Author: Agasp

My “Most Used Tools” that clutter my work area

AgaspLeave a comment

~ My beloved hobby knife by X-acto with #11 blade is THE tool of the trade. The hobby knife is for the modeller what the scalpel is for the surgeon! I put on a new blade every time I start a new build.
~ Sanding sticks, from coarse to extra fine, tapered. Squadron is my favourite brand.
~ A couple of sprue cutters.
~ Tamiya masking tape
~ Glue, of course. My favourite is the Contacta by Revell
~ Putty (as for the sanding sticks, by Squadron mostly). Putty is great. Not only you can use it to fill gaps and seams (you’ll use putty quite a lot), but also to simulate zimmerit paste and to craft tarpaulins, rolled blankets and similar objects made of some kind of fabric.
~ Pin vice. You’ll want to start drilling stuff eventually 😀
~ Tweezers of every shape and size
~ Soldering kit for photo-etch

I also have countless other tools but the ones I just mentioned cover 95% of my needs during the building stage.

Building & Refining – How to replicate anti-slip surfaces

AgaspLeave a comment

Mr Surfacer 500 is stippled on the chosen area using a stiff 6mm wide hogs bristle brush with the bristles cut back to about 3mm long. Areas and protrusions will be carefully masked off using tape and blue tack and then the Surfacer
is applied to small ‘delineated’ areas at a time ‘returning’ to the area previously done to apply a second stippling as each area in turn was tackled.

How to thin Tamiya acrylic paints

AgaspLeave a comment

Well, the best thinner for Tamiya acrylics is… Tamiya’s own thinner!

But if you enjoy mixing stuff, here is a cheap recipe I found a while ago on the Internet. I tried it several times and it works beautifully.

Water (25%) + isopropyl alcohol (75%) + a few drops of food grade glycerine.

The first time I tried it, I was able to prime two 1:35 tanks – with constant pauses (I even had to take a phone call that lasted a few minutes) – and my Iwata never had any kind of clogging during the 40 minutes of spraying session. I have recently filled a couple of one-liter bottles with the stuff spending just a few euros.

————————————-

Another kind of thinner that works with Tamiya (I personally never tried it) is the thinner used for lacquer paints