It struck me today that us modellers have to be good at all kinds of different skills to make a great model. Whereas in a 1:1 hot rod shop, for example, you'd have a chassis guy, and engine guy, a body guy, a paint guy etc, we get to do all of those. It's a great freedom and one that even for those of us lucky enough to own full size modified cars probably don't get to experience ourselves. Not many car builders will have done EVERYTHING on their build with no outside help. Course, there are some, and hats off to them. Wish I had their skills...but I'm too busy perfecting my scale building skills to move on to an even MORE time consuming and expensive hobby.
When I started out I had a knife a nail file and some glue. Now, I got a better knife and cutting matt, specialist glues for different jobs, airbrush and compressor, resin casting supplies, scratchbuilding supplies, and my latest acquisition, an ALPs MD1000.
For anyone who doesn't know (and this isn't your average modelling tool, so don't feel bad if you don't), the ALPs range of printers are a long discontinued breed, ideal for making your own decals. They print using a ribbon, like an old typewriter, with a dry ink that is great for decal making. Even cooler, you can get various colours of 'ink' that you cant get with a normal printer. White print? No probs. Gold and silver? Sure.
I wanted to make a set of my own decals for a 55 Gasser that I'm building, and an ALPs was the best solution to the problem. I wanted gold decals, and yellow or brown wasn't gonna cut it. So, off to eBay I popped, and came back £200 less well off. Then, I started the tedious process of sourcing discontinued cartridges for a machine that, from what I've read, isn't reliable enough that you'd want to invest much in it in the first place. At least it's small so it won't need a van to dispose of it...
The reason for it's versatility is also its Achilles heel. Because a print job can use anything from one ink colour up to 8 or more, there isn't enough room for those big ink cartridges to all fit on the print head. So, like an old Wurlitzer, when it comes time to print black the printer grabs the black cartridge from a special storage spot on the lid, uses it and then returns it. It's genius, and I'd love to see inside there when it's doing it's thing. Pity it all has to be closed up to work, cos I'll bet it's quite a show.
Having all these clever parts and crazy mechanisms means that, even with a new-old-stock unit like mine, failure is likely quicker than you might expect, but I'm hoping I'll get lucky and it'll last me decades and decades.
So, back to my original point, I now consider myself at least a dabbler in airbrushing, resin casting, scratchbuilding, detailing and now decal printing! All I gotta do now sis spend about ten years getting good at ONE of them and I'll have some useful skills to use on my builds. 'til then though, the journey is the most fun of all!
JB
When I started out I had a knife a nail file and some glue. Now, I got a better knife and cutting matt, specialist glues for different jobs, airbrush and compressor, resin casting supplies, scratchbuilding supplies, and my latest acquisition, an ALPs MD1000.
For anyone who doesn't know (and this isn't your average modelling tool, so don't feel bad if you don't), the ALPs range of printers are a long discontinued breed, ideal for making your own decals. They print using a ribbon, like an old typewriter, with a dry ink that is great for decal making. Even cooler, you can get various colours of 'ink' that you cant get with a normal printer. White print? No probs. Gold and silver? Sure.
I wanted to make a set of my own decals for a 55 Gasser that I'm building, and an ALPs was the best solution to the problem. I wanted gold decals, and yellow or brown wasn't gonna cut it. So, off to eBay I popped, and came back £200 less well off. Then, I started the tedious process of sourcing discontinued cartridges for a machine that, from what I've read, isn't reliable enough that you'd want to invest much in it in the first place. At least it's small so it won't need a van to dispose of it...
The reason for it's versatility is also its Achilles heel. Because a print job can use anything from one ink colour up to 8 or more, there isn't enough room for those big ink cartridges to all fit on the print head. So, like an old Wurlitzer, when it comes time to print black the printer grabs the black cartridge from a special storage spot on the lid, uses it and then returns it. It's genius, and I'd love to see inside there when it's doing it's thing. Pity it all has to be closed up to work, cos I'll bet it's quite a show.
Having all these clever parts and crazy mechanisms means that, even with a new-old-stock unit like mine, failure is likely quicker than you might expect, but I'm hoping I'll get lucky and it'll last me decades and decades.
So, back to my original point, I now consider myself at least a dabbler in airbrushing, resin casting, scratchbuilding, detailing and now decal printing! All I gotta do now sis spend about ten years getting good at ONE of them and I'll have some useful skills to use on my builds. 'til then though, the journey is the most fun of all!
JB
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