More Stuff to “stuff” your brain with!
11/29/2023: Speaking of painting, a line of enamel paints has recently come to my attention: Tru-Color Paint. Seen in the IPMS/USA Journal adverts and touted as the ‘Official Paint of NAVSEA’ – the command that builds and maintains the Navy’s ships – it has been around since 2008, according to the company website (https://trucolorpaint.com/). Since the ‘demise’ of Testors and its solvent based lines of paints (ModelMaster & Testors enamels) hobbyists have found such paints a little difficult to find. But now there is a “new” manufacturer of railroad and scale modeling targets lines. Recommend checking out their site for the full story!
9/3/2023: Painting your model is something that probably one of the biggest joys and frustrations involved in the hobby. Something that helps is learning all you can from the experiences of other modelers. While ‘diving down a rabbit hole’ for ‘reverse alligator clips’ based on a tip from member Jim Hassler, I came across this website which is part store, part blog, all aimed at this specific aspect of the scale modeling activity: painting. I found it has lots of good information plus the support & tools to back it up. I highly recommend it as a good ‘rabbit hole’ to drop into!
Model Paint Solutions: https://modelpaintsol.com/
9/3/2023: I’ve stumbled on a couple of new (well, to me!) model manufacturers Halberd Models and Titan Models.
Halberd offers a small but growing range of high quality resin kits and conversions of interest to the 1/32 and 1/48 aircraft modeler. I’m eyeing their 1/48 scale Cavalier Turbo ‘Enforcer’ conversion as it would save quiet a bit of effort doing a scratch-conversion. All models come with decals, and some PE as well as appropriate. (https://www.halberdmodel.co/)
Titan Models is offering a range of mostly 1/72 scale airliner kits that can be considered ‘multi-media’ as larger components are vacuformed while the detail parts are 3D prints of very high quality. I purchased their 1/48 scale B-2 bomber kit (yes, you read that right… roughly three foot wingspan) which includes lots of printed detail parts including a beautifully intricate crew ladder. The decals require a choice of the specific airframe before ordering. I am looking forward to the planned 1/48 scale STS (aka ‘Space Shuttle’) kit which looks to include the EFT stack as well. Yeah-haw! (https://www.titanmodelkits.com/)
6/28/2024: In the course of working on an ‘ancient plastic’ 1/500 scale Renwal kit issued under the Advent label, I found a wonderful source for 3D printed aftermarket parts produced by Model Monkey (https://www.model-monkey.com/). Besides a wide range of ship model parts in just about every scale imaginable, they also cover parts for aircraft, armor and trains. Additionally, they offer nameplates and a small selection of scanned shipyard plans (at no cost.) Well worth the visit!