Any other model builders on the SDMB?

[Johnny_L.A]

@carnivorousplant

Where are y’all buying plastic aircraft models and rockets?

I’d pick up the plastic models at various hobby shops. (Hobby shops usually have higher-quality kits than variety stores.) I like Tamiya and Airfix, but I have Revell and Monogram too. (Monogram reminds me of when I was a kid.)

For the rockets I like the vintage ones. The Astron Sprint is my favourite. (You can get them from Pimp Daddy Rocketry. I also like the old balsa-nosed Alpha. A few of my rockets (a couple of Sprints and an Alpha) I’ve just had around for decades. Other vintage kits I bought on eBay. And I have a few rockets from PDR.

[Rocketeer]

@Some_FNG

To me, it means that one is a hardcore badass. A person that doesn’t need a kit or instructions, just some photos and maybe a blueprint or technical manual.
Any and all possible materials are free game, but generally styrene plastic stock, brass sheets and tubes, filling putty and some superglue.

People like me assemble their models, scratchbuilders make their models.

You kind of edge into scratchbuilding sideways. You look at some kit item, and you say to yourself, “Well, I could add a couple bolt heads to this fuel pump and it’d look a lot more realistic”, and it looks pretty good, so then when you find out that there’s no frame that’ll fit under your t-bucket properly, you feel confident enough to get out some strip styrene and start cutting and gluing, and before you know it you’re looking at a painting or an illustration and thinking, “Heck, I could do that. It’d take some lathe work, but that lathe work on the last project turned out okay, and this isn’t much more complicated. And I wonder how I’m going to build that bit. Hmmmm; maybe I could use that plastic stuff they make porch railings out of…”

It really stretches your creativity and builds your confidence. Very fulfilling.

[Ale]

@chowder

Where do you get the balsa kits from?

I used to build balsa airplanes as a kid and quite fancied doing it again but unfortunately here in the UK I can’t find a balsa supplier

I have ordered stuff from Free Flight Supplies in the UK before, Mike is a very nice fellow to do business with; he has a nice selection of good quality balsa and supplies, although the kits he sells are mostly competition models.

For kits, Sams Models has a very good reputation among the Free Flight model community.

I build model airplanes from scratch, when I have the time… So not often.
The last model I built is a R/C seaplane based on the Porco Rosso plane in the eponymous anime movie, here you can see it.. Be sure to go to the first page to see how scratch building is made!

[Ale]

By the way, Rocketeer, fantastic stuff mate!

[Rocketeer]

@Ale

…I build model airplanes from scratch, when I have the time… So not often.
The last model I built is a R/C seaplane based on the Porco Rosso plane in the eponymous anime movie, here you can see it.. Be sure to go to the first page to see how scratch building is made!

What a cutie! You mention it was tail-heavy–have you fixed that yet? And how did you fix it?

[Ale]

@Rocketeer

What a cutie! You mention it was tail-heavy–have you fixed that yet? And how did you fix it?

Not fixed yet, worse, I managed to prang it pretty good and broke the wing support structure (bad engineer in my parta actually). In fact I´m looking forward to build a new, improved version soon… some day. :dubious:

However, talking about hypotheticals, what I would have done to fix the balance would had been to move the tail surface servos further forward, now they are on the cockpit opening, I could move them into the same compartment as the receiver and battery and that should remove any tail heaviness.

[E-Sabbath]

For my giant robot action, www.imageanime.com is local to me in NY.

If they don’t have it, like everyone else www.hlj.com Hobbylinks Japan is full of allll sorts of neat shinies.

For my 40K work, Forgeworld or a gaming store, plus, well, spare bits.

And legos. And Zoids bits. And power supplies from computers. And styrene and some putty…

I don’t scratchbuild, but I do convert and improve a bit.

[RickJay]

I’m working on a model of HMS Hood right now. I think my next project will be Bismarck. Maybe late one night, Bismarck will blow up Hood.

After that I’m going to get more ambitious and go to 1:350 scale, probably one of the big Iowa-class battleships, or maybe that lovely Yamato set Tamiya makes.