PeteJ

I do a two step decanting that a lot of people aren't going to like. I made a piece that looks and acts like a saddle valve that penetrates the can with a pointed screw. That lets me control the outflow of the propellent. The first hole is as close to the top as I can get. I let it sit overnight so the propellent is gone. I then move to bottom of the can and punch a second hole. I drain the paint out of the bottom hole into the storage jar. Once that is done, I use a pipet to squirt some thinner through one of the holes and cover both holes and shake it up. That will clean the inside of the can of all paint. Oh and here is a side thought. When everything is done, I use some shop shears to rip open the can and remove the marbles and drop them in with paint I just decanted to assist with mixing it.

Then I guess the question becomes,"how are you decanting it." I can think of no reason that is shouldn't go through your airbrush just fine. On second thought, I suppose it could be a dirty airbrush. A good disassembly and clean, including the seal could be the answer to your problem. Flakes off of old paint clogging the needle.

Very unusual for an issue with clogging the nozzle. I've been doing this for many years(10+) and never had any issue like that. A brief question. Did you shake the can before decanting? Could be settled paint from the bottom of the can. Regardless, thinning it properly and mixing it well should solve the issue. I always decant an entire can at one time. This allows me to put a little lacquer thinner in the can to get every last drop out. Oh, and by the way, a 46ml Tamiya paint mixing jar will hold exactly the contents of one Tamiya can.

For those decanting the rattle cans, Tamiya sells a "paint mixing jar 46" which is perfect for the job. It holds one rattle can exactly and seals well enough to keep the paint usable for a very long time. I have several jars that are years old. They may need a drop or two of thinner after they sit for while, but the paint is still as usable as the when it first came out of the can.

https://ipmsusa.org/sites/default/files/2023_ipms-usa_national_contest_rules.pdf Pages 5 and 6.

After 7 years of politicking, proding and cajoling, the auto categories have true definitions for each category. You have no idea about how happy this makes me! IPMS owes the group that wrote them seven years ago, a big thank you!

Ultimate Rat Rod! Very nice. I especially like the license plates reinforcing the door! That is a stunner!

I know this isn't exactly what we expect to see here. Due some serious medical issues in 2022 where some of my fine motor skills are gone, eyesight in one eye significantly degraded and my heart is no longer my friend, I got absolutely nothing done or even started at the workbench, much less finished in 2022. My kids knew how much I missed my modeling so they gave this to me for Christmas. Before you blow off Lego, let me say this. The expert kits have a lot of parts and I mean a lot. This one was just short of 1,800 and all have to be done just right or you get to tear it apart to correct your errors. Just glad to be able to post something.

Like you I started with a good SLR many years ago. A Minolta XGM. I loved that camera but film caused a lot of problems in todays world of instant photographs and you just can't make them work very easily in Photoshop. On a trip to Japan, 20 years ago, I picked up a Minolta cool pix digital. Great little digital camera. Worked well but couldn't swap out lens though the zoom worked quite well. Also, it was slow! Several seconds to process a shot before you could take another. A couple of years ago, I decided to make the jump to a mirrorless DSLR. I got a Sony alpha 7II just after the 7III came out and got a heck of a deal. Less than $1,000 with two lenses through the military exchange. I love that camera with one exception I will comment on later. It does everything really well. It's large shots are easy to edit with Photoshop and very high resolution, I also discovered that I could get an adapter and use my collection of old Minolta lenses. A real bonus but of course I have to use manual settings for that, but I have some really good lenses. Now for the exception. The thing is larger and heavier than any other camera I have owned! When shooting at shows, I use a monopod to help steady and frame the picture, especially in bad lighting. The camera can "fix" just about anything with lighting and give a a good shot on the first try. Someone mentioned depth of field and here is something I learned about recently that you might fined interesting. Most good photo editing software has a feature called "focus" stacking. You shoot several photos with different depth of fields and then you can electronically "stack" them to get as clear or blurred a photo as you want. This works well on long subjects, like a train. Set up and shoot with a fairly short focal length and then shoot several more by manually picking successively deeper parts of the subject to focus on. Then stack them together to get a clear shot front to back. I chose a train just for illustrative purpose because of it's extreme length, but you could use it on a larger model with a very short depth of field and cover it front to back and get a clear photo of the entire model. I like this when I am shooting a front or rear 3/4 view. Look it up. I think you will find focus stacking interesting.

A matter of preference and timing. Either way could be correct. These cars never start a race in that condition but they certainly finish that way. At the start of the race, they are alway clean of grime. They may have some paint dings but the sponsors frown on that. The grime is removed at the start so the mechanics can see fluids and other stuff leaking. 24 hours at race speed will certainly cause a lot of grime to accumulate.

Did you try Super Klean engine degreaser or brake fluid? These are my go to when all else fails. Warning, these two do not like skin so wear gloves and eye protection if you choose to try them.

Well it is, sort of if you have the code. PS-Polycarbonate Lacquer in rattle can TS- Lacquers in a rattle can AS- In a rattle can mostly aircraft colors XF- acrylic(water based) in a 10ml round jar. Also flat enamel if in the small square jar LF- Lacquer in a bottle(same stuff you get in a rattle can but in a jar) X- enamels in small square jars. The enamels are generally not available in the USA.

Lawrence, I know you might have some restrictions, but do you have a clothes dryer? You might be able to run a T off that vent to attach your booth. You would also need a gate on the spray booth to stop lint from the dryer from blowing into the paint booth.

This may be a dumb question. Please don't be offended, but your spray booth is vented outside isn't it? I've seen people use them unvented and wonder why they don't work!

I had a thought for those who are having difficulty finding a room for the convention. Had you considered Air B&B? I just looked at them and there are a number of locations within easy driving distance of the convention. There are single rooms as low as $55 a night. If you have a group who could go together, there are multi-bedroom, whole houses for only slightly more than single person rooms at the Embassy Suites. My guess is that many of you have not tried an Air B&B or Vrbo before and are a bit skeptical. Personally I started using them a couple of years ago and have not had a bad experience yet. We used a couple of very nice home in SoCal for a family vacation and it was far cheaper than any hotel for the same number of people. I know it is not as convenient as staying at the venue, but if there is nothing available, it could be a good alternative especially for groups.