Scratchbuilding Materials and Tools Thread

[MechTech]

I recently purchased a bunch of materials to help in building my Daedalus. I also realized a lot of it had poor pictures and little or no review from where I purchased them. This thread is dedicated to reviewing scratch building materials and tools - NOT MACROSS specific items. I'm hoping this helps us ALL out in the community with whatever projects we are working on or thinking of starting. - MT

[MechTech]

Hasegawa Trytool Engraving sets

(TP-1 and TL-2)

For those of you who would like to add some access panel lines or hundreds of other types of engraved detail to your model, these two sets are awesome!

Top three panels are from TP-1 and the bottom two with scribe is set TL-2.

Template Set 1 (TP-1) looks more aircraft specific, but there are hundreds of other uses for it. TL-2 Looks more mecha specific and even comes with this handy guide on the back to show you how to make compound shapes.

Several of our resident artists have used these templates very successfully to engrave panel lines into the master models they've made prior to molding copies. The scribe that comes with TL-2 is not fine enough for some of the shapes. That's no problem. Go out, get some hand sewing needles and put whatever size you need into a pin-vise. Or shove it into piece of wooden dowel with a pair of pliers (some glue on the end will help secure it).

Using the templates is easy, tape them onto the surface to scribe and keep the needle 90 degrees vertical AT ALL TIMES. If you angle it you will mess up the perfect shape. Start by going around the shape slowly and SOFTLY. Too much pressure and you may move the template out of the tape, or skip out of the groove. If you skip off course, use a bit of superglue in the unwanted line and sand it down when cured.

The detail you can add to a kit or project with these two sets is amazing. Try them out if you've been thinking about, you won't be disappointed! - MT

Edited May 19, 2008 by MechTech

[MechTech]

Various Joint Sets

--The following parts may be used on 1/72nd kits down to 1/200th scale kits--

Yellow Submarine Double Ball Joint Set (clear)

Kotobukiya D-72 H-Joints

Kotobukiya D-101b Ball Joints

Ever wish you were double jointed? Your model can be. Yellow Sub's PPC-T05 is an actual set of double ball joints in sizes from 5mm wide, 7.5mm wide and 9mm wide (at the largest diameter - the mouth of the female joint).

An important note on these. These aren't your Gundam kit leftover polycaps! This set is made of clear polycarbonate plastic (Lexan). I would have never thought of using this material in combination with a styrene, but a little superglue and you'll be good to go (rough up the gluing tabs and clean with solvent for best results). Other colors are available.

The fit is more than snug and I had to use pliers to get the parts together (9mm)! No white stress marks after doing some test moves with it either. These will keep your model together and hold it there! "(won't loose long time )"

Kotobukiya makes some awesome mecha kits and all sorts of "extras" that I wish I had in my early modeling days! D-72 or the H-Joint set (ABS Unit 2) is made out of ABS. Stronger than styrene and once again some super glue and the tabs at the end of the joints will make it stick. The joint ends are 3.5mm square, 5.2mm square and 6mm square. I bought this set because the smaller size will do 1/200th Destroid joints easily. One end can join another end for a single motion joint, or an "H" piece will allow you to connect two ends together to make a double joint (these just can't move 3D, just 2D). I haven't opened mine yet so I can't tell you about the fit quality. I do know they sell out a lot!

Kotobukiya makes the smallest sized ball joint sets I have seen (next to some kits thumb bits). Why buy something this small (5mm outside at the mouth opening)? The answer can be found here:http://www.geocities.jp/sidenet_note/sidematerial/regult/regult.html

How else can you add that kind of movement to your model short of buying it in a Revoltech toy? NOTE: this guy cut notches in one side to increase forward movement on the joint. These are not soft polycap material, but a little harder. Fit is good and snug, but too much movement and the ball will pop out. Limited range of motion for that reason. If you need a ball joint this small, like for a small hand, this will work fine.

This only lists the three sets I purchased to test, but still covers a lot of the set types out there. Most of these come in color variants as well. Hopefully this will add some "life" to your display model. - MT