Hello all,

Well, after a short break - of about 10 years or so - I'm back

Some of you might remember my 1/72 model of the Flower class corvette, HMS Campanula. For a long time I've wanted to build a Fairmile D in 1/72, but only got as far as getting hold of some plans from John Lambert before I stopped modelling (and that's another story).

Anyway, times change. A few visits back to this site, and the wonders of the interwebs, led me to ordering a fibreglass hull from Christian in Gib, and I also found that Russell Wilson provides a superstructure. So I have both of those on the way.

Not having built anything for years, I thought I should start out with something a bit simpler, to get my eye in again. Hence finding an old (very old) 1/72 Airfix Vosper MTB at my local model shop. He also has a big selection of the Airfix kits that used to come in see-through plastic bags, remember those?

Of course, there's no way that I will be able to restrict myself to building the Vosper out of the box, and so I've also ordered some of David Parkins' excellent sets to spruce her up a bit.

Be ready for lots of dumb questions from me! It's good to be back.

Rip

Welcome back. Looking forward to the MTB build.

Mark

Thanks Mark Hoping to make a start on the MTB fairly soon, but need to rebuild my collection of tools and so on first. Everything went just over three years ago (including quite a big collection of various kits and PE sets, sadly).

Anyway, that brings me onto the dreaded dumb questions that I threatened to ask. I'll kick off by apologising if they are in the wrong place...

1. Glue. In the past I used liquid cement for gluing styrene, and CA applied with a fine piece of wire for photo-etch (that method was a real pain in the neck). Having been browsing the forums for a while, it seems that PVA / white glue, thinned with water, can also be used for attaching PE. I haven't tried that in the past and would like to hear what others think. How about gluing brass rod and wire, and also resin parts? Again I'd be really keen to hear any thoughts and recommendations.

2. Paint. I'm planning to get an airbrush, but of course there is a pretty bewildering range of choices to be had. I know that I want a dual-action, gravity-fed brush. And I'll need a compressor too. And I don't have an awful lot of spare cash right now... So once again any recommendations people could make would be really welcome!

Thanks

Hi Graham,

Here's my two cents: I use PVA (white glue) to attach the copper rigging I usually use and etched metal railing; it is simple and very forgiving to use. White glue is nontoxic and water soluble so it can be repositioned easily even after it has dried, and most (I use Elmer's glue) dry matte. Although of limited strength, PVA is quite strong enough for attaching delicate rigging and PE railing.

As for an airbrush, I use Aztek A470, which is inexpensive, easy to use and clean, and gives first-rate results.

Graham,

Depending on the size of the PE I use thin, medium, thick superglue. For railings I use Gator glue which is combo of white glue and superglue. It does clean up with water. If am dealing with a long piece of PE railing I will use a drop of superglue along its length and after getting the rail in position I then run a bead of Gator glue along the railing to finish up. For brass wire or wire I will solder the pieces together. I never had any luck gluing metal wire together unless it is razor thin.

As for a cheap airbrush and compressor I purchase a brand called "Master" from Amazon shopping. It came with several types of airbrushes and they performed very well. Well I guess they do as I have never owned an expensive airbrush, so I wouldn't know a good from a bad one. The compressor and airbrushes are seven years old now and still working fine.

Mark

Tim, Mark,

Thanks both for the replies - really useful. Think I will need to add a soldering iron to my shopping list, as I plan to use brass rod and wire for the mast on the MTB.

Cheers!