unconventional modelling materials list

[yak face]

:plane:hello all , thought id get something started that will hopefully be of some use to us all.im sure like me lots of you use weird or non modelling materials in our models,stuff that most people wouldnt expect, so if we make a thread listing this stuff ,hopefully everyone can add to it so it becomes a useful reference for all. ill get the ball rolling with a few (no doubt adding more later when i remember them!!!) so here goes, please add yours to the thread . cheers tony .

 

[yak face]

COTTON BUDS not just useful for applying pastel weathering,but heat and stretch the stem and with a bit of practice you end up with a fine tube,useful for allsorts where brass tube is too inflexible or hard to cut,also cut a fine section off the end of a stretched or unstretched stem for a scale thickness df loop. DRINKING STRAWS ,very useful for fine tube/cylinders or extending jet pipes in 1/72 scale where the model has that see through effect,or are just too short. MAKE UP SPONGES, available from any chemist/wilkinsons etc ,good for applying weathering pastels ,but i use em for stuffing in any orifice(ooo er !!!) that i dont want overspray in.you can cut them to different shapes using scissors and they are flexible enough to be poked just about anywhere with a cocktail stick. CELLULOSE THINNERS, for years i have used this as a thin liquid cement,you can buy it at most hardware shops,but i got mine at the local motorists shop ,5 litre for about £7,itll last me forever! careful though with the fumes ,i always put some in an old marmite jar to work from and keep the big tin sealed safely out of the way. loads more but i cant think of them now ,ill post them when they come to me

 

[spanner570]

Glad to see you have your idea up and running, Tony..............Heres my tuppence worth to start.

Strip old electric wiring. You will end up with various gauges for pipework, barbed wire and rigging + lots more that I can't think of!!

Anyone following my diorama will see I use stuff from my garden for foliage, scale trees, stones, boulders and logs. All for free.

I always use ordinary varnish for water features. Everyone has a tin and it's cheap anyway. In my opinion far, far easier than messing with resins.

For general painting of my dios. I use water based shed paint, again most people will have some somewhere.

Thats it for now. Let's get this one motoring so we can all help each other no matter what our bag is.

Ron.

 

[stona]

Dymo tape. Cut a length, take backing off and you can stick it to any curved surface. It makes an excellent guide when scribing or resribing a model. It will easily follow the curve of a wing's surface or a fuselage.

Drinking straws. Short lengths are great for moving paint around. The bendy ones are good to make a tube for decanting paint from spray cans.

I'm sure there are more.

Steve

 

[stona]

Hi again. Tony you never mentioned the halfords primer that many people use. It's cheaper and better than most model primers. I do a lot of Luftwaffe stuff and the white one is a good primer under those "difficult to get coverage" colours like yellow, red and ...err...white.

Steve

 

[yak face]

hi all just thought of a few more, HOLOGRAPHIC CONFETTI , this stuff is really effective for making H.U.Ds and radar screens on modern jets or cutting into a circle as a very realistic looking landing light ,the holographic effect looks so much more eye catching than a plain silver and clear varnish.CHROME SILVER XMAS WRAPPING TAPE , ive used this cut into the right size strips and wrapped round undercarriage oleos ,it looks just like highly polished steel ,also invaluable for the unpainted aluminium strip round the engine cowling on lavochkin la 5+7's and polikarpov i-153+ i16,so much easier than trying to mask a thin parallel strip and paint it.see pics for examples. keep on thinking and please add your own ideas.

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[kellysands]

Hello all,

I have just successfully used some roofers lead to cast a nose weight. Taking the nose cone of a 1/72 Gloster Meteor I made a cone from a few wraps of kitchen foil that fit into the nose cone part. This was stiff enough to act as a mould for the lead. Next, I went out to my shed and used a gas gun blow torch (the kind a plumber would use) and melted a strip of lead into the kitchen foil mould. It took seconds to do and is easier than glueing fishing weights. The resulting lead shape fitted right into the part and was plenty heavy enough.

The lead comes in rolls and I got mine from a Wickes builders merchant shop. One roll should last a lifetime of modelling!

Kelly

 

[yak face]

hi kelly, OH MY GOD! all this time ive been cutting the roofers lead ive got into tiny pieces and shoving em in and trying to hold them all together with pva glue .This method is genius , just what this threads all about ,i never thought of doing it like this but i can guarantee ill be doing it everytime now ,thanks a million .cheers tony

 

[Gern]

Not as good as some of the ideas I've seen, but I use a cheap plastic cutlery tray to organise all the small tools (knives, saws, files, brushes, tweezers, drills etc) on my workbench.

I've also just ordered metric and imperial drill guages (just a stainless steel sheet with holes drilled to measure drill diameters) for about £3 each. The holes go from about 1mm to 13 mm and about 1/16 to 1/2 inch diameter and I reckon they will make good masks for wheel hubs. Between the two, there's about 40 different sizes so I think I'll be unlucky if I can't find a hole suitable. As they're quite thin, and therefore able to fit around rounded objects (provided they're not too small) it may be possible to use them as guides for re-scribing circular objects as well.

Gern

 

[stona]

Good luck scribing circles Gern! The thought of it makes me break out in a sweat.

Another really obvious one is good old Blu-Tac. Not just for masking, isn't it handy for holding parts to be painted, or just holding little bits, off the sprue, to keep them out of the clutches of the carpet monster.

I usually attach a ball to the back of my aircraft,after attaching the tail wheel, to prevent me from snapping the wheel off. (Not actually around the wheel,just so that the model sits on Blu-Tac rather than the wheel.) Another ball around the little antenna post often found on the top of the fin will keep that intact too. They can be surprisingly fiddly to fix if you do break them off.

It's cheap too.

Steve

 

[spanner570]

....Get hold of some childrens putty ( all colours available) Roll into a 'worm' whatever diameter you require, then with a blunt knife dipped in a bit of water cut into whatever lengths you want and because the blunt knife does'nt cut well......Hey presto, perfect minature sand bags, with ends just like the real thing. Allow to dry then paint if required. Perrrrrrfic.

Ideal for you fly-guys when doing blast walls where a lot are needed.

Ron

 

[stona]

That I like Ron. Yak face,who started this thread, mentioned he was considering a diorama for which he's going to need a few sand bags.

 

[spanner570]

That I like Ron. Yak face,who started this thread, mentioned he was considering a diorama for which he's going to need a few sand bags.

Yes ,I remember now, the sand bags where on a picture of a...here we go!!! Messerschmitt, where the bloke was having a dump! I hope yak face finds the tip useful.

Ron

 

[spanner570]

....Get hold of some childrens putty ( all colours available) Roll into a 'worm' whatever diameter you require, then with a blunt knife dipped in a bit of water cut into whatever lengths you want and because the blunt knife does'nt cut well......Hey presto, perfect minature sand bags, with ends just like the real thing. Allow to dry then paint if required. Perrrrrrfic.Ideal for you fly-guys when doing blast walls where a lot are needed.

Ron

Sorry mean't to add if you are piling the bags one on top of the other, gently push the first few rows into each other whilst they are soft.That way it looks like the ones on top are squashing them down.

Ron

 

[yak face]

brilliant tips guys ill definitely be using the sandbag one ,ron ,cheers!Expanding on gerns cutlery tray, ive got a magnetic knife rack on my shed wall at the back of the bench, all my tweezers,scissors,forceps and most importantly,scalpels(swann morton) are stuck on it out of harms way and it keeps the bench a bit clearer(more room for allsorts of other crap!!!!) This thread is really rolling now isnt it? all really useful tips! cheers tony:goodidea:

 

[Satnav313]

hi guys i thought id pitch in.

WATERFALLS

for those that followed my dio youll already know but oh well!

Get a clear drying glue like Pva and just brush a strip onto a board move it around with a toothpick to make the water "fall" then leave to dry.

Peel it of and glue into position. add streaks of white paint to simulate movement then finish with gloss varnish.

hope it helps,

Tom

 

[yak face]

hi all ,a few more . I have just got myself a pack of two SPATTER GUARDS from poundland ,you know the fine aluminium mesh circular types,they look like they will be useful for radiators on larger scale planes or the many mesh applications on armour models,2 for a quid! cheaper than P.E. A couple of other things that will be good for diorama makers(especially if youre planning a desert type dio like me!) are BIRD GRIT and BIRD SAND . the grit is like a very fine scale shingle and the sand speaks for itself except to add that it is really fine.You can get both in a kilo bag for 59p each at wilkinsons on the pet accessories section .keep thinking and keep em coming cheers tony :wiggle:

 

[135warrior]

Hey guys and girls, Im new here, just wanted to add my input - I recently built my first 1:35 military diorama, and used tamiya sandbags in the scene. To make them more realistic I used 'Durapore' Surgical Tape to cover them, giving a realistic hessian appearence to them. It also makes it possible to create tears and seams which further add to the realism!

 

[spanner570]

Hello 135,

Welcome to this forum.......Great bunch of good, down to earth people.

I like your tip re. the sand bags.

I have a diorama thread running at the moment so I would very much like to see yours, then perhaps we could exchange tips for all fellow modellers to see.

Any chance of starting a thread with your pickies?

Ron

 

[135warrior]

Thanks spanner, I'll be sure to do that soon, where would I go about posting a thread re my diorama?