Neptune48

First thing, we need to shrink the lower 48 significantly so we can apply the UK model.

Mike, No, there is no requirement in the C&BLs for a banquet, but there is a requirement for an awards ceremony. At almost every venue, if you have a banquet, you get the room for free. The venue makes their money on the food and beverages. If you don't have a banquet, you have to hire a room for $12,000 to $15,000 if memory serves. That would add around $15 to every registration, assuming 1,000 registrants. West coast conventions are usually a little smaller, so the price per person could go up more. It doesn't appear the folks who are willing to pay for the banquet mind that they are subsidizing the awards ceremony. When my job permitted me to go to the Nats, I always attended the banquet and considered it money well spent for an enjoyable evening. I would suspect that moving the awards to a different room from the banquet negates the advantage of having a banquet, as the awards ceremony room would be an additional charge. Regards, Bruce

I'd call them "retired." Bruce

Excellent! I hope Pat doesn't mind me contacting him a second time.

Might I suggest, the more often someone posts on these Forums, the less time they spend building models. I'd personally make the level titles unrelated to actual model building. Perhaps some reference to verbosity...

Tom, I cannot disclose information about IPMS members without their permission, but I have forwarded your email address (as you gave your permission above), and a link to this thread, to the email address I have for Mr. Donohue. I only check the Forums on an irregular basis. In future, I recommend you contact either me or MJ Kinney using the email links in the Officer Directory. She and I both respond to emails as quickly as we can. Regards, Bruce Briggs Membership Secretary IPMS 42672

Ron, 47528 is your correct number. Regards, Bruce Briggs Membership Secretary

Dick, These all worked well. I think the top coat is Alclad Polished Aluminum. Note the Mr. Surfacer base does not yield a high shine. Not shown, but one I discovered after making this test shot, is Model Master Automotive Black Gloss Lacquer. It works very well. Some people have had issues with the Alclad 2 Gloss Black Base not drying. The only time I had a problem was when it thinned it with lacquer thinner. Thinned with MEK, it went on well and dried quickly. You're not supposed to thin it in the first place, but I did and the results were good. The "High Shine" colors that require a gloss black base are to get the maximum reflection are: Chrome Polished Aluminum Aircraft Aluminum Stainless Steel Titanium Gold Polished Brass Chrome for Lexan Mirrored Gold for Lexan The latter two are for lexan RC car bodies. All the other Alclad colors need a good primer. Mr. Surfacer 1200 has always worked well for me. The F-104G below from 2007 is mostly Polished Aluminum over Alclad Gloss Black Base. Regards, Bruce

Welcome aboard, Gary! Glad to have you among the fold. Regards, Bruce Briggs IPMS 42672 Membership Secretary

Mark, I was there from April 1969 to December 1970, so our tours overlapped. Talk to you via e-mail. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread... Regards, Bruce

That's pretty amazing. When I enlisted in the Navy (December 1967) both the Air Force and the Coast Guard were full up. Of course, the Army, and even the Marines (or so I have heard), were drafting. The USAF was considered white glove duty, even compared to life aboard floating gray steel coffins, and it surprises me that they would have openings while the Navy didn't. I used to see those black-bellied B-52s fly past NAVCOMSTA Guam on final. Occasionally, when the weather changed, they would fly past on departure instead, usually preceded by a screaming KC-135 or two. Pretty exciting stuff for us rear-echelon types. Later I served briefly in a DE (later called a frigate), but that was much closer to submarine duty than air ops. Regards, Bruce

From what I've read from the experts, everyone here has given you good advice, but may I suggest the more relevant term is cured rather than dry. There's a difference between dry to the touch and chemically cured, and what everyone here is driving at is the latter. A good rule of thumb is if the paint on the model is still giving off an odor, it's not cured yet. Regards, Bruce

Okay, thanks. Bruce

Thanks. Do you use CA or epoxy to attach styrene parts to it?

Okay, but... How do you seal it so it accepts paint the same as a styrene surface? What glues stick to it? I've just started using Magic Sculp. It looks like Spackle when it dries, but it's a two-part workable epoxy.

' Clare, Be careful not to confuse the preset handle with the Triple Action handle, which I found to be unsatisfactory for my purposes. The three actions of the "triple-action handle" are You can pull back on the needle chucking knob, which pulls back the needle and lets you flush the airbrush quickly It has a preset adjustment, but it presets the minimum just like the VL It has a needle cap holder built into the back of the handle. I bought two of them, and after I installed one on my new HP-C and tested it once, I took it off and ordered the preset handle to match the one I already had on the HP-BC. I waited too long to get a refund from the retailer for the triple-action handles, and I wouldn't sell them to anyone whose friendship I valued, so they're sitting in a box somewhere, in place of the kit or two I could have bought for the same money. Regards, Bruce

Michael, As you've found out, pushing the trigger forward against the stop effectively makes the VL a single-action brush, but with the maximum desired paint flow set as the minimum And it has the added feature that nothing prevents you from accidentally jerking back on the trigger in mid-spray and covering your model with a big glob of running paint. Being a ham-fist myself, I could never understand why Paasche limited the minimum rather than the maximum paint flow. Spraying too much paint seems more of a potential disaster than spraying too little. I realize a good modeler never blames the tool, but I'm willing to go for any advantage I can get in view of my own clumsiness. If you want to limit the maximum amount of spray on the VL, there's a trick: Remove the handle (part 27) Loosen the lock nut (part 26) that holds the needle. While holding the needle firmly against its forward stop, pull back on the trigger about half way. Tighten the lock nut while still holding the trigger back. This limits the excursion of the trigger so that when it hits the rear stop the needle has only moved half its normal distance, and thereby limits the paint flow. Paasche makes a replacement cut-out handle so you can make this adjustment without removing the handle. The part I didn't find satisfactory about that was the trigger now kinda flops around the front half of its excursion and doesn't move the needle until it's half way back. I suppose the limit knob would help with that issue, but the Iwata had already won my heart before I thought of that. Regards, Bruce

Mark & Mark, Wine bottlers haven't used lead (Pb) foil since 1993 because it's so human unfriendly. They're either tin or plastic nowadays. RoHS directives in Europe would prohibit the manufacture or import of bottled wines with Pb foil, or any other products containing lead, for that matter. It tops the list of six substances in the RoHS directives, and similar laws in other countries. There are very few exceptions allowed. If you have a bottle of wine from before 1993, be sure to remove the foil and clean the bottle neck before opening. I work in the semiconductor manufacturing industry and have been involved in eliminating Pb from our products since 2001 (it used to be in the solder). Regards, Bruce

I have a Paasche H, …a Paasche VL, …an Iwata HP-BC, …and an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS. On both Iwata airbrushes I added the preset handle, which for a klutz like me is a lifesaver. First off, like lots of people, I'd guess, I figured a double action airbrush must be twice as good as a single action. It turns out that's not necessarily the case. It does take twice as much practice to become facile with a double action, but it will give you twice the control. On a single action, you adjust the paint flow, push down the trigger, and get air and paint flow together. On a double action, you push down the trigger to get air flow, and pull back on the trigger to control the paint flow. It takes some extra learning and practice, but I suppose if I can do it, anyone can. Of the four, the Paasche VL is my least favorite. The Paasche H is an excellent all-around airbrush. I still use it for applying primers or spraying large areas. The Paasche VL is a high quality airbrush, but I don't consider it a good fit for me. The main drawback for me is that the only adjustment on the brush—a knurled knob at the front of the trigger opening (assembly 10 below), presets the minimum paint flow, which has two effects. First, it essentially turns the VL into a single-action brush, and second, there is nothing to prevent you from accidentally pulling the trigger back too far and shooting great globs of paint onto your work. For me it adjusts the wrong end of the paint flow range. There is a sort-of workaround, but it's not all that satisfactory. Both the Iwatas spray finer patterns than either Paasche. The HP-BC is a siphon-feed unit, and the HP-CS is a large cup gravity feed. The preset handles allow you to set the maximum amount of paint flow, using the knurled knob at the end, which protects you from the kind of accidents that are waiting to happen with the VL. Other little goodies include a crown cap for the Iwatas, which according to the instructions protects the needle while enabling you to spray extremely fine lines. I also added quick release adapters on all the brushes so they can be interchanged with the same hose at any time. I also got the airbrush cleaning station, which doubles as a holder when I'm loading them up with paint. Overall, cleanup is about the same for all of them, so that's a wash (you'll forgive the expression). If I ever have to part with one of these beauties, though, it's the VL that will go first. Hope this helps. Regards, Bruce

Good news, now that I have stocked up on a lifetime supply. D'oh! Bruce

For those of you in the greater Phoenix area, I have found a source for Weld-On in Chandler, called Port Plastics. They're opened 8-5 weekdays. It's close to where I work so I'm planning to go there one afternoon next week. They confirmed over the phone they have both Weld-On 3 and Weld-on 4.

You're welcome, though I feel bad that once again I let myself hijack someone else's thread. I really shouldn't do that. Sorry, Tim.

Parafilm "M" (its full name) is a waxy film, originally developed to seal test tubes without contamination, if my information is correct. It comes in 2" and 4" rolls, and at one time came in 1" rolls (maybe it still does, but not at my vendor). You cut off a section, remove the paper backing, and with both hands gently stretch the material to about 4x its original size. It sticks to surfaces but won't pull paint. It's a little hard to get a precise edge. Testors used to sell the 1" rolls but dropped is several years ago. I've had the same roll for several years, but I haven't built much over that time, either. I buy it here [Link] Here's an article on Hyperscale on using it: [Link]

Based on my experience, you were very lucky. I had less favorable results. The Press 'N Seal left a residual honeycomb pattern over the entire masked area. It destroyed the enamel paint job. After that it doesn't get a second chance. I use Parafilm, which I buy in 2" wide rolls and stretch as instructed. It's a bit more expensive, but it has never damaged a surface. For very large areas, I make a mask with newsprint—not newspaper, which has inks that will do lots of harm, but inexpensive sketch paper available in various sizes in pads at art supply and crafts stores. Regards, Bruce

You're welcome. Here are some old test shots. You can see where the Alclad2 attacked the green, orange and red enamels underneath. The object of this test was to see if slight variations in panel colors could be represented using different color undercoats. This was a test of the effects of gloss black compared to gray primer as an undercoat with various Alclad2 paints.