I did a diorama of the Boston Tea Party: a sailing ship placed into a cutout cardboard box (paited to look like a dock), with little paperdoll protesters on the deck holding/throwing crates. My dad helped me with the rigging (black colored thread from the sewing kit).
This was for a book report on some novel of an apprentice silversmith who ends up joining the rebels in the Revolutionary War. (Probably by some famous author. I suck at names.)
My English teacher loved it, and showed it off to other classes. My shining moment in modeling, and I wanted to crawl under a rock. (I didn’t want the attention.)
I built a lot of WW2 models as a kid - mostly 1/72-scale aircraft and tanks - so that I could then play with them. For awhile I had a dozen warplanes hanging from my bedroom ceiling on wires. I also spent a few years in high school when I was crazy into D&D and tabletop battles, creating a medieval army, but that was just painting and not so much building. Haven’t built anything in 30-some years now, and my sons have shown no interest, alas.
And the scale is a little larger than you’re used to but the folks in Calgary would rather seethis one built in country rather than out.
Back on topic, my crowning acheivement in modelling was a Pershing missile model rocket (picture not my actual model). I mistakenly swapped the upper and lower fins, d’oh! My dad said that the right thing to do would be to fix the mistake. I figured no one in my group would even know what the real thing looked like and all I wanted to do was see it blast off. I should have put an oversize engine in it.
I build sci-fi and horror kits as well - really got into it last year again after many years of not doing it.
I have a bunch on the shelf waiting for me to start up again - all of the Monster Scenes and the new repops of the trek stuff. building comes in waves - I built about a dozen kits last year, then got frustrated in my paint skills and havent touched one in months.
This is something I want to get back into when I retire. I did them in school, including the first Enterprise model while TOS was still on. (A Klingon ship model also.) Nothing as good as Rocketeer does, of course. In my garage I have an opened kit of the Space Shuttle Challenger which my brother gave to me for my birthday before the explosion. Maybe I’ll check the price on EBay before I start.
The closest I come now are 3-D jigsaw puzzles. I have a disturbingly high percentage of the puzzles on the linked page. They give a lot of the same satisfaction of plastic models, without the glue.
I build balsa wood scale model airplanes. My current project is a Guillow’s German Focke-Wulf FW190. Each built is really something to be proud of. After fabricating and assembling the pieces of the fuselage frame and wings then giving the model a tissue paper skin, the fun part is painting, balancing and test flying.
Any suggestions for a sorta “just getting started” would be modeler?
Mostly probably WW2 stuff, Soviet if I can find it, is what I want to build. Pricing kits online has shown me that there is a WILD variety in prices.
I used to paint miniatures a bit when I was much younger, though I never had the finances to really get into it beyond the basic paints. I always wanted to make a diorama, but never did so, mores the pity…
I was into 1:35 scale military stuff big time in high school. I even joined the IPMS for a time! I was into super accuracy so lots of scratchbuilding and modifications of Tamiya and ERTL stuff. I think about the time I spent making accurate workable tracks for WWII German Panzers and suddenly the lack of dates doesn’t seem so mysterious:)
Tamiya’s 1/48 armor series are excellent kits; they go together with little trouble and everything fits like it should. The series includes a couple KV-1s, a KV-2, and a T34/76. They are pricey, however.
If I were you, I’d buy a couple Revell 1/32 armor kits for practice; they’re 1970-vintage kits recently reissued. There’s a Sherman and a Lee. Not too many parts, fairly accurate, not too expensive. Then, when you’re comfortable with assembling and painting and weathering, move on to the more expensive Tamiya kits.
I stopped when I moved out of home a year ago. Claude Remains, I made a few of those - But I got incredible warps on the wings! I had no idea why - possibly because I doped the skin twice? - How do you do that part? (From building frame to hardening skin)
Also, do you know of any good sites for that type of model building?
I still have a wingless piper cub at home - I never had the courage to finish it!
I always start with a fresh piece of drywall and avoid wrinkles when taping down plans and wax paper.
Fabrication and assembly is pretty straightforward. Pin everything down flat and square and Allow plenty of time for glue to cure.
My first build was comical. I think the problem was that I did only one coat of dope.
Now I’ll dope the fuselage/wings/tail three times sanding and removing build-up in corners(that will cause ballance issues). I think that if you’ve done a good build and three coats of dope, the skin should have no issues.
I like to use lots of smaller pieces of tissue for the skin instead of trying to get larger ones to conform. Grain of tissue always running front to back (side to side for wings). shrink the skin with a super fine spritz of water and a good dry.
If you do get a warp, best thing you can do is relax the skin with steam(not another spritz, that’s too wet) then give it a twist to actually over-compensate just a tad and let it dry. When released it should become taught and straight.
At this point I’ll give the whole plane two coats of dope before paint and decals.
Ya know, I’ve never looked for sites. I’m gonna see what I can find this evening.
That Piper Cub sitting idle would drive me bananas. Whip it out and good luck!
Reading your comments, I think I always painted the water on with a brush - which is probably way over doing it with the water. I loved how wetting the paper transformed it from some wood with paper glued on to an Aeroplane part.
Now, I only build Tamiya 1/20 Formula One cars and 1/12 motorcycles. Very infrequently. You could say I’m more of a “collector” of the kits than a builder. But I’ll pull one off the shelf and build.
Modeling cuts into my drinking time. Also easier to store the boxed kits than the built models, unfortunatly. I have a beautiful Senna Lotus with a 1/4 inch of dust on it, while the box is pristine in the closet.
