The monumental crap or...

[trekriffic]

I suppose that's as good an explanation as anything Yan. It must be tough when you don't have access to the same paints and supplies we have here in the USA. I guess you just have to do the best you can with what's at hand.
Here's hoping your efforts pay off with a nice model after all your travails.

[NCC1966]

Thanks, Trekriffic! One of the things that is really frustrating of having a hobby in a South America country is that bring it to a higher level is really challenging. When you live in USA, Europe or Japan everything seems to be too much easier because at the next corner small store you can find a wide range of products for virtually everything. Here you are always limited to the "overall use" stuff. I passed for this problem not only with modeling, but also with carpentry, guitar playing and a bunch of other things. My wife passed it with Origami (issue finding specialized paper) and with sewing. Everything here is hard to find and expensive.



Let's take modeling. Would you pay USD 300 for a 1/1000 NX-01 kit? I bet not. But this is how much such kit weights in a Brazilian modeler's pocket! And the same goes for ANY import (everything for us in modeling is imported), from paints to decals and everything else you can imagine. But how can it be? The explanation is that I live in a country where the dollar exchange floats around 3x1 and where the wage difference is around 6x1 when compared with USA. It does mean that whatever you buy there can cost proportionally around 10 or 12 times more expensive here. At this point you already have noticed that a poor person hardly will have modeling as a hobby in Brasil — unless you consider carving a piece of wood with a pocket knife as modeling.



I could keep ranting about those difficulties all the day.

Anyway, now you can understand why sometimes I have to be so creative (and imprudent) with the use of some products!

[NCC1966]

After the second bath in the caustic soda the paint popped out a bit more in bubbles but still remained sticked. Then I decided to give a new try with a box of cotton swabs and a bottle of spirit. I am scrubbing it and am getting a satisfactory result.

[NCC1966]

Yesterday, after the second caustic soda I got a bit of progress but noticed that it wouldn't help too much more then I decided try a new approach and passed a full hour scrubbing the model with cotton swabs soaked with spirit. Now I got a better result!

[michelalano]

My monumental crap...

I'm feeling kind of discouraged so I thought I'd chime in. I have at least 11 unfinished models lying around - so many half painted saucers and nacelles that my desk looks like Wolf 359...

I'm constantly battling between "making it perfect" and "doing the best I can with the time and money I have." My goal right now is to finish ONE model but it seems every time I try, I do something stupid, like a big fat thumbprint on the still-wet gloss white of my refit saucer. So then I try to wipe it with a rag and make it worse, then I try to clean the area with thinner and repaint, but then the thick paint is uneven, so I have to strip the whole thing and start over.

Rattle can painting is my biggest enemy. I have an airbrush, but I don't know how to use it and the idea of learning is pretty daunting. On top of that I don't really have a space for it indoors as I live with two roommates who have already complained about paint and glue fumes. Thus I am relegated to carefully bringing everything I need to paint out to the sidewalk to use in the dead of winter. On many occasions, even when it is not particularly windy, a short gust will send my model parts onto the sidewalk, either breaking or scuffing them, or sometimes smudging the paint I just applied. Also in a light breeze, the paint tends to go everywhere but my model, in some kind of wasteful cloud. Somehow I used an entire rattle can of gloss white on only one 1000 scale model and a couple of 2500 models because the paint kept going down unevenly and I had to re-do them.

Unfortunately I feel at this point that I can't even HAVE this hobby until 1. I get my own place and have my own decent airbrushing setup (which could be years) or 2. at the very least wait til it's warmer weather and try to find a windless area on my block to do painting. It sucks because modeling has been pretty much the only thing to keep me sane during a particularly long stint of the winter blues this year.

But my goal is still to finish ONE model. Right now the closest to being finished is my 1400 enterprise D which I have no stand for, and a couple of cadet series ships that need decaling (can't wait! )

I don't mean to be a monumental complainer but it feels kinda good to chime in and rant for a minute. I'm sure all of you have dealt with worse, so I guess this is just the way it is and I have to keep trying to look on the bright side!

[NCC1966]

Wow, I really feel your pain! Do not have a proper place for the hobby is one of the main causes for disasters.

I have a tip for outdoor painting and not having your stuff being carried around by wind. Pick a big piece of cardboard and use double faced rape to keep them attached to the cardboard. For pars that are hard to fix with tape use a small drop of superglue!

[trekriffic]

Pick a big piece of cardboard and use double faced rape to keep them attached to the cardboard.

Double faced rape??? You could get arrested for that!

[mophius]

Pick a big piece of cardboard and use double faced rape to keep them attached to the cardboard.

Double faced rape??? You could get arrested for that!

lol

[NCC1966]

Pick a big piece of cardboard and use double faced rape to keep them attached to the cardboard.

Double faced rape??? You could get arrested for that!

lol

LoL! I hate mobile keyboard!

[Drop_Bear]

...Let's take modeling. Would you pay USD 300 for a 1/1000 NX-01 kit? I bet not. But this is how much such kit weights in a Brazilian modeler's pocket! And the same goes for ANY import (everything for us in modeling is imported), from paints to decals and everything else you can imagine. But how can it be? The explanation is that I live in a country where the dollar exchange floats around 3x1 and where the wage difference is around 6x1 when compared with USA. It does mean that whatever you buy there can cost proportionally around 10 or 12 times more expensive here. At this point you already have noticed that a poor person hardly will have modeling as a hobby in Brasil — unless you consider carving a piece of wood with a pocket knife as modeling.



I could keep ranting about those difficulties all the day.

Anyway, now you can understand why sometimes I have to be so creative (and imprudent) with the use of some products!

Wow. That's harsh, man. But you know, they did used to use spray paints from hardware and car parts stores on studio models, so your choice of colour is more in the spirit of the thing than if you used a Tamiya lacquer. And I personally like seeing ingenuity more than I do off-the-shelf solutions, so I look forward to seeing how this turns out.