Recent content by Troy Downen

After a good toothbrush scrub (to loosen particles) and another rub-down with isopropyl alcohol on a lint-free rag, the second primer coat goes on. Note that I’ve attached a few of the greeblies early because I just couldn’t resist! Unfortunately that one strip on the belly is just too far...

Not much of an update, I’m afraid. The first coat of primer went down and several hours of sanding with 320 wet/dry sandpaper yields an ugly shuttle, but smooth as a baby’s bottom! There are still a couple of hours of cleaning up in between the various raised panels and looking for “junk” to...

Another hot and humid weekend. I haven’t bled yet for this model (it’s coming, I know it is) but I sure have sweat. So… blood, sweat and beers? That’s the saying, isn’t it? I bit more work securing the flight deck LED strip with epoxy, and then I smeared some additional 5-minute epoxy inside...

Not too difficult given a bit of quality time at your local Home Depot, Lowes or such. It's just finding that darned cross pipe... The humidity level continues at record levels. But despite that, I did get to spend a bit more time with GAL 356 this morning. Up first, the engines. I bored out...

Absolutely! …so here goes MY build of a studio scale Battlestar Galactica Shuttle GAL 356. Caveat: I am a SLOOOOOW builder. I like to sit and stare at my models while I build them, thinking through next steps and alternate approaches. So it seems like progress comes slowly. I also have very...

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And that’s a wrap for 2014’s modeling season! The last clear coats have been applied and the epoxy attaching the tracked wheels to the body has set up. The clear coats darkened the paint colors and I believe the overall effect is what I had intended. This was a great way for me to...

tsenecal, I see what you mean about those bubbles in the casting. I've dealt with many resin kits that had the same problem and it can be a nightmare. Nevertheless, you've done a bang-up job on that kit! Fortunately (for me, at least) this newer incarnation from Multi-Verse has excellent...

In this iteration from Multi-Verse, the castings are excellent, I had no parts missing (that I am aware of, at least) and the fit of parts was very good. Only a small amount of filler was needed. Yes, it lacks studio model accuracy in the finer details, but considering that it is 1/144 scale it...

As it turns out, I have every shade of gray (or “grey”) paint known to modern coloring science, but I have only one jar of brown paint in my entire stash! WTF!? Oh yeah, it’s because I NEVER BUILD MODELS THAT ARE PAINTED BROWN! Sigh… Well, I’m in “make it work” mode here so I lightened up the...

I’ve been getting bogged down in the scratch-building of new wings for the 1:18 scale Hasbro Heroes X-wing… http://www.therpf.com/f11/hasbro-hero-series-1-18-scale-x-wing-heavy-mods-224604/ … so I needed a “quick kill” to help end the year in style! The 1/144 scale Jawa Sandcrawler from...

I placed an order via their website over the summer. 45 days later... nothing. I finally called my credit card company to have them reverse the charges since no product had been delivered. Absolutely no communication from PNT despite numerous emails and phone calls. I would suggest that you get...

The larger-scale versions of these upgrades intended for the Salzo half-studio scale kit are terrific. I highly recommend them!

I was just reminded over in a different forum that the x-wing pyros used for filming in ANH had a larger-opening set of wings (the "X" was larger) than the hero models. I *believe* the screen caps posted above were of hero models, but I can't be certain. Just FYI... I'm not gonna use mine as a...

I've had luck using Dupli-Color adhesion promoter and primer on my X-wing tear-down and mod: http://www.therpf.com/f11/hasbro-hero-series-1-18-scale-x-wing-heavy-mods-224604/