Audi 90 quattro 20valve
Discussion
Inspired by dr_gn and by the need to clear some space I've decided to get on and tackle what passes for my 'stash'. I did at one time have big stash but flogged it to Plastic Pastimes in Poole in about 1992. This stash is just a few kits that escaped that cull plus some others that I've accidentally purchased over the last 20 years. Most of my modelling gear of youth has long gone, but I have found one of my files and some others that I'll be resurrecting, including my beloved Super '63 airbrush.
So, first up is a model I obtained from HLJ.com, on impulse, about seven years ago. My brother had a real one and I thought it would make a nice gift. I made a total lash-up of starting it though, mainly through receipt of bad advice – someone told me you could spray car aerosols straight onto polystyrene provided you misted it on. Well you can't, and in one or two places the paint started to melt the plastic and the finish just looked grim, all kinds of reactive effects. The second lesson I learned is that tinned model paint has moved on, in the sense that it's gone backwards, and those bits that I brush painted also looked awful. So here the story begins, with a request for some advice. I've bought the brake fluid – how should I handle it to remove the paint? I've thought of total immersion but this is a 1/24 body shell and would need a lot of fluid. Is it OK to paint it on, like Nitromors, and just keep rebrushing and agitating?
Once I've removed the paint I'll be priming and prepping the shell properly, and then digging out the airbrush. Here's the starting point:
So, first up is a model I obtained from HLJ.com, on impulse, about seven years ago. My brother had a real one and I thought it would make a nice gift. I made a total lash-up of starting it though, mainly through receipt of bad advice – someone told me you could spray car aerosols straight onto polystyrene provided you misted it on. Well you can't, and in one or two places the paint started to melt the plastic and the finish just looked grim, all kinds of reactive effects. The second lesson I learned is that tinned model paint has moved on, in the sense that it's gone backwards, and those bits that I brush painted also looked awful. So here the story begins, with a request for some advice. I've bought the brake fluid – how should I handle it to remove the paint? I've thought of total immersion but this is a 1/24 body shell and would need a lot of fluid. Is it OK to paint it on, like Nitromors, and just keep rebrushing and agitating?
Once I've removed the paint I'll be priming and prepping the shell properly, and then digging out the airbrush. Here's the starting point:
Seal it in a plastic bag with as much brake fluid you can squeeze in. Scrunch the bag around the shell and leave in a warm place for a few days. Agitate whenever you remember to. Then remove and wash with detergent and hot water. If that doesn't shift it, you cuold try the same thing with Mr. Muscle spray, and as a last resort, ditto with Modelstrip. If none of those work, nothing will. You're then stuck with priming and sanding it back smooth without ruining any surface details. Happy days
You do need to be a bit careful with glazing. I tend to use caustic soda to clean my glazing units in Dinky and Corgi models, the metal castings going in with the boiling water, the glazing going in when everything has cooled off considerably (usual warnings, caustic soda is blooming nasty, so take all necessary precautions).
For various work related reasons the painted parts stayed in the bath of brake fluid for nearly a month so I wasn't hopeful of finding anything usable left in there at all. But amazingly (to someone not versed in chemistry) everything was fine, the paint washed off to reveal nice clean plastic with only minimal surface damage (from the solvent paint I was trying to remove) and no distortion, although maybe the polystyrene has gone a bit brittle. I'll post up some progress pics tomorrow. Time to buy a new compressor I think.
Whatever happened to "Liquid Poly 70"? The stuff I've just used smells like nail varnish remover and is quite viscous – I remember liquid cement being a very thin fluid and smelling quite different. Is Mek-Pak and better? (I'm putting in an order to Slaters for some plastikard, to improve the interior.)
Yertis said:
Whatever happened to "Liquid Poly 70"? The stuff I've just used smells like nail varnish remover and is quite viscous – I remember liquid cement being a very thin fluid and smelling quite different. Is Mek-Pak and better? (I'm putting in an order to Slaters for some plastikard, to improve the interior.)
You could get some Tamiya liquid or extra thin liquid cement (in a glass jar). Revell do similar stuff, also in a glass jar with a brush, Contacta I think it's called. The Revell stuff is much thinner than the liquid cement in the blue and yellow dispenser.Gassing Station | Scale Models | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff