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cakesmith handyman
Jul 22, 2007

Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

MasterSlowPoke posted:

Buy an ork battlewagon, paint saturn 5 on the side, and mount it on a launching pad.

A Saturn 5 composed of grotbombs & duct tape :haw:

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EvilMuppet
Jul 29, 2006


Good night catte thread, give them all many patts. I'm sorry,
Hows this one? :D
http://moonpans.com/models/SaturnV48.htm

Or a slightly more reasonable Revell one. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Revell-1%2F96-Apollo-Saturn-V-40-years-_W0QQitemZ190317902730QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090629?IMSfp=TL090629154001r6235

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!

Recently reissued, much to my surprise:

http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=RM5088

This kit is actually a pile of crap, but you can play with it and make rocket noises... :dance:

Or you could go batshit loving loco and get the 1/96 version:

http://www.spacetoys.com/proddetail.php?prod=MAPRS5

Sure, it's over $400, but it's also nearly FOUR FEET TALL!

I thought there was a Tamiya model of this out there, but I can't find it. I did, however, find this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-X4z_cRLOY

Holy poo poo.

cakesmith handyman
Jul 22, 2007

Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Yeah, thanks. I found the 1/96 Revell for about £50 over here, I'll have to act surprised if it turns up and the missus gives me that look :v:

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!

Cakefool posted:

Yeah, thanks. I found the 1/96 Revell for about £50 over here, I'll have to act surprised if it turns up and the missus gives me that look :v:

You're going to get a look, for sure. I do hope you've thought about where you're going to put it when it's done...

EvilMuppet
Jul 29, 2006


Good night catte thread, give them all many patts. I'm sorry,
Oh look hun they delivered a spaceship instead of that surprise new dishwasher I ordered you. Those silly internet shop people! Oh dear they seem to have gone out of business so I wont be able to send it back. Never mind this will look great in the middle of the sitting room. :v:

localized
Mar 30, 2008

tunnel for cars posted:

I'm trying to build a double planked hull on this model of the HMS victory but the wood keeps fuckin snapping when I bend it and I can see why this hobby is basically for old faggots that are used to life being disappointing and lovely 24/7

Sorry that this reply is more than a month old, but I just found the thread...You probably have thrown it out or gotten help by now anyways, but you need to soak the planks before you put them on the bulkheads. You should get a book on model ship building or get an easier kit. Bluejacket kits are of high quality and they have a lot of kits that are great for beginners.

Danger - Octopus!
Apr 20, 2008


Nap Ghost
This has been converted a bit for use in Warhammer 40,000 but since it is mostly a 1/35 Italeri kit, here seemed a good place to post it.

MasterSlowPoke
Oct 9, 2005

Our courage will pull us through
I saw you post the jeeps in the warhammer thread, do you know a US supplier?

Danger - Octopus!
Apr 20, 2008


Nap Ghost

MasterSlowPoke posted:

I saw you post the jeeps in the warhammer thread, do you know a US supplier?

Lots of model stores (online and offline) should sell them since they're from two of the big scale model companies, and Ebay too possibly. This one is an Italeri M998 Desert Patrol kit, the other one that I've finished is an Academy M1025.

Amazon has the M998 but I'm not really familiar with US stores since I'm the other side of the ocean, I'm afraid.

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!

Danger - Octopus! posted:

Lots of model stores (online and offline) should sell them since they're from two of the big scale model companies, and Ebay too possibly. This one is an Italeri M998 Desert Patrol kit, the other one that I've finished is an Academy M1025.

Amazon has the M998 but I'm not really familiar with US stores since I'm the other side of the ocean, I'm afraid.

If you're looking for more stuff to stick on a vehicle like this to make it "busier", Tamiya makes some good (and affordable) little accessory sets like this one:

http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=TM35266

Boxes, packs, fuel cans, etc really add something to the look, as long as you don't go completely overboard of course. From the look of your vehicle I'm going to guess it's intended for an Imperial Guard army, which doesn't have the "higher tech" look of the Space Marines...so, most of the armor accessories (even WWII stuff) should fit in with the theme just fine.

Games Workshop doesn't really say what the general scale of their figures and vehicles is, do they? 1:35 seems close but I'm not sure it's consistent across all the various armies and units.

Tossing in some random scratch-building tips here:

"Music wire" or cheap guitar strings make great "hoses" for various usage. They're made up of a core wire that is wrapped with a much smaller wire, giving you the ribbed appearance that, say, an oxygen hose for a fighter pilot would have.

Smaller, solid wire can be found very cheap at the hobby store or even somewhere like Home Depot...in the picture framing department! I use it for adding detail to areas like landing gear bays; shape the wire the way you want it, drill a tiny hole at each stopping point, and dab the end with a bit of superglue before sticking it in.

Styrene is such a pain in the rear end to deal with for making irregularly shaped small parts that I'm now leaning more towards thin brass sheet metal. You can get it in a thickness that's almost, but not quite like foil and it's very easy to cut and shape. Use pliers that don't have "teeth" on the inside of the gripping surface to prevent marring the metal.

While we're on the subject of thin and malleable sheet metal, I recently had an idea that I haven't implemented yet, but it feels like it would probably work:

Let's say that you have a military model, be it armor or aircraft, that you want to give that beat up, battle worn look. Damage is notoriously difficult to model, but there are established ways of creating bullet holes and of course you can do a lot with paint, but...

How do you put dents in plastic? It's very difficult to do so without destroying the model.

So, my idea was to take the area you wish to dent and beat up on the model, remove the existing plastic, put in some styrene sheet as a "backing" on the interior of the model, and then apply your sheet metal to the outside with a layer of epoxy underneath it for support and a strong bond. While the epoxy is still soft, you can put dents in the metal. There are some problems that would need to be worked out, such as blending the edges with the rest of the model, and dealing with areas that are not simply flat but have some raised or recessed detail. However, I think that with the right model, this could produce some really impressive results.

Vaporware
May 22, 2004

Still not here yet.
It's much easier to soften styrene with a heat source then dimple it than fab in a section of brass.

Silhouette
Nov 16, 2002

SONIC BOOM!!!

Powdered Toast Man posted:

Styrene is such a pain in the rear end to deal with for making irregularly shaped small parts that I'm now leaning more towards thin brass sheet metal. You can get it in a thickness that's almost, but not quite like foil and it's very easy to cut and shape. Use pliers that don't have "teeth" on the inside of the gripping surface to prevent marring the metal.

:science: You can use a cheap dollar store pair of pliers and coat the jaws in Plasti-Dip rubber.

localized
Mar 30, 2008
Has anyone tried photoetching brass? I have seen guides for it on other modeling sites but have never seen any homemade brass etchings or talked to anyone who has tried it.

Danger - Octopus!
Apr 20, 2008


Nap Ghost

Powdered Toast Man posted:

Games Workshop doesn't really say what the general scale of their figures and vehicles is, do they? 1:35 seems close but I'm not sure it's consistent across all the various armies and units.

The troops ought to be 1/56, but they're bulked up and have cartoon proportions. Even 1/35 weapons look tiny in the hands of 40k miniatures.

Games Workshop vehicles are a variety of scales even amongst themselves (and some are noticeably a different scale to some of the miniatures. Try to fit ten space marines in a Rhino) and it depends on the kind of vehicle. Generally 1/48 model kits will have similar dimensions to equivalent 40k vehicle types but the details will all be tiny and hatches, handles, weapons and so forth will look miniscule next to 40k models. 1/35 vehicles will be too large next to 40k equivalents but hatches and so forth will look about the right size. Vehicle weapons will still be too small, even at 1/35, for the most part. This L/61 Sturer Emil, for example, is massive in 1/35 and is nearly as long as a 40k Baneblade, from the front of the hull to the back. My personal opinion is that if you're using scale model kits in some kind of wargame that has its own miniatures, you need all your vehicles to be models in that scale otherwise it jars. Anyway, enough about GW :-D

I'm not really enjoying working with photo-etch. The detail is gorgeous sometimes, but it's so drat hard to work with, especially since kit instructions all seem to assume you're inherently good at bending tiny bits of brass and sticking them in place without folding them into a tiny package and gluing them to the desk by mistake.

I have a lot of the various Tamiya and Academy vehicle accessory sprues - I can't reccomend them enough, there are so many awesome bits! I have a nice Humvee accessory sprue that even has a little dog (a mascot I guess) to be cradled by a gunner.

Vaporware
May 22, 2004

Still not here yet.
Unless you have a pressing need or lots of free time the photolithography part of etching is a total pain.

permanoob
Sep 28, 2004

Yeah it's a lot like that.
My dad has always been huge into modeling and it was a big part of us as I grew up. One tool we've always used, which I haven't seen mentioned here is a ruling pen:



Adjust the pen to the desired thickness of glue bead you want, hold your seams together, dip that in your Tenax, run it down the seam, voila. I've never used anything else and can't imagine the job getting done better with any other tool.

Vaporware
May 22, 2004

Still not here yet.
I was always afraid of ruining my pen by leaving it out with glue or ink on it, is it easy to clean up if you let it gum up?

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!

Vaporware posted:

I was always afraid of ruining my pen by leaving it out with glue or ink on it, is it easy to clean up if you let it gum up?

In this case it's not likely to gum up, because Tenax and similar liquid cements simply evaporate. I lost an entire bottle of the stuff one time when I accidentally left the cap off for a couple of days. If you did get some 'melted' styrene stuck in it, lacquer thinner or acetone should clean it off easily.

I have one of these ruling pens in my set of drafting tools and this is a fantastic idea! Thanks for the tip, permanoob!

cakesmith handyman
Jul 22, 2007

Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

I always wondered what those things were, funky. You just dip it into the glue yeah? Might have to look at one. I generally get away with glueing the inside of a seam, but visible glue marks can be unavoidable.

permanoob
Sep 28, 2004

Yeah it's a lot like that.

Vaporware posted:

I was always afraid of ruining my pen by leaving it out with glue or ink on it, is it easy to clean up if you let it gum up?

Plastic will inevitably make its way on the tip. WAit for it to dry, widen the tip and pass an Xacto through it once or twice and it's clean. The plastic doesn't really adhere to the pen.

Cakefool posted:

I always wondered what those things were, funky. You just dip it into the glue yeah? Might have to look at one. I generally get away with glueing the inside of a seam, but visible glue marks can be unavoidable.


Yeah just dip it right in there. It takes some practice to get the right adjustment on the gap as to how much glue you want come out of it. This will fill the seam with glue. If you're getting just the right amount, you'll have minimal, if any, glue marks.

I haven't built something in years. I'm getting a huge nerdy itch to build something sci-fi.

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!

permanoob posted:

I'm getting a huge nerdy itch to build something sci-fi.

I'm in the planning stages of a prop-quality 1:1 replica of the AEP7 Laser Pistol from Fallout 3. When I have something to post, I'll be putting up pictures ITT.

Regarding sci-fi models, you might get a kick out of building a Gundam even if you have never watched the series (I haven't, but I love the mechs). No glue is required, they're pose able, and you can easily add detail with painting if you want although they look just fine without it.

http://www.gundamstoreandmore.com is a good place to start. The 1:144 "High Grade" mechs are cheap but build up into nicely detailed figures.

If Star Trek is your thing, I recommend staying away from most of the Revell/Monogram kits because they're total crap. Some of them certainly have some nice details but the engineering of the kits is so lousy that you'll go insane trying to get everything to fit together like it should. Polar Lights makes some better quality Star Trek kits.

EvilMuppet
Jul 29, 2006


Good night catte thread, give them all many patts. I'm sorry,
How about Alien/s kits? I've always wanted some but never gotten around to getting any. A dropship? The Sulaco? Badass Ripley in the loader? APC, ETC, ETC. Or the one I really want but would need a license to have in my country a 1:1 model of a M41A pulse rifle!

csammis
Aug 26, 2003

Mental Institution
If we're posting sci-fi model wish lists, I wouldn't mind someone releasing kits for more Battlestar Galatica ships. Revell released three from the old BSG series for its 30th anniversary - I built the Viper, didn't like the older Raider or Basestar - but drat drat drat do I want a reimagined-series Battlestar hanging in my office.

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!

csammis posted:

If we're posting sci-fi model wish lists, I wouldn't mind someone releasing kits for more Battlestar Galatica ships. Revell released three from the old BSG series for its 30th anniversary - I built the Viper, didn't like the older Raider or Basestar - but drat drat drat do I want a reimagined-series Battlestar hanging in my office.

The Pegasus:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Battlestar-Pega...%3A1%7C294%3A50

(may she rest in pieces :patriot: )

...made by this guy, who makes some other neat things as well:

http://bambamproductions.blogspot.com/

As with all limited production resin kits, they are expensive. The detail does appear to be very nice, though. I can't seem to find it right now but I know that in the past I've seen re-imagined Basestars, Vipers, and Raiders. Keep an eye on eBay and they may show up again.

EvilMuppet: The Aliens kits are out of production as far as I know, but can still be found in some places if you're lucky...say, the dusty back corner of a comic book store...or eBay, if you don't mind paying out the rear end for them. The little-known, but epic 1:1 Alien Facehugger kit shows up on there occasionally, as well as the usual Halcyon kits. My personal favorite is the dropship. As far as I know, they never produced a model of the Sulaco, but with the "technical manual" you can get that details the Space Marines technology, there's more than enough drawings to build one from scratch... ;)

permanoob
Sep 28, 2004

Yeah it's a lot like that.

Powdered Toast Man posted:

The little-known, but epic 1:1 Alien Facehugger kit shows up on there occasionally, as well as the usual Halcyon kits.
Full resin kit, 3' tall with tail if I remember. I so lusted after that when I was a kid. I may hit up Hobby Lobby on the way home and look for an inexpensive wing kit to get back into the swing of things. It's been a few years since I've built anything.

ASSTASTIC
Apr 27, 2003

Hey Gusy!
Not really models, but prebuild+painted, look up the Hot Toys Alien/Predator action figures if you want to see a quality AvP figure.

They are so freaking detailed its disgusting. I really should have gotten the Hicks when I had a chance :(

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!

ASSTASTIC posted:

Not really models, but prebuild+painted, look up the Hot Toys Alien/Predator action figures if you want to see a quality AvP figure.

They are so freaking detailed its disgusting. I really should have gotten the Hicks when I had a chance :(

Stay frosty. :haw:

EvilMuppet
Jul 29, 2006


Good night catte thread, give them all many patts. I'm sorry,

Powdered Toast Man posted:

EvilMuppet: The Aliens kits are out of production as far as I know, but can still be found in some places if you're lucky...say, the dusty back corner of a comic book store...or eBay, if you don't mind paying out the rear end for them. The little-known, but epic 1:1 Alien Facehugger kit shows up on there occasionally, as well as the usual Halcyon kits. My personal favorite is the dropship. As far as I know, they never produced a model of the Sulaco, but with the "technical manual" you can get that details the Space Marines technology, there's more than enough drawings to build one from scratch... ;)

I beg to disagree, Halcyon made one: 1/2400 Aliens USS Sulaco Model Kit.

:)

TheFuglyStik
Mar 7, 2003

Attention-starved & smugly condescending, the hipster has been deemed by
top scientists as:
"The self-important, unemployable clowns of the modern age."

EvilMuppet posted:

How about Alien/s kits? I've always wanted some but never gotten around to getting any. A dropship? The Sulaco? Badass Ripley in the loader? APC, ETC, ETC. Or the one I really want but would need a license to have in my country a 1:1 model of a M41A pulse rifle!

I'd kill a sweet old lady for one of those 1/1 vinyl chestbursters. Sadly, I can't even find them at Wonderfest.

EvilMuppet
Jul 29, 2006


Good night catte thread, give them all many patts. I'm sorry,

TheFuglyStik posted:

I'd kill a sweet old lady for one of those 1/1 vinyl chestbursters. Sadly, I can't even find them at Wonderfest.

US$15.99 buy it now price. No old ladies required. http://tinyurl.com/nzvj95

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!

EvilMuppet posted:

I beg to disagree, Halcyon made one: 1/2400 Aliens USS Sulaco Model Kit.

:)

:aaaaa:

Curse you, now I must find this at any cost!!!

Edit: Some quick poking around resulted in...well, nothing. It looks like Aoshima re-issued the kit a while back but it's basically sold out everywhere.

Get this, though...apparently there was also a "garage kit" (limited run resin) that was twice the size of the Halcyon model. It's even more unobtainable, though. :smith:

Powdered Toast Man fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Jul 15, 2009

EvilMuppet
Jul 29, 2006


Good night catte thread, give them all many patts. I'm sorry,

Powdered Toast Man posted:

:aaaaa:

Curse you, now I must find this at any cost!!!

Edit: Some quick poking around resulted in...well, nothing. It looks like Aoshima re-issued the kit a while back but it's basically sold out everywhere.

Get this, though...apparently there was also a "garage kit" (limited run resin) that was twice the size of the Halcyon model. It's even more unobtainable, though. :smith:

This place seems to have it in stock, it let me get as far as the checkout with one:
http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Starstore_Catalogue_ALIEN_COLLECTIBLES_1581.html

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!

EvilMuppet posted:

This place seems to have it in stock, it let me get as far as the checkout with one:
http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Starstore_Catalogue_ALIEN_COLLECTIBLES_1581.html

Here's the garage kit I was talking about :

http://www.culttvman.com/kyu-woong_lee_s_sulaco.html

100% resin kits, especially those that are not produced by a top-notch company such as Eduard, are a major pain in the rear end to work with, but the toughness of the resin material allows for much finer and sharper details. So, it's a lot of work, but as you can see from this dude's finished model, it can be very rewarding.

Personally, I've never understood why there isn't more of a market for science fiction models like this, because the engineering should be a lot easier than for an aircraft. With aircraft you also have the challenge of reproducing a real object as accurately as possible. If models existed for ships from Homeworld 2, Descent: Freespace, the Wing Commander series...well, I'd have a fricking fleet of them. I think that as the technology in development for rapid prototyping on the desktop continues to evolve and get cheaper, we'll finally be able to build essentially whatever we want from scratch.

EvilMuppet
Jul 29, 2006


Good night catte thread, give them all many patts. I'm sorry,

Powdered Toast Man posted:

Here's the garage kit I was talking about :

http://www.culttvman.com/kyu-woong_lee_s_sulaco.html

100% resin kits, especially those that are not produced by a top-notch company such as Eduard, are a major pain in the rear end to work with, but the toughness of the resin material allows for much finer and sharper details. So, it's a lot of work, but as you can see from this dude's finished model, it can be very rewarding.

Personally, I've never understood why there isn't more of a market for science fiction models like this, because the engineering should be a lot easier than for an aircraft. With aircraft you also have the challenge of reproducing a real object as accurately as possible. If models existed for ships from Homeworld 2, Descent: Freespace, the Wing Commander series...well, I'd have a fricking fleet of them. I think that as the technology in development for rapid prototyping on the desktop continues to evolve and get cheaper, we'll finally be able to build essentially whatever we want from scratch.

Yeah I know what you mean, I guess there just isn't enough demand for them?

While I was looking for the Sulaco kit above I discovered you can buy pulse rifle conversions for a M1A1 Thompson sub machine gun. That's right you can own a real (kinda) working pulse rifle.

Powdered Toast Man
Jan 25, 2005

TOAST-A-RIFIC!!!
Oh, hell. I hit the jackpot:

http://www.frontiermodels.co.uk

Someone take away my credit cards, quickly! :psyduck:

TheFuglyStik
Mar 7, 2003

Attention-starved & smugly condescending, the hipster has been deemed by
top scientists as:
"The self-important, unemployable clowns of the modern age."

EvilMuppet posted:

US$15.99 buy it now price. No old ladies required. http://tinyurl.com/nzvj95

Just the fact that one is for sale anywhere amazes me, but the fact that it's a Thai recast has me nervous. I've spent more hours fixing pinholes and chips on a Thai recast of a figure than is humanly bearable. :(

I may wind up plunking down for it anyway and suffer through the massive amount of repair work ahead. It's one of my loving grail kits.

JD Brickmeister
Sep 4, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

EvilMuppet posted:

How about Alien/s kits? I've always wanted some but never gotten around to getting any. A dropship? The Sulaco? Badass Ripley in the loader? APC, ETC, ETC. Or the one I really want but would need a license to have in my country a 1:1 model of a M41A pulse rifle!

Where do you live that you need a license for a TOY gun, let alone a make believe science fiction gun? Do kids who pick up sticks that are vaguely gun shaped and point them at someone get mandatory counseling?

EvilMuppet
Jul 29, 2006


Good night catte thread, give them all many patts. I'm sorry,

JD Brickmeister posted:

Where do you live that you need a license for a TOY gun, let alone a make believe science fiction gun? Do kids who pick up sticks that are vaguely gun shaped and point them at someone get mandatory counseling?

Australia, and this kind of thing might be considered a 'replica' rather than a toy here. The gubment here is rather strict with gun laws.

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Archer2338
Mar 15, 2008

'Tis a screwed up world
So, erm, I finally manned up and decided to get a start on scale modeling (military). Except that I have no idea where to start. The OP gives some useful info, but for a complete beginner like me, a lot of those stuff just fly over my head.

Can anyone recommend a nice, comprehensive guide/introduction to scale modeling? I live in Korea, which means I should have plenty of access to Japanese model kits. Just that I don't know which kit to start with, which tools are necessary, etc.

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