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I agree with you. They’re handy but won’t replace a paint brush if you’re trying to get a good match. Great for detailing as you say.

When I'm doing big parts I prefer testors

Thanks for this great series! That sewing material is called Interfacing. It comes in many varieties. I'm definitely going to give this a try.

I do have a question if you do a mistake with the markers how you clean It up?

I like the 'idea' of the electroplated surfaces, though it seems the repeatability is just not there. Painting is obviously easier and repeatable. That considered, there are many paint companies researching how to better achieve a metallic reflective aluminum surface saving you both time and money. I do applaud your tenacity.

Amazing work 👍👍

so, even if successful, while it would be cool to display at home, if you were to take the finished model to a competition, would it be disallowed because of the layer of real metal? Would they consider it a die cast at that point? I ask because I've never entered a model into a competition, let alone even been able to attend a show, but it would seem that modification of a kit to that extreme would make it a different animal altogether.

Very interesting. I wonder about surface prep for maintaining adhesion - perhaps a fine sanding before painting may help the conductive layer better. Also, in terms of the finish, it has been my experience with electroplating that pH plays a role in how rough a finish it gives. Lower pH tends to give shinier brighter surfaces.

keep up the effort this is really cool and I've never seen electroplating applied to model making.

It has been many years since I've looked into electrochemistry. Here are some of my thoughts. Take them with a handful of copper sulphate, I mean salt, metaphorically speaking. In order to ensure that you have a more uniform solution concentration (so that submersion depth becomes less relevant) you might be able to use a fluid pump that does not allow the solution to contact the pump mechanism (something like a peristaltic pump or a diaphragm pump) in order to recirculate the solution. Another concern would be electrode placement. there may be different deposition rates depending on the distance between the copper electrode and various points on the model. Some kind of copper coil around the perimeter Surface texture, as you noted, can cause issues. Rough surfaces tend to plate well on the outermost points of the surface, but plate worse on the innermost points of the surface (pits, grooves, etc). Electrolytic decomposition of water on the electrode surfaces can also interfere with the plating as the bubbles will prevent plating. Another benefit to recirculation is that the recirculation can help to dislodge larger bubbles. I am not sure how something like a magnetic stir plate and stir bar (instead of a recirculation pump) would affect the solution, but it might be worth investigating nevertheless, especially if it's a heated stir plate, since you would be able to control the temperature of the solution. I am not sure whether using a warm solution (that can hold less dissolved gasses) would compare to a cold solution (that can hold more dissolved gasses). What kind of plastics are your models made out of? Certain plastics are more or less amenable to direct electroplating. You might need to start with something like a graphite layer, then a nickle layer, then a copper layer. You might consider types of conductive paint used for electroforming. Chemical vapour deposition is also a potential route, though it can requires some expensive and specialized supplies.

Seeing all the variables is pretty cool. I want to see more of the test spoons and explanations.

These are great for new painters on the go and low volume people like me if im doing 1-3 minis at a time this is way faster then grabbing all the tools and cleaning brushes and doing all that

I saw the title and clicked. Heard your opening statement and thought ..."Yep, waste of time and money" as my first thought...For several years I worked for the only company that does electrolysis coating on magnesium aircraft parts for military aircraft. A small mom & pop company founded by some amazing chemists back in the 80's who stumbled on a way to corrode the surface of magnesium using the proper mixture of chemicals in an electrolysis bath, which leaves behind a white "coating" (actually corrosion of the outer few microns of the magnesium) that protects the magnesium from atmospheric and salt corrosion. It became a govt standard to replace the previous method of using a brush-on, highly carcinogenic chemical (like, one drop on exposed skin is nearly guaranteed cancer later on, carcinogenic). We did parts for everything from F-35's to C-130's to spacecraft in a relatively small non-descript building in an industrial area in Grand Forks, ND. It's a very involved process that takes putting the parts through various chemical, acid, and RO water baths after each at various very controlled temps throughout before and after the actual electrolysis bath, followed by an electrolysis "brush" technique to coat the spots where the parts were attached to the racks used to put them through the process. I did that "brush" coating at the end. I had to be certified and take several tests before being allowed to even touch an actual production part. The guy running the "deck", the actual system of tanks where a bridge crane lifted racks of parts into and out of the various baths, had even more certifications needed. The original fore-mentioned amazing chemists still work there and oversee all aspects of production and certification as well as developing techniques to work with the plethora of new magnesium alloys that come along. I can't imagine trying to reproduce anything like that on a relatively micro scale on my hobby bench just to try to replicate a metallic surface better than what I already can with a little knowledge of Alclad, A-stand, or AK Extreme metal paints and a few weathering techniques, and come out any cheaper, or with any better results. Just the absolute maze of tanks, pipes, wires, sensors, and controllers would take up my entire living room even on a small 1/32, 1/48, or 1/72 scale.

knowing myself and how I react to things...I would have just stripped it all and re-started, leaving out the oil layer til after markings were painted on...I mean..in a real world scenario, that patina was happening to the entire thing, the markings were receiving just as much wear and boot traffic as the bare metal was, so wouldnt it make sense to save that step until weathering in the end? Or possibly even apply the masks before the oil stippling step, then the aqua gloss over just the areas that had the oil applied to preserve it, avoiding the masked areas, paint the markings on, stipple over those, then aqua gloss the entire thing after peeling masks before final weathering.

Hello there. I got it but it seems too thin for what i’m trying to do. Is there anyway of making it a tad thicker like regular cement glue?

How do they make the etched parts which have color on them. Is it printed on after the parts are etched?

It’s a nice little kit and you’re doing splendidly. I’m about to finish mine and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it start to finish.

Hey Wasatch, I’m new into modeling and live part time in Northern Utah (Ogden). I’ve enjoyed your coverage on filling. Can you tell me a good shop where I can pickup models and supplies? At this point I only find what I’m looking for online.

Nice quick review. I use the 2mm and 3mm thickness constantly and like them lots. One thing that bugs me though is that for whatever reason they don’t make either a 1500 or 3000 grit which at times would be nice.

Seen these at a couple different stores and was curious how good they were. May have to see about getting some.

A cardboard box, cut it to 2 cm wide strips, glued them together with PVA glue and called it done. Almost zero expense, a few minutes of work, been lasting me about 10 years now :) A set of thicker cocktail sticks, a set of 20 aligator-style electric clips, crimped them to the sticks, done. 20 pieces for about 8€ of cost.

Have it. It’s awesome. 👍👍

Needed to see the panel wash test. Using AK Gauzy. Thanks.

Ruitool purple are low level ruitool and they cut very well for that. You can get em for 16 too

Ruitool has three or four levels of quality so apples to oranges is an important consideration while making comparisons. Ideally, one needs two or three quality levels of nippers in their arsenal.

Nice! I notice that you don't spray on any primer before painting your cockpit parts, including the PE parts, so is primer not needed then? I am just getting back into the hobby and have quite a few questions! :D

I suggest writing a little script before hand because some of your commentary does not make sense, so maybe off the cuff isn't your thing, which is fine by the way. I think you could have expanded on some points. Such as why you can be a little sloppy with this product, etc. Such as explaining how it self levels, for example. (If it does).

Спасибо за обзор! Попробуем. Молотов хорош, но и Китай не отстает.

Pushing the boundaries Cam! Cool experimentation! Love how you’re trying to see if it leads anywhere useful on the modeling front

Think your mic is dead

I am not sure if this is relevant: Does the type of gloss layer matter? Meaning if an acrylic base works better vs. a lacquer baser one

Great build. Really impressed with the hobby knife chipping - result is very realistic looking. I don't know how you did that without scratching all the way down to bare plastic, but well done!

I have little ball bearings in my paint, would it work with those?

I missed it....what are the 'oil' washes? Most of mine are enamels.

Outstanding work!! Your braver than me I would have used the decals over a silver paint job.

Very cool video and impressive build. The long format works really well for these types of videos imo. The voice over and background music are spot on and make for a very enjoyable watching experience. Looking forward to the next episode!

Beautiful build and yea it does suck when your doing such a detailed build and making the model as nice as possible the. You all of a sudden touch wet paint and leave a finger print in it or you glue your finger to a tiny part or have glue on your finger and touch a cockpit or engine and ruin it then you gotta buy a whole new kit so your current build stays looking good and not a glue bomb with a finger print or leveled off skin stuck tojjt

That was a absolutely outstanding build, I particularly liked the cockpit and the engine, congratulations on a job well done, best regards from Australia, Les

Beautiful!

The metal work is very convincing for something that was acheived with paint. It's always tricky and especially on a kit that does not have flawless engineering on which a recribed panel will stick out like a sore thumb with a NMF. I going to be starting my Miniart Jug soon and want to do it in NMF as well so this video was highly informative.

Great build! Love the weathering effects!

That's the only downfall of 3d decals is getting the right color match .

Is your name Eric by chance? These pens seem to have a very specific usage

What masking were you using? I see oramask 810 recommended a lot. Amazon seems to mostly sell 813. Not sure if there is a big difference. I had somebody gift me a cricut so I'm hoping to start making my masks in the near future.

Based on the video I just picked up the black CA filler. I think its going to be far more effective then the messy squadron putty I used to use that always cracked and shrunk and better than just thin zap a gap CA glue. Thanks for the vid in helping me choose a better product. Have a 1/48 KA-27 currently on the table awaiting some seam work.

Planning on doing a natural metal F-101 myself somewhat soon, but I don't have good enough ventilation to be comfortable with lacquers so was planning on using Vallejo's Metal Color line; do you know if there's anything that applies here that wouldn't apply when using an acrylic metal color? This might be the best metal look I've ever seen so I'm hoping to be able to follow it relatively closely.

Thanks for sharing the ugly/discouraging side and recovery steps! Other modeling videos makes it seem they get it perfect all the time. Would love to know if there are some stars and bars files for my Silhouette for 48th scale

Looks cool. 🛩

Keeper video! Thanks, Cameron!

And some goodies 😂