Tamiya-money for old rope?

[Burger_Patrol1]

Painless, Burger, gp100, and others, thanks for your thoughts. The confusion here is between 'tow rope' (ropes hint at fibres of some sort, like hemp), and a 'tow cable'- or hawser, generally made of metal. Tanks have tow cables, and are best represented by metal flex of some sort- preferably, one that lends itself to being immortalised in paint. String..well, it's best used for conkers or for puppets and parcels. ..and doubtless any other things....

Hi 43rdRecceReg,
It is Still quite a bummer that Tamiya would put some cheesy string in there expensive full option kit to represent a Tow cable...
Which full option kit was it?
If your looking for some options, I have an Aber German Tow cable & Track cable set sitting on my work bench that I never used, that I could send you

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[Max-U52]

Hey Roy, how's tricks?

First, what the hell do you want with an SE5A? If you're gonna build a kite, build a D-7!!!

For your rope/cable problem, I'd take a brush and apply Future floor wax. It should soak in and make the fibers lay down, and once hardened should last well and accept paint very well. I believe it's called Pledge with Klear in the UK, but it's made by Johnson's and is a staple for every static model builder on this side of the puddle. I use it for a sealer coat before decals and it works just great to get decals with that "painted on" look, and once cured it can be painted over and dulcote sticks to it just great. Here's one example



Before applying all those decals I gave the whole jet a clear coat of Future and then applied decals, finishing up with a coat of dulcote. Future can be brushed on easily (it's self leveling) or sprayed from an airbrush straight out of the bottle.

After I butchered that rapist and found myself a guest of the state I found I had a lot of time on my hands so I started making these jewel boxes (the ones with the drawers have a false bottom to hide the secret compartments). Believe it or not, these are made from the cardboard backs of legal pads, laminated together in layers, covered with paper and then about 10 coats of future floor wax. It makes for a great clear-coat, it's hard and durable and has a multitude of uses when building models of any type.

[43rdRecceReg]

Painless, Burger, gp100, and others, thanks for your thoughts. The confusion here is between 'tow rope' (ropes hint at fibres of some sort, like hemp), and a 'tow cable'- or hawser, generally made of metal. Tanks have tow cables, and are best represented by metal flex of some sort- preferably, one that lends itself to being immortalised in paint. String..well, it's best used for conkers or for puppets and parcels. ..and doubtless any other things....

Hi 43rdRecceReg,
It is Still quite a bummer that Tamiya would put some cheesy string in there expensive full option kit to represent a Tow cable...
Which full option kit was it?
If your looking for some options, I have an Aber German Tow cable & Track cable set sitting on my work bench that I never used, that I could send you

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Well, BP., that is certainly a very generous offer. Steve, the 'Welshdragon' sells Aber tow cables, and if it were anything other than a matter of principle, I would have bought a set from him and kept my virtual trap shut.
As far as I can tell, though- and to answer your question about which kits contain bits of string, I think they all do. Worse still, Tamiya string actually has a part number How bizarre is that? Mind you, the Japanese (you gotta love 'em) did come up with Takeshi's Castle...a sort of sado-masochistic version of the European 'Jeux sans Frontiere"
Thus far, my collection of sting has been bolstered by KT, and Panther G kits. As you may have gathered, my Tamiya Pz IV project is sourced entirely from spares and a few supportive donations, and loans. Not being a kit as such,
I was deprived of the generous string provision a kit offers.. . Come to think of it, a shoelace snapped on a walk in the mountains the other day..and a bit of quality Tamiya string would have been the perfect solution...

I note that we have a SWAPS sub-forum here, though I've never used it. Your Aber cable looks like it's the one for the Tiger and King Tiger, and might look a tad like big brother's shoes when worn by the Panzer IV..but I'd happily give it a try. If you really want it gone, and would let me offset the postage via Paypal, then do PM me and I'll tell you where to send it..
I have Tamiya KT Zimmerit to offer to someone in need, and I also have some Tiger I zimmerit I'm not likely to use. Cheers.
Roy

[43rdRecceReg]

Hey Roy, how's tricks?

First, what the hell do you want with an SE5A? If you're gonna build a kite, build a D-7!!!

For your rope/cable problem, I'd take a brush and apply Future floor wax. It should soak in and make the fibers lay down, and once hardened should last well and accept paint very well. I believe it's called Pledge with Klear in the UK, but it's made by Johnson's and is a staple for every static model builder on this side of the puddle. I use it for a sealer coat before decals and it works just great to get decals with that "painted on" look, and once cured it can be painted over and dulcote sticks to it just great. Here's one example



Before applying all those decals I gave the whole jet a clear coat of Future and then applied decals, finishing up with a coat of dulcote. Future can be brushed on easily (it's self leveling) or sprayed from an airbrush straight out of the bottle.

After I butchered the rapist, I found I had a lot of time on my hands so I started making these jewel boxes (the ones with the drawers have a false bottom to hide the secret compartments). Believe it or not, these are made from the cardboard backs of legal pads, laminated together in layers, covered with paper and then about 10 coats of future floor wax. It makes for a great clear-coat, it's hard and durable and has a multitude of uses when building models of any type.

Tricks, Gary? Well, I sometimes wish I were a magician. In April,I'm probably going into a pro Recording Studio to perform a few musical tricks..and that would, for me, tick off another 'bucket list item". My nephew (one of you yankee people!)
is in a band in Massachusetts, and they've just finished their latest studio album...and so the need to compete is still there, even though I'm drawing a pension
There's some sage advice on decorating models there Gary. By coincidence, I was just about to open a thread up on the subject of pin washes. I'm OK at building- even scratch building models, but I'll freely admit I remain a novice at painting them.
The Clear coat business makes sense, except that I've read horror stories lately, of a clear coat ruining a carefully prepared paint job- by going all milky..
"..After I butchered the rapist, I found I had a lot of time on my hands.." ? I just can't get this sentence out of my mind. I'm guessing it's a joke.. But if not, more power to your murdering elbow
As for the D7...well, anyone with the screen name 'Max U-52' would be a dead cert for that . ..However.....my Grandma's younger brother, Ralph, was in the RFC in WW1 and serviced the SE5A. And... (yes, you should never begin a sentence with a co-ordinating conjunction.)..and..it's also a great looking biplane! Incidentally..beginning a sentence with "So", should merit being shot at dawn
Hope all's well with you and the feline friends. Time, I think, for a 1:4 project for you. I imagine there's a bit of an anticlimax, after your epic tussle with that 1:6 Hetzer!

[Max-U52]

I guess I forgot that "How's tricks" is mainly an American saying, meaning basically, "How's it going?"

I've heard a couple stories about clear coat going milky, but it's pretty rare and usually clears up after a couple days, sometimes with another coat of clear. For me the painting is a big part of the fun, and I've been trying to get better at painting markings with stencils. On this rather dusty FW190 I did my own stencils for the Green Heart and the black 7.



As for the rapist, that was no joke. He didn't die, but he did spend 8 days in intensive care and then 2 months in regular hospital. I thought you knew about that. Back in 1997 it was, and it was really a case of self defense and defense of another, but the American legal system really isn't about truth or justice or guilt or innocence, it's basically just a game. I think it was Mark Twain who said, "A jury trial is where 12 people get together to determine which side has the best lawyer". The part that killed me was that they gave me 16 years for stabbing the rapist, while he only got 6 years for raping my friend. He was back on the streets before I was. Go figure.

As for the SE5A, I understand now the family connection and I can relate. One of these days I'll get around to trying to backdate this 1/72 U Boot kit from a VIIC to a VIIB, just like the one Opa served on. But I still say if you're gonna spend the time to build one, you might as well go with the very best that WWI had to offer, indisputably the Fokker D-7 (no, I'm not biased at all ).

I don't think I'll ever go 1/4 scale, mainly because of the lack of accessories, but we're still not done with the Hetzer. Lots of guilt there because I've been meaning to get that finished since before Christmas and just haven't gotten to it, mainly out of laziness. But, I cut myself some slack because I know winter is definitely not my season. I tend to hibernate a lot and don't really get much done, but spring is just around the corner so we'll see what happens.

[43rdRecceReg]

Hmmm ..things I did know, and things I didn't, Gary. Given the massive exposure to US TV and Flicks we have here, there can't be many- if any- sayings, argot, cussing, and idioms we've not heard over here. That includes, 'How's tricks'. I was just feigning innocence . Thus..I did know that...and I know it in several languages. What I didn't know, was the story behind the payback you've just outlined, and the consequences for you.
I've known some extreme moments in my own life, and a modicum of violence too; but nothing so close to the limits of existence that this was. Glad you emerged from it it as the good person I know you are.
Now..back to pin washes

[Max-U52]

If you're using flat paint, a coat of future is great before a pin wash, but remember that future is acrylic so it works best under oil or enamel washes. And just to be sure we're totally clear, a pin wash is when you take a fine tip brush and allow a very thin wash to flow into panel lines and other detail areas, or dab it into panel lines. One of my favorites is not a pin wash, but what used to be pro-modeler and I think is now known as Flory. It's super easy to use, just brush it on heavy, wait for it to dry, then use a piece of damp kitchen roll to remove the wash until it's the way you want it. The best part is that if you screw up you can just wash it all off and start again. It also works best over a clear gloss coat, and you seal it in place with the flat coat. Take a look at these

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And this video is good for pin washes, and he actually shows a bottle of future

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and here's a video specifically on tanks

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I even found videos with guys that have a British accent! How cool is that?

[43rdRecceReg]

..Hmm..I can see how a clear coat of acrylic varnish might act as a sort of safety barrier between the finished top coat, and subsequent washes. What bothers me though (is not the absence of a British accent..and we have a wide variety of those.. )..is the thought of the clear coat going opaque. I saw this clear coating demo using Humbrol acrylic varnish. It ticked all the right boxes, until I read the disconcerting whinges from various unhappy users below.
Is there an acrylic clear coat out there that works as it should pretty much all the time? Yeah, I realise no procedure can be guaranteed to be idiot- proof; but I mean almost-idiot proof.
Another question concerns the use of oil paints and enamels. Just how compatible are they with acrylics? I guess the answer is to experiment on some sort of painter's crash test dummy; an old discarded model (like my good self
), for example.. This guy has an English accent, of course,, and i don't know how trustworthy that makes him....

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[Max-U52]

I've never tried the Humbrol, but I've never had a single issue with Future and I've used it literally hundreds of times with great result. The only time I've had trouble is when I went to a different brand, like rustoleum clear acrylic. That stuff ruined a good model and after that I went back to future and never looked back.

A test is a great idea with any medium you haven't used before. I'll sometimes use a sheet of styrene just to make tests on, to check compatibility of different paints. The best bet is to stick to just one brand of paint and thinner, since they're made to work together, but Future works with them all, acrylic, enamel, whatever. It also provides a barrier to prevent anything bad happening between your paint and wash mediums. With the future in between enamels can't attack acrylics, and vice versa. Just make sure to exercise patience and wait a FULL 24 hours (at least) between clear and further weathering. Just because it's dry doesn't mean it's CURED! It's been suggested that a lot of the clouding problems are due to insufficient time between base coat and clear coat. With aircraft I do almost all the paint work, wait two days, apply a coat of Future over the entire model, wait two days, add decals and another coat of Future, wait two more days, and then proceed to add washes and weathering. On this 24th scale model of Priller's Bf-109 I used that exact technique and I think it came out well, even if the panel line wash could have been a tad heavier.



I chose that scheme because of the Ace of Hearts on the fuselage that says "Jutta". When I was stationed in Ansbach I had a girlfriend named Jutta so it was just too much to pass up.

And for my American buddies that don't already know, "Jutta" is pronounced "You-Tuh" (accent on the first syllable). Kind of a German version of the name "Judith". Or maybe Judith is the American version of Jutta?

[Max-U52]

And on the subject of accents, forgive my ignorance but take comfort in the fact that you've made me think (again). I imagine a Scottish accent could be considered British, since Scotland is part of Great Britain and an English accent would be that of an Englishman. So what about a Welsh accent? Is there such an animal? How many other accents will one find in the British Isles?

Just one more reason I love this forum so much, I'm constantly learning new things about far away people and places.