Decals work best on a smooth glossy surface.  If you put a decal on top of a flat painted surface, you get "silvering" - the decal film can't conform to the rough surface of the flat paint and so you get air bubbles under the film producing the frosted look.  If you want the flat finish, use gloss paint, apply the decals, and then overcoat everything with a clear flat finish like Testor's Dullcote.  Its quite common that you can't find the military colors you need in a gloss paint - so the procedure is to paint with flats, overcoat with a clear gloss finish like Testor's GlossCote, apply the decals, and finally apply the DullCote over the whole works. Don Schmitz

Attaching clear parts, eg. aircraft canopies and windows, can be a problem as many glues will form ugly smears or fog the plastic (the fumes from a tiny drop of cyanoacrylate can fog a big area).  A few glues that are safe for this are:

- Clear enamel paint.  Just brush some on the mating surfaces, wait a few minutes for it to get tacky, and then stick the two parts together. This has also been recommended for attaching photo etched trim. Brian Arsenault

Which fillers work best for resin parts? Auto body fillers for gross filling. I have heard that Gunze Sangyo "Mr. Surfacer" 1000 is excellent for filling pinholes in the surface. It is probably a good idea to gouge the area to be filled to insure the filler gets a good "grip" on the surface, and doesn't come loose later. Squadron White works for me! I like auto body filler and Humbrols red filler. Plastic filler as Revells Plasto don't stick. Larry J. Brackney       

The idea is very simple and consist of inserting a part of the model in a Styrofoam block to hold it firmly while you apply your decals without the handling. The hole can be made with the same unpainted model and then you can insert the painted model. Nigel Perren

Many times our models had suffered broken pitots, landing gear, antennas or other parts while on transit to a model contest. Repairing it can leave unforgiving marks that affect your score in the judging process.

Excellent tool for sanding rounded or hard to reach areas. They come in sets of different grades and can be found with any hobby store.

  Pain the panel base color first in a flat color. Let dry.

  Cover both sides of the joint or crack with masking tape

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