Thundergod
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2013
- Messages
- 202
Being a new member and seeing the great builds in all the categories on the forum has inspired me to build my first aircraft in a number of years . A couple of years ago , I picked up a job lot of 21st Century 32nd scale aircraft kits , with the intention of selling them on , which I did , but I kept a few in storage for "rainy day" builds , or if my son ever took an interest in modelling aircraft ( which has yet to happen !)
The kits are not really that well regarded , being basically their "ready made" models broken down into kit form , but on inspection of the contents of the box(es) , I was pleasantly surprised . All the parts were well moulded and flash free ( no sprues , just plastic bagged ). The fuselage and wings feature nice scribed detail and proportions seem to be pretty spot on , though I'm not an expert ! ( I'm not 100% sure about the rear of the canopy on the Stuka , for example ) . Anyhow , it was Stuka I decided on ( I also have the Me 109 and Zero models ) and as it was really a "practice build ", I decided to make it straight from the box . One thing though , has stopped me from building any aircraft and armour for a number of years , is the fact that I'm currently without an airbrush compressor , having had 2 break down on me and not really being in the position to replace them , so painting would definitely be "old school" , from spray cans and even ( brace yourselves ), brush painted !
Although it wasn't all good news , as the wings and 2 halves of the fuselage screw together and so have dirty great holes to plug and fill ( it doesn't help that the plastic "plugs" supplied are of a softer material and so are difficult to sand and blend with the plastic of the parts ) the model went together very well , the cockpit's particularly nice and could easily be detailed up to a high standard . The decals were/are a bit of a challenge as well , being pretty thick and not wanting to adhere to the model without a bit of a battle . The large snake was a particularly stubborn beast and needed cutting into smaller sections to fit . For the paint , I went with the desert scheme and cheated a little , as I gave the camo a hard , rather than soft edge , as this was easier to achieve without the use of the airbrush ( though in my defence , my reference shows both types used with this type of scheme ) .
The models about 95% done , as I need to tweak and touch up a few bits here and there , in particular I need to paint in the snake around the air intake and I plan on replacing a section of the canopy where it shows signs of "stress fractures " I didn't notice at first , but showed up after I spent the evening adding the canopy framing ! Also , the colour of the underside appears to have magically transformed from the "sky blue" I painted it in , to a rather attractive "swampy green" , which I can only put down to the effect of the pastel washes I used in the weathering process . On the whole though , I'm pretty pleased with it so far .
The kits are not really that well regarded , being basically their "ready made" models broken down into kit form , but on inspection of the contents of the box(es) , I was pleasantly surprised . All the parts were well moulded and flash free ( no sprues , just plastic bagged ). The fuselage and wings feature nice scribed detail and proportions seem to be pretty spot on , though I'm not an expert ! ( I'm not 100% sure about the rear of the canopy on the Stuka , for example ) . Anyhow , it was Stuka I decided on ( I also have the Me 109 and Zero models ) and as it was really a "practice build ", I decided to make it straight from the box . One thing though , has stopped me from building any aircraft and armour for a number of years , is the fact that I'm currently without an airbrush compressor , having had 2 break down on me and not really being in the position to replace them , so painting would definitely be "old school" , from spray cans and even ( brace yourselves ), brush painted !
Although it wasn't all good news , as the wings and 2 halves of the fuselage screw together and so have dirty great holes to plug and fill ( it doesn't help that the plastic "plugs" supplied are of a softer material and so are difficult to sand and blend with the plastic of the parts ) the model went together very well , the cockpit's particularly nice and could easily be detailed up to a high standard . The decals were/are a bit of a challenge as well , being pretty thick and not wanting to adhere to the model without a bit of a battle . The large snake was a particularly stubborn beast and needed cutting into smaller sections to fit . For the paint , I went with the desert scheme and cheated a little , as I gave the camo a hard , rather than soft edge , as this was easier to achieve without the use of the airbrush ( though in my defence , my reference shows both types used with this type of scheme ) .
The models about 95% done , as I need to tweak and touch up a few bits here and there , in particular I need to paint in the snake around the air intake and I plan on replacing a section of the canopy where it shows signs of "stress fractures " I didn't notice at first , but showed up after I spent the evening adding the canopy framing ! Also , the colour of the underside appears to have magically transformed from the "sky blue" I painted it in , to a rather attractive "swampy green" , which I can only put down to the effect of the pastel washes I used in the weathering process . On the whole though , I'm pretty pleased with it so far .
