The Kit-Basher's Guide To The Galaxy

[CaptainSteve]

Captain Steve, I posted a method of coiling ropes using transparent plastic `counters' (used in schools and available on ebay) on another thread a while back. Thought you may be interested

 

 

Thanks for that, Hornet. 

 

I believe that was where I first saw Jay's idea, and at the time, I had bookmarked it for future reference.

It was nice to revisit the thread and read of other people's contributions !!

[7 Provinces]

Hey people,

 

I made my own hobby table from different parts of furniture which I got at IKEA. 

I got myself a set of cupboards which are normally placed under a kitchen bench. These are cheap and have holes drilled on the inside to attach drawers, doors, or to attach them to each other. I used these to attach them to each other, put in a few drawers and to put two tube lights. On top I put some felt pads (normally used under furniture) and a table top of hardened glass which is matte on the bottom side. This gives me a very stable desk with a 100% flat top, some drawers for tools, lots of space to store other stuff and, when I turn on the lights I have a light table which comes in handy sometimes when I need to trace drawings or plans to make templates.

[JSGerson]

7 Provinces - I'm thinking about a new work bench/table and your idea sounds interesting. Any chance of some pictures to illustrate what you did?

[tarbrush]

7 Provinces,  Please please pictures!!!  , this sounds like the perfect modeling table!  I would love to see a photo tour of this bench you have built. 

[7 Provinces]

Wow, thanks for the reactions! I must admit I was a bit afraid the question for pictures would come. Fact is, I built this table like this for another reason: I currently have no and never did   ) dedicated place to work so the table/bench is in the corner of the same room where I have my "office". Means all my modeling stuff in in and on this table (and a bit in front of it   ). Can you imagine the mess? Currently it is not possible to see much of the table.

But I will try to clean up and shoot a few pictures this weekend  . Have to clean up anyway to be able to do some modeling.

[tarbrush]

Jan-Willem, thanks, I will be looking forward to them!

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

7 provinces. Dust is part of the modeling world, to me anyway hahaha

 

Cheers

Greg

[7 Provinces]

haha, so true.

Only I wish it was dust on my table, not all kinds of other stuff 

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

I know what you mean..... I lost a small piece that I was working on somewhere on my bench, so I've to spend the next hour clean all the tools, paper, wood and of course dust lol, to find it. Looking on the bright side, I've got a clean area again......for a very short time!

Greg

[7 Provinces]

Ok people, I did not get to clean up my desk as I hoped I would, but here are a few pics anyway. Hopefully they will still show the essentials...

 

First picture is an overview of the desk:

 

Two cupboards (standard 58 cm deep) of different width attached to eachother with screws which come with the package.

I chose not to use doors, because these are expensive (hinges!), get in the way when you need something and are just not very practical here.

All the stuff inside doesn't look great but it gives you an idea of the storage capacity 

 

I added two drawers for the smaller stuff. I may alter this configuration later on. 

 

The drawers have no front for easy access and reduced cost.

The drawers can be attached at any position following the pre-drilled holes. Easy construction with 6 screws each.

 

 

Stainless feet can be adjusted in height by rotating them. In this way the cupboards can be levelled exactly before attaching them to each other.

 

 

The tabletop is made of 800x1500x10 mm hardened glass and is matte on the bottom side. I have put self-sticking felt pads on the cupboards corners which increase the friction between the glass and the (otherwise smooth) cupboards. The weight of the glass (30 kgs) together with the friction ensures that it stays where it is. It is however still possible to slide it a bit when necessary, but it requires more pressure than it normally would get from working on it.

 

 

I have attached two 30 cm tubelights to the sides of the larger cupboard to create an area for drawing and tracing. 

 

That's basically it.

 

 

 

[tarbrush]

Thanks for the photos Jan!  you've given me some good ideas.  I really like the glass top.

[JSGerson]

I don't know why you were so worried about the clutter. It looks essentially like my work bench!

Edited February 18, 2015 by JSGerson

[7 Provinces]

 Because it was blocking the view. Of course I did (need to) make some room, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make the pictures with the lights and the drawing to show the effect of the light table. But I was hoping to put a lot of things back in their places instead of just shoving it aside 

[twintrow]

Marc don't forget to salvage the wires as well (didn't see any in your remains pic), good for making eyelets, stropping, and some hull decorations, etc.

Tom

[keelhauled]

just a safety reminder.  If you are tearing apart electronics be careful of capacitors; some store power for a very long time.   I was shocked pretty good, not paying attention while disassembling an old television.

 

Marc

[hornet]

DOUBLE E DED APPLICATORS

 

While wandering aimlessly around a $2 shop - following my admiral - (something I do superbly!!) I came across these `double ended applicators.' They are apparently used for applying eye makeup. They work really well for removing excess glue and, being spongy, they can easily be rinsed and reused. The only downside with them was that I got some very strange looks from the checkout girl when I bought 10 packs

 

Edited September 11, 2015 by hornet

[Keith_W]

The Captain asked me to make this post, so here it is: how to make balustrades from beads, wire, and string. 

 

The beads can be purchased in a jewelry supply shop. For those in Melbourne, and those interested in mail order, this is where I bought it from: 

 

(Code 11358), Metal 2.5mm round silver, 200pc/pack, AUD$5.99: http://www.wholesalebeads.com.au/shop.asp?cat=744

 

(Code 11350) Metal 2.5mm x 2.5mm cube raw, 100pc/pack, AUD$8.99: http://www.wholesalebeads.com.au/shop.asp?cat=1332

 

Making the balustrade is self explanatory with these pictures. 

 

 

Cut suitable lengths of wire, then CA the beads in position using a suitable jig to achieve even spacing. 

 

 

Tie a string around the middle, then CA it in place. Trim the string flush. 

 

 

Wrap the string around the wire until a bulb is formed. Periodically add a few drops of CA - the idea is to impregnate the thread with CA to make it possible to turn it on a lathe later. 

 

 

When done, coat with liquid Sculpey: http://www.sculpey.com/product/sculpey-translucent-liquid/

 

 

Bake the balustrades as per the Sculpey instructions: 130C for 15 minutes. When cool, mount on a lathe and sand off any imperfections. Paint it a colour of your choice.

 

 

Comparison of balustrades made using this method, and my best effort at turning pear wood on a lathe. 

 

 

 

Some applications for the balustrades. Mounting the balustrades is dead easy -drill holes through the wood, dip the end of the balustrade in a tiny bit of CA, and push it into the hole. Trim the exposed ends and sand it flat. If you don't like the dots of exposed metal, you can cover it with a thin layer of veneer, or paint over it.

[CaptainSteve]

Thanks, Keith.

I'm sure many modellers will find this very useful.

[mattsayers148]

That's really cool Keith!

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I had to make some Port and Starboard navigation lights for a whaleship model I am restoring, its a 1/72 scale model built to 1930 Popular Science plans. The lamps on the actual ship likely burned whale oil.

I needed a red and a green lantern so I painted red and green stripes on a bamboo skewer. This represents the colored glass of the lamps. Over this I glued strips of common tinfoil leaving a gap between strips corresponding to the hight of the glass lens of the lamps.

I could have stopped there but it seams to me most of these old lamps metalwork had some flanges and radially symetrical moulding. This I represented by putting half turns of thick wire around the skewer above and below the lens, twisting it tight from the back.

I cut off the lamps and glued them into place.

I had used the Wire-Represents-raised-detail idea on wood made canon barrels to represent Reenforcing rings and astragals, its easy and effective.

Incidentally I should point out a subtlety. The baffles that are the boxes the lamps sit in are painted red and green too. But since one is representing painted wood ( the boxes) and one is representing glass ( the lamps) I did NOT use the exact same color red or green on each. I think its important not to use color full strength right out of the jar, I believe it should always be slightly adulterated with a tiny amount of a dark color to kill the intensity just a tiny bit. Especially in cases where different materials are being represented. In this case the red and green paint is more intense on the lenses and duller on the wood baffles and this fools the eye int believing there are two different materials in use.

Edited March 1, 2015 by JerseyCity Frankie

[JSGerson]

JerseyCity - Just a thought, could a clear plastic straw been used instead of the bamboo skewer? You could have painted the inside of the straw to give the "lamps" a transparent lens look or would the wire detailing not work with the flimsy plastic?

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I read an account in Fine Sale Modeling about a guy cutting up two toothbrush handles. They were tinted transparent plastic, red and green. He just used a tinny piece of each to represent the wingtip navlights on a plastic aircraft model. I looked briefly for some transparent tinted plastic but I did not have a lot of time to invest and so just painted the bamboo. But your right, it would be MUCH better with transparent lenses.

[NenadM]

Telephony wire again

 

Different type of eyes on hull/deck

 

Here is process after soldering ( "eye" made around  0,7 mm steel wire from paperclip)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2015 by Nenad

[usedtosail]

Here is something I picked up on this site for making window glass. First off, I have to apologize to the modeler who came up with this. I saw it on this site but can't remember from whom.

 

Dig around behind your computer tables and look for these old "floppy" disks. If you crack them open, the disk itself is a black plastic, that makes great windows. It is opaque, so if like me you have nothing behind the windows to show, it does a great job of hiding the emptiness. It is very thin so it doesn't take up much space in the openings, and it cuts very easily with a scalpel or X-Acto knife. Plus, it is shiny so it looks like glass. And, it doesn't fog from CA glue like acetate does.

 

 

 

[CaptainSteve]

Nice, Tom ...

 

I be thinkin' that some scrap lace pieces laid between your frame and the disc windows would make nice curtains. 

Edited March 7, 2015 by CaptainSteve

[RichardG]

Cor! Haven't seen a floppy dirk since yonks back! I bet there's no-one here who can remember the 8-inch floppies, when they really were floppy!

[RichardG]

Now I'm feeling old. I do remember 8in floppys and punch cards!

 

I wonder how many people realise what the standard icon for 'save' is?

[GLakie]

I remember life with-out computers.   It was so much simpler then.     Never touched one until about 5 years ago. 

[Jack12477]

Does anyone remember the IBM 2311 or 2314 disk drives and their removable disks?  Don't drop one and make sure the cover is screwed on tight!

[Ulises Victoria]

I'm 66. Do I need say more?

I remember that in order to play certain games, you had to tweak your autoexec.bat and config.sys files, and manually load the drivers for the mouse and video card in DOS.

How many of you have not the slightest idea what I'm talking about?    

Edited March 8, 2015 by Ulises Victoria