Greetings and sorry for the delay in posting the meeting minutes.  I had some Civil Air Patrol duties and eyelid surgery.  Right now I look like I got in the losing end of a fight.  Anyway, here are the minutes from our last meeting...

Unfortunately we had some difficulty with folks getting into the meeting.  Zoom was having issues.  In some cases I saw people were able to log in but didn't realize they were in the meeting.  I've reached out to Zoom and asked about this issue.  They continue to upgrade security protocols and I suspect that's what caused the issue, but who knows.  I'm looking forward to a better experience for us all next time.

Also, although I set the meeting to be recorded, there's no record of the recording?  I added that annoyance to the list for Zoom.

We started off taking a look at Rob's 1/700 Saratoga.  It really came out nice and I was particularly impressed with the biplanes and the photo etch struts and control rods.  Very nice Rob!  We can talk about it some more if you're at the next meeting.

I then led a discussion on automotive spot fillers and home made Sprue Goo.  

Automotive fillers have been used for some time now.  In the photo below I used this brand recommended by Will Pattison thinned with lacquer thinner.  To the right is Sprue Glue made with Tamiya Extra Thin cement mixed with Evergreen plastic sheet.  To make this I take a half full bottle of Extra Thin cement and start inserting bits of white styrene.  The cement melts down the styrene and you're left with a thick mixture.  I also included some Perfect Plastic Putty in the side by side comparison as a point of reference.

So here's how they faired....

The brand of automotive spot filler I used was pronto Combo Spot Putty.  You can buy it on Amazon, eBay, and probably automotive parts stores.  A tube costs about $12.  I followed Will Pattison's video and thinned the putty with lacquer thinner to consistency of thick syrup.  I applied it to a deeply scribed line and let it dry.  This stuff dries quickly.  Allow about 20 min and you can start after it with your sander of choice.  What I found with my test was that the thinned putty didn't fill the scribed lines completely.  So I tried to fill it without thinning and actually got much better results.  Thinning allows you to put smaller amounts into a seam line than full strength.  This filler isn't too hard either.  It sands nicely and not too much harder than styrene, so you're not taking away too much plastic while you're trying to level a filled area.  The nice thing about this putty is that it's gray in color as opposed to Bondo 907 which is red in color.  That could be useful though.  It's also not very grainy so when sanded it's quite smooth.  It also takes paint well.  While it works well on styrene, it's even better on resin.  

Will Pattison did a nice job of explaining the use of this putty on a P-51D.  Here's a link to the video and it starts at about 11:00.  

 Sprue Goo.  As stated above this is a home brew made from Tamiya Extra Thin cement and styrene.  Some people will mix it up with the plastic sprue from their kit because it matches the kit itself and sands very evenly.  However most people prefer it to be mixed with something like Evergreen plastic.  In the video above, Will suggests using clear styrene because it's the most pure form of styrene.  Then add some coloring to it.  So I spread this into the deep panel lines I made and let it dry, and dry, and dry.  I actually gave it a couple of days to fully dry.  I found that it filled the gap and sanded beautifully.  Because it's similar material to the kit plastic there's no uneven sanding.  Another good aspect of this stuff is that if you keep it sealed in an old Tamiya Extra Thin bottle, it lasts for a very very long time.  The down side of this is that it takes days to fully gas off and dry before sanding.  Also the glue can have a negative effect on soft styrene so careful where you use it.  

I'm still a big fan of Perfect Plastic Putty.  However I do find that I need to go over it with something like Mr. Surfacer 1000 or some type of primer to finish it off.  

These materials have their place.  If you're in a hurry, the automotive putty is a good choice because it dries quickly.  However if you have time Sprue Goo might be a better choice because of how similar it is to the kit plastic.  

Next up was a discussion on craft cutters, specifically the Silhouette and Cricut units.  My wife bought herself a Cricut machine and generously offered to let me use it to make painting masks.  

For modelers the main use of these machines are for creating paint masks.  They can also cut thin styrene and wood but we'll leave that for another day.  Here's what I learned...

Which one to buy?  These machines do exactly the same thing.  They take computer files and cut or draw based on those files.  It may be a Ford vs Chevrolet thing, but modelers seem to prefer the manufacturers software from Silhouette.  The cost of these machines run around $300 to $350 new.

Buyer beware.  If you buy this, you own it.  Neither company has a friendly return policy.  They will address problems but forget about getting your money back.  My wife tried and no joy.  That said, she's getting used to the machine and wouldn't return it at this point.  

Learning curve.  There is a learning curve with these machines.  However doing masks is quite simple.

Where do you learn?  There is an excellent resource on Facebook.  It's called The Cutting Edge scale modeling plotter/cutter users group.  It's a friendly group and they have been very helpful to me.

What else do you need?  The software that comes with these machines is not adequate for preparing painting masks.  For example it is very common to scan your kit decals and create painting masks from the scan.  However if you try to do this with the unit software you will be left with a lot of artifacts in that scan which the cutter will try and cut.  NOT GOOD!  Therefore you'll need a 3rd party software for cleaning up the images.  Inkscape is the most common software used because it works and is free.  However if you have a subscription to CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, etc, they work equally as well.  There is a learning curve with these programs.  

Here's an example.  The top image is from a decal sheet.  The background looks clean enough, but...

The top photo shows the image after imported into the Cricut software and background removed.  it's a simple process but as you can see the lines aren't sharp and there is a lot of noise in the background.  The machine will try and cut all that out.  Trust me, that's a bad choice!  

The next photo shows the image after importing into Inkscape and cleaning up the background.  It's nice and share, ready to cut.  The image is exported from Inkscape into the Cricut machine which is very easy to do.  Then in a minute the machine cuts out a paint mask.  

Images can be found in a number of ways...

• From the kit decal sheet
• From the internet.  For example search for "roundels" with your web browser and you'll find excellent graphics free of charge.
• Fonts from the machine and internet.  The machines have an extensive cache of fonts to choose from.  However you can find specific military fonts from a site called dafont.com.  

Materials for masking?  The most popular masking material is from a company called Oramask and the best film they make is called 810.  They produce other masking materials but this one works best for what we do.  Now, if you're masking canopies, it's recommended to use Tamiya masking sheets which are available from Sprue Brothers and other online sellers.  

How does it work?  Pretty easy.  There is a tacky sheet that you apply a piece of the masking material to.  You load it into the machine.  Select what you want it to cut and then start.  In a few minutes you have a perfect mask, assuming you have a good image to work with.  

You can paint as a positive or negative mask.  As a positive you place the mask where you want to paint and remove the letters.  Spray and remove the mask.  As a negative mask, paint the color of the lettering first.  Apply a carrier film (medical paper tape works excellent) to the mask.  Remove the mask making sure that you leave the letters covering the paint you put down.  Then paint your finish color of the letters. When dry remove the letters and you have the perfect lettering in place.

Pros and Cons.  Painting on lettering and roundels looks superior to decals.  No question about it.  There are lots of ways to capture masking images from the internet.  There's such a thing as too small.  For example if you try to cut hull numbers for a 1/700 kit, this is not a good choice.  However if you have something like HMS numbering for a 1/350 kit or larger, this is a great choice.  

In summary, these are very useful machines.  There are a lot of modeling applications and there is good support from the modeling community.  Nothing beats painted on markings except maybe wet transfers, which aren't really available for our ship subjects yet.  

Next we discussed a relatively new product from Tamiya.  These are sanding sponge sheets.  They come in grits of 400, 600, 1000, and 1500.  Note, there is no standard for grits.  Apparently in Japan, a 400 grit is equivalent to about 200 sandpaper in the U.S.  These are very useful.  They can be cut into different sizes.  One application is to apply it to an electric mini sander using double sided tape.  The thing to remember about sponge sanders is that they tend to follow contours, bumps, etc.  It's not a good choice for removing material.  But it's an excellent material for finish sanding to a smooth surface prior to painting.

Next we discussed a few new kits that were of interest.  The first is from Das Work.  This  is their first ship model and it's a beauty.  A 1/72 WWI U-Boat.  As you can see it's extremely well done and can be made into several different boats.  The only negative is that there is no deck gun.  A point of interest is that Das Werk hired divers to dive on the wreck of U-12 to make sure they had good measurements.  Who does that!  You can pre order from Andy's

Here's an unboxing from Andy's.  You can preorder this kit from him.

Here's a review from Mig Jaminez.  

Another nice bit of kit is from Snowman Models in China.  It is a Russian Navy tug boat.  It actually is a very generic example of a modern tug/tractor.  It's available in 1/350 and 1/700 and I ordered both back in January.  I really wanted this kit for my container ship in 1/700.  They only released one so far and guess which one they released?  The 1/350 of course.  I've written them to find out when they might release the 1/700.  So far... crickets.   In any event the 1/350 kit is awesome.  It's all resin and photo etch which is a departure from injected molding by Snowman.  

Another kit with ties to Colorado is from AFV Club.  It is the LCT-6 which was built as sub assemblies in Colorado and shipped to the coast for final assembly.  They also produce an extensive photo etch set to really detail this craft out.  

Next up a great reference from dazzle patterns on WWII ships.  This reference database is maintained at the Rhode Island School of Design.  There are many ships maintained in this database.  Here's a link to this database.  You could use these drawings to create masks using your new cutting machine!  :-)

Dazzle Pattern Database

With the Pandemic in full swing, and us all spending more time doing video conferencing, we're more aware of the quality of the meetings.  Lighting is really important.  I recall starting a call in the late afternoon that went for several hours.  Into the meeting people told me I was going dark.  Sure enough.  As the sun went down, so did my light.  I decided to purchase some lighting for my wife and me.  Doing some research I found these from a company called Lume cube.  This company makes a variety of lighting solutions for photography and virtual meetings.  The kit I got is called "Broadcast Lighting Kit".  It includes a function cup mount and tripod that work well on my desk.  What's really special about this lighting is the ability to adjust the light.  You can adjust intensity as well as temperature.  The intensity can be adjusted from 1 to 100.  I used mine at 15% which provides about 10 hours of continuous lighting.  The temperature can be adjusted from 3200K to 5600K.  3200 being soft light and 5600 being strong daylight.  It also includes a light softener so the light isn't too start.  The kit cost $129 and you can buy it from the manufacturer or from Amazon and others.  The lights charge using a simple USB cord connected to your computer or other charging device.  

Here's a link to their web site.  If you want to step up your game, check it out.

Lume cube

Finally David Angelo suggested a book called The Black Battlefleet.  David describes this book as an excellent reference to a unique subject.  

That's it for our November meeting.  See you in December!