doesn't look too badly biased either (the layered lines). - MT

That's a GREAT idea and came out great too! - MT

That's some awesome papercraft! - MT

Your Yamato came out great Peter! Especially in that scale. - MT

That's cool! Great conversions! - MT

TAMIYA PAINT SALE! MicroMark has most of their Tamiya paints on sale (minus the newer special metalics)! These are the .75oz/23ml ones -NOT the little mini ones! $2.39 each and their surface primers are on sale too. I ordered a ton since most of mine are 16-30 years old (no, not a typo). Most everything was in stock too! Link: https://www.micromark.com/search?keywords=tamiya paint If you haven't looked at their tools, try not to drool on your computer and ruin it! Sorry I haven't been online much guys, too busy! I'm glad to see Urashiman is still alive too! It's been too long man - MT

Hey Arbit. I don't know about a cap for each item, but it may help. It DRASTICALLY (but not completely) reduced the flashing, and therefore surges. You turn it on and it takes a second to charge before the lights come on - kinda cool. - MT

Lots of cool stuff guys! I've been too busy to get online lately for hobby stuff. Gotta finish the Dougram Ironfoot by midmonth to make it to the next modelr's meeting. I was pratically dared too. On that note, getting there! You can see the cheap $1.00 LED board I used then replaced the LEDs on it by soldering the dashboard lights in. The flashing lights caused the white "headlights" to blink so I soldered a huge capacitor in series to give the white lights a steadier stream of power. The red button on the back selects the blinking modes. All the dash board lights can flash in a given sequence now to add action. I cut short aluminum tube segments on my lathe then placed them over a thick piece of wire after cleaning up the edges. That's how I got more realistic looking armored tubes. I think I'll keep them and the smoke discharger barrels raw aluminum for some "bling." Ironfoot should be called "leadfoot" after putting batteries in them to power everything. Thansk for your feedback guys and I'll try and get online more this week. Hopefully things have calmed down somewhat work wise. - MT

Great looking builds guys! Pengbuzz, your photos are so dark I can hardly see them.

They still are cool! Sound cool too! - MT

Those figures look AWESOME NZEOD! The white one sitting in the cockpit looks like he was Photo Shopped in! Valhary - That is a cool concept and I look forward to seeing it done. By the way, you can flush mount and paint the magnets to help hide them where possible. I like your idea! Nyankodevice - What model is that? It looks similar to the other one you did in design. That's a cool looking tank. Is it SD? Arbit, those colors are new to me too as undercoats. They look great all the same. My last modelers club meeting theme was "Reel Models" - anything from TV or movies. We all brought in military hardware and this guy brings in all sorts and scales of movie cowboy figures from 1/6 busts down to 1/48th scale figures on horseback. He only uses cheap acrylics and his stuff looked awesome! He won the award that night too. I wonder if he uses some of those same effects? Nice diamond! I forgot to take photos of the main mecha body, but I'm working on an original Takara 1/48 Ironfoot / Hasty from Dougram (Gartan from the Revell Robotech line). I had the kit when I was a kid and hastily built it (my Macross models got all the attention) and since the kit I just bought is getting so rare and expensive to buy, I wanted to add detail to this one. The hatch opens exposing the cockpit so you can see everything inside it. I thought it would be cool to use fiber optics in the cockpit so I went that route. I was just using toy quality fiber so it kept breaking despite watching the angles (I used to fabricate fiber cables in communications systems). Plus gluing it to the cockpit areas defused the light wherever the glue went. Aftre three days of this I gave up! So I got out my little box of surface mount LEDs I scrapped from busted electronics and wired them up with micro insulated wire. Then glued them to each panel in the cockpit. The first picture is the lights and wires glue in place solid. The second photo shows the cockpit in place. The chrome paint still needs to be cleaned off the monitors here. The third photo is of the smoke launchers. Everything in the anime has a rifled barrel so I rifled the barrels too. They attach with a screw in the back so they will mount solid without easily being broken. All of the flashing lights will connect to a $1 light stick board that changes the flashing rate with each push of a button. More lights and details will be added. - MT

Lots of great stuff guys! Too busy to photograph, but primed my ship from months ago and a couple of other kits ion the bench. - MT