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I use the testors needle glue. works real good, also it came with 2 little wire thingies that you can use to unclog the needle. Of course I lose them every time.

I also use the regular ole testors orange tube glue but only for gluing bigger pieces where it the glue won't be seen, I use the needle one for precision spots. Even then I'm still a little messy with it sometimes.

Had a chance to use the Air Eraser from Harbor Freight and Tool last night. The results were.. spotty. I am assuming that this is more due to my set up than any problem with the equipment. Specifically, my little hobby compressor (while being quite adequate for airbrushing) can only get up to 50PSI. At 40-50 PSI, it just was not working that well. Another small (ok huge) problem with my instant need to strip a tank down to bare plastic, was the lack of grit. The sand I tried just clogged the gun, and the Baking Soda I used worked ok on metal (as long as the PSI was near the top range of my compressors ability) but did not touch the plastic. HF+T offers a grit for sale on their web page, but they did not have any in stock when I was there.

O where to go from here? Well for one, I am taking a trip to the storage facility this week to get my regular compressor out. This is the beast I used to drive finish nails though 3\4” Oak, so it should work for some plastic models.

I also need to pick up more baking soda, if I keep using it from the Kitchen I won’t have any the next time I get cooking.

I will try to get some pictures of before\after. Simple Green is just WAY too slow for the time frame I need it to work in.

Simple green/superclean and your air eraser may speed things up

Get your baking soda at walmart, walk back to the pool chemical section- buy the 12 lb bag for like 6$

And I use my air eraser at about 65 psi continuous pressure.

Mistress of minis wrote:Simple green/superclean and your air eraser may speed things up

Get your baking soda at walmart, walk back to the pool chemical section- buy the 12 lb bag for like 6$

And I use my air eraser at about 65 psi continuous pressure.

Well I tried the Air Eraser at 65 PSI using Baking Soda. Words cannot describe the sheer amount of EPIC FAIL this was. On plastic, when it worked, it removed one layer of paint at a time (in 1\8 inch strips). Not too bad if there is only 2 layers. but on the primed, painted, repainted, sealed, then repainted tanks that I was trying to strip it did not make much of a dent. On the Metal bits that I tried (the Heavy Plasma sponsons on my LR and a DA Dred front) I had slightly better results. The stripping went, slow and VERY ugly.
I am going to see if I can pick up some Grit that is made especially for this gun and see if it speeds things up some. Or makes any progress what-so-ever.

Wall Mart hmmm?? If I can get some better results I will remember that hehe

On the up side, I can see where this is all kinds of WIN for Weathering. This plus the Hairspray technique should produce some wonderfully worn Russes

I still use a brush for the big stuff than grab the mini-blaster to get the face/crevices. The figs Im cleaning now were likely primed with sutomotive paint of some type- its very very tough stuff and its not all coming off. But Im content leaving thin layers in the crevices...it helps with shading


Im not trying to get my figs looking new- just making them usable from the paint globs that were on them.

And, thinkin about it- if you're only getting a 1/8 abrasive path it may just be the gun you got from HF isnt the best quality? I know some of their stuff works great, some doesnt. The one I use is a Master brand 5000, it ran 50$ but has been worth is so far. And its a pretty blue color ^_^

Mistress of minis wrote:I still use a brush for the big stuff than grab the mini-blaster to get the face/crevices. The figs Im cleaning now were likely primed with sutomotive paint of some type- its very very tough stuff and its not all coming off. But Im content leaving thin layers in the crevices...it helps with shading


Im not trying to get my figs looking new- just making them usable from the paint globs that were on them.

And, thinkin about it- if you're only getting a 1/8 abrasive path it may just be the gun you got from HF isnt the best quality? I know some of their stuff works great, some doesnt. The one I use is a Master brand 5000, it ran 50$ but has been worth is so far. And its a pretty blue color ^_^

Well as long as its BLUE.. It must be good.

It is entirely possible that the HF+T gun is bunkko. It seems to not be feeding the grit through at a consistant rate. Sometimes it seemed like there was a white cloud of Baking Soda... other times.. nothing..

baking soda is reallly really vulnerable to humidity, so that may be part of the problem. I dunno what sort of moisture traps you use, or that area your in so I cant be sure if thats a factor or not.

If it is, maybe you could maybe try heating it up before using it to dry it out? a few seconds in the microwave should do the trick.

Mistress of minis wrote:baking soda is reallly really vulnerable to humidity, so that may be part of the problem. I dunno what sort of moisture traps you use, or that area your in so I cant be sure if thats a factor or not.

If it is, maybe you could maybe try heating it up before using it to dry it out? a few seconds in the microwave should do the trick.

Moisture trap built into the gun.

Its been so Hot here recently, I have not wanted to go outside to my spray area. Coupled with work, and I have not been getting any modeling done at all. Today is my friday though, so I should have some time for the fun stuff (like finishing modeling my guard army).

Still looking around locally for someone with grit, so far its a bust though.

Yeah, its a pretty special use item, which is why I went with the bulk baking soda, it seems to be coarser than the stuff in the box from the baking aisle.

I need to experiemnt more with it on some figs Ive painted myself- and hence know what they were primed and painted with so I can set an actual benchmark. The ones Ive been stripping are IG stuff that has 3-4 fairly heavy layers, and a black primer thats being very obstinate :/

StubbyGB wrote:I just picked up this 'custom decal system' from my local model shop:-

http://www.testors.com/product/136937/9198/_/Custom_Decal_System

I wont be using the included software as I have Photoshop and Illustrator but I'll let you guys know how things turn out.

It was 12 bucks Canadian, and I thought it looked like a good little pack to test the waters with. For the size of decals most of us need, this pack would probably last a LOOOooonnngg time.

Im very interested in that. Cant wait to hear your results