First kit in 22 years !

[Eric Mc]

Haven't seen them for years. I have some old bottles of their US Air Force authentic colours.

[Red Firecracker]

They moved into the RC side of things, so Lexan friendly paints in lots of weird and wonderful colours.

[nick heppinstall]

Didn't really buy the F5 for price I just fancied it. Well ok price factored a bit but last night I spent £40 on bits lol !

Having a run to Doncaster Air Museum today so might pick something else up from their shop.

I still have my old compressor and tank. I'll have to see if it works. I did have a half decent Airbrush. Think it was a Badger and cost me around £120 all those years ago. Every so often I find a bit of it kicking around the house or garage....

[nick heppinstall]

Ok just arrived back home. Browsing through their pretty decent Model selection and a F-84G Thunderjet caught my eye. It was only £4.99 and I had never made one before so I thought what the hell !

I had never heard of the maker and I have only just noticed on the box that it said 'Easy assembly' ! Alarm bells were ringing.

Opening the box I'm pleasantly surprised. The parts seem very well formed and the detail looks good. The fuselage is in one piece ! Decals also look pretty good.

Great day at Doncaster. Turned out to be their Helicopter day with the arrival of a totally mint blue Gazelle followed by another Gazelle and a fancy Alouette.

Here's pics of the kit and the choppers !

[Eric Mc]

The Hobbyboss Easy Kit range is not bad at all. They are cheap - click together well and have reasonably restrained detail.

They are great for practising painting techniques on.

[Marshdweller]

I'm so pleased this thread is someone actually asking for advice on their return to the hobby. Britmodeller seems to have lots of threads entitled "First kit in XX years" at which point the author unveils work of an infeasibly high standard. It makes me sick.

[dr_gn]

Marshdweller said:

I'm so pleased this thread is someone actually asking for advice on their return to the hobby. Britmodeller seems to have lots of threads entitled "First kit in XX years" at which point the author unveils work of an infeasibly high standard. It makes me sick.

There are also plenty of 'experts' on Britmodeller who never seem to trouble themselves with actually building a model...If pressed, they might venture to assemble a few main components with masking tape to make a point

[nick heppinstall]

Marshdweller said:

I'm so pleased this thread is someone actually asking for advice on their return to the hobby. Britmodeller seems to have lots of threads entitled "First kit in XX years" at which point the author unveils work of an infeasibly high standard. It makes me sick.

lol ! I'll post pictures of the finished article. It will certaintly NOT be of an infeasibly high standard !

[HoHoHo]

I'm also making a return to kits after many, many years (hoping to get my two year old interested in aircraft!)

Started with Revel 1/144 747 which is easy to build (and do a good job of realising just how difficult it is to paint well!)

I'll look forward to seeing how you get on with yours!

[Eric Mc]

White airliners used to be a real pain.

The answer - Halfords White Primer as an undercoat and Halfords Appliance White for the final coat.

[Marshdweller]

dr_gn said:

There are also plenty of 'experts' on Britmodeller who never seem to trouble themselves with actually building a model...If pressed, they might venture to assemble a few main components with masking tape to make a point

Well, this is a perfect example of what I mean.

Maybe the poster hasn't built a kit in 50 years, but has spent that time scratchbuilding excellent models, so has all the skills he'll need. However, I'm amazed that after half a century of not modelling, (a) he starts off with the £120 1/32 Tamiya Mustang, (b) he has all the equipment needed and (c) his work is to such a high standard.

[dr_gn]

Marshdweller said:

dr_gn said:

There are also plenty of 'experts' on Britmodeller who never seem to trouble themselves with actually building a model...If pressed, they might venture to assemble a few main components with masking tape to make a point

Well, this is a perfect example of what I mean.

Maybe the poster hasn't built a kit in 50 years, but has spent that time scratchbuilding excellent models, so has all the skills he'll need. However, I'm amazed that after half a century of not modelling, (a) he starts off with the £120 1/32 Tamiya Mustang, (b) he has all the equipment needed and (c) his work is to such a high standard.

The 1:32 Tamiya Mustang pretty much assembles itself by all accounts. There are so many individual parts that there isn't a great deal of skill required to make it look good simply by repeadedly painting individual parts in whatever colour the instructions call for and glueing them together. The kits are so good that it's difficult to make them look bad.

He's added no additional detail or weathering from what I can see (maybe a bit of dry brushing on some of the black bits), and he appears to have glued the engine covers in place so that's quite a bit of work on the engine removed. All things considered I'm not surprised it's looking OK.

[Eric Mc]

With no disrespect to those who build models in the larger scales (1/48 and larger), I do feel that it is easier to make a decent looking model in those scales compared to, say, 1/72 or 1/144.

I enjoy the challenge of the smaller scales - which becomes more of a challenge as my eyesight deteriorates

[HoHoHo]

Eric Mc said:

I enjoy the challenge of the smaller scales - which becomes more of a challenge as my eyesight deteriorates

Agreed Eric, however I'll learn again whilst I can still see the detail, hence 1/144

[Eric Mc]

Airliners aren't too bad. Most of them have limited detailing. The challenge of airliners is painting - and cabin windows.

[Big Fat Fatty]

Eric Mc said:

With no disrespect to those who build models in the larger scales (1/48 and larger), I do feel that it is easier to make a decent looking model in those scales compared to, say, 1/72 or 1/144.

I sort of disagree to an extent, the larger the scale the larger the details are, which means more work to make them look as they should. The same details are in the smaller scale kits but aren't as obvious at a glance, but I do see your point.

[Eric Mc]

I said it was easier to make a DECENT model from a large scale kit. In other words, someone who maybe is a beginner can actually make a larger scale model look reasonable compared to what they might achieve with a smaller kit.

On the other hand, it still takes a very good modeller to make a very good model out of any kit, no matter what scale it is in.

As ever, the quality of the underlying basic kit will go a long way to aiding and abetting the modeller achieve something worthwhile looking at.

[HoHoHo]

Ah, well the fact I'm not a good modeller means I can bodge them with the best and still be pleased

I've just taken delivery of a 1:72 Airfix Harrier GR MK3 and it's so small I thought it was a Tornado

[Eric Mc]

That should be fun (or possibly not).

The 1/72 Airfix Harrier GR3 is a bit ancient, being partially based on their even more ancient Harrier GR1 moulds - which date from around 1970.
Still, it looks like a Harrier when completed.

Possibly the Italeri (ex-Esci) Harier GR3 is a better choice (although it has its problems too)

The Airfix one that I built a few years ago -

[Marshdweller]

dr_gn said:

Marshdweller said:

dr_gn said:

There are also plenty of 'experts' on Britmodeller who never seem to trouble themselves with actually building a model...If pressed, they might venture to assemble a few main components with masking tape to make a point

Well, this is a perfect example of what I mean.

Maybe the poster hasn't built a kit in 50 years, but has spent that time scratchbuilding excellent models, so has all the skills he'll need. However, I'm amazed that after half a century of not modelling, (a) he starts off with the £120 1/32 Tamiya Mustang, (b) he has all the equipment needed and (c) his work is to such a high standard.

The 1:32 Tamiya Mustang pretty much assembles itself by all accounts. There are so many individual parts that there isn't a great deal of skill required to make it look good simply by repeadedly painting individual parts in whatever colour the instructions call for and glueing them together. The kits are so good that it's difficult to make them look bad.

He's added no additional detail or weathering from what I can see (maybe a bit of dry brushing on some of the black bits), and he appears to have glued the engine covers in place so that's quite a bit of work on the engine removed. All things considered I'm not surprised it's looking OK.

Well, I think it's more than OK (unless the breakdown of parts is such that some of his sidewall detail is simply tiny, different-coloured parts glued together). I've got to be honest, I'm not sure I could produce something that good without practise.

I would also take issue with him choosing to start or re-start his hobby with one of the most expensive kits available. Surely any normal person would pick up a £15-20 1/48 Tamiya/Revell/Airfix kit that you'd be happy to screw up?