Adventures in Model Building

First, apologies for the last blog post. I have no idea what I ate or smoked before I wrote it but it was a weird one. 

Ok, so as I mentioned before I am trying to get back into model building. I'm forty years out of it and have a lot of up-tooling and up-skilling to do. In the last six months or so I've probably spent about $700 to $800 adding knives, adhesives, sanding tools, tweezers, paints, vises, magnifiers, primers, varnishes, and kits to the stash and I've still not gotten an airbrush, which I'm told will change everything.

But I did start with a few of the kits I've gotten and here are my updates.

Meng Models: Titanic

The first kit was a great beginner kit. The Meng Models snap together Titanic kit with colored parts can be built with no glue and no paint. It also has a light kit. My great nephew really loved working on it with me and getting to share his excitement and joy was and is priceless. It's one of the underrated powers of modeling, which many use as a solitary activity for therapy, but can also be used to build memories with others.

That kit went up fast because there was no prep of a workspace or paints. There was no cleanup of paints. There was no having to set up a place near ventilation because there were no glues or paints needed. It was great, and I wish there were more kits like this, designed to be easy to start and easy to finish and that still look good when done. It would help a lot of people get into the hobby. I've heard Bandai's Star Wars Snowspeeder kit is like this: it snaps together, has great fitment, lots of detail, sprues molded in color, and stickers that can add some color. Unfortunately I think it's not in print anymore.

The Meng Titanic wasn't cheap (it was about $50 during a Sprue Brothers Lighting Deal, which means about $100 MSRP) but except for having to handle some very small parts, it was a good kit and the good times I shared with my great nephew are priceless.

Pegasus: Spitfire Mk. I

Interested in getting another kit my great nephew and I could work on, I opted for the snap together Spitfire kit from Pegasus. It's a decent kit for a $12 snap together. It has some nice detail in the panel lining, and a small number of parts limits the complexity. However, it is molded in only one color so we couldn't really start it yet since it will need some painting to be presentable. And as primer and paint work sort of require a partial build of the kit first, it may end up being one that I just build and then give him to display.

I do like the kit though. Obviously it's not going to have the cockpit detail of higher-end kits, but it is a very nice low cost kit. If you're ok with not painting, you can build it in probably 15 minutes. And if you want to put some effort into it, it forms a good test bed for other techniques. You can add riveting to the existing panel line detail, add your own detail to the cockpit (though I doubt any after market parts are available for this kit), and of course a good paint job can add a healthy soul to even the most basic of kits.

This one is currently in progress as I'd like to wait until I have the airbrush to paint it.

Monogram: 1976 Datsun 280Z

This one is personal. In 1976, I was nine years old, and my father bought a Datsun 280Z 2+2. I remember all the neighbors coming over to take a look at it. The Z car's legend is pretty commonplace now, but back then, it had come out as the sports car that everyone could afford. It was very simple with an in-line six cylinder engine and looked a little bit like a Jaguar. TV's Bionic Woman drove one.

My father drove that Z for several years but about 1985, he moved to using the VW Vanagon that we had. It was the perfect time; after all I was getting ready to head to college and what teenager in America doesn't want to have a car?

I would drive that 280Z until about 1990. I had graduated from college and had my first job and would eventually move on to the 1990 300ZX, but that's a story for a different day and a different model. Back then, it was the 280Z that took me to college every day. I went with the Z to visit my friend at UC Santa Barbara, to the San Diego Comic Con, and had a small accident (technically my fault but aided significantly by poor driving on the part of the other person!), but it kept going until I sold it. It had served me and my family faithfully for fourteen years. And except for occasional hassles it was pretty reliable; not bad for a production sports car.

I want to build one as a memento to that past, and found out that there are indeed model kits of the Z car. Unfortunately, there are very few 280Z kits, much less one for the 1976 edition. There are many Z kits still in print, from the 240Z to the 350Z, but the 76 280Z is rare. It does exist; Monogram made one and released several variants between 1976 and 1984-ish but they're hard to find. You can find old Heller or Revell kits online and they're cheap because people know the quality is shit. But the Monogram Z must be in demand because I had to pay an inflated price for the one I found on eBay and it's not a great kit by modern standards.

There are seam lines in spots on the body, sub-optimal fitment on the front end of the car where it connects to the body, and other quirks of a plastic model produced in 1976. It will require work to really make it nice; though it's certainly a serviceable kit and faithful enough to the Z shape and image. I could not find a 2+2 model, so I am making do with the standard coupe. 

I have started sanding areas that need work on the body.

• There are seam lines down the C-pillar from the roof to the body
• The front of the car (grille and headlights) is a piece that has to be affixed to the front of the body and needs sanding
• The body has sharp angles in places where the Z that I remembered had softer curves. I'm sanding the top of the fenders on both the front and back to restore the appearance I remember. The bottom of the back of the car has the same problem so I'll try to soften those edges too.

 There are several customizations I have to apply to this build.

• The front bumper of my 280Z had two features not on the kit:
• There were two small rubber blocks on each side of the center. I will have to find some way to make these, perhaps with putty. A couple of the Monogram variants have these so if I can find one for a reasonable price that would be a great way to solve the problem. There's one on eBay now, but the bitch wants $70+ for it and I just can't endorse that valuation. 
• Mounted on the front bumper's two rubber blocks was a little grill guard rail. That's not on my Monogram kit or any of the other versions of the Monogram kits. I do have reference pictures of other American Z's with this feature, so I figure I can cut and bend a piece of sprue to simulate this and mount it on two other flattened pieces of sprue.
• The rear bumper had a raised rail that went the length of the bumper. I should be able to simulate this the same way I do the grill guard. 
• The chrome mag wheels that come with the kit are nothing like the wheels on my Z. I could not find third-party replicas of the same wheels but I did find something close. That's amazing, back when I was modeling as a kid, you could not just jump online and find an alternative 3D printed part. The parts are from the Ukraine, and they're very good quality but I learned the hard way how brittle resin parts are and broke one of them while test fitting. Not too badly though, and I've already painted the wheels silver and they are going to work fine.

I am not doing to try and recreate the 2+2 variant of the Z. No way, not with the skills and tools I have now. That would involve stretching out or extending the body and chassis and probably reworking the rear window frame and window. No thanks, I do not have time for that. 

So far I got the body built. I need to paint the body and interior in order to finish up the build. The Z was silver originally but after a few years the Japanese paint deteriorated badly and my parents had the car repainted in white. I will paint it white to represent the years I had it.

This will be a good kit for practice as I didn't build many car models before. I'm learning a lot. I got a can of Testor's Extreme Lacquer White Lighting which I thought would be an easy way to paint since Extreme Lacquer is billed as a primer, paint, and sealer all in one. But testing it out on a piece of sprue first, I found it goes on thick and the humidity of Houston makes it dry slowly so it tends to drip off a bit. I've since learned that in humid locales you paint in the morning before it gets warmer. I also am beginning to wonder if spray painting will cut it. Maybe it would in a different clime, but I wonder if I'm better off using a primer first, something good like a Mr. Base Coat or Mr. Surfacer or a Tamiya white primer, then airbrushing a gloss white. In fact, I was reading some threads on the internet where one guy said he had luck just using a bright white primer, then adding gloss afterwards. Nothing else, just the primer and the gloss coat. 

Not sure yet what I will do here, but I do know if I'm going to stick with the spray paint, it'll have to be in the mornings, with a good paint booth, and in several light coats. But I have to do this one right. The kit is hard to find so if I mess it up it's hard to recover and start over. It's not like an F-4 Phantom kit that you can find in every hobby shop and garage sale. And it means something to me. I'll make it nice, put it in a display case, and cherish it. 

Monogram: A-10 Thunderbolt II (1/48 scale)

Ah, my old friend Monogram again. This is one of the kits that came in a bundle of kits and paints I bought through OfferUp and got me kickstarted back into modeling. I had originally considered selling it since I prefer 1/72 scale, but as the box was already open I figured it would be a cheap kit for more practice. Monogram bills it as a skill level 2 kit, so it is considered easy.

Skill Level 2? MORE LIKE SKILL LEVEL 5! This old 1991 beast from a 1986 molding is a total bite in the ass. I had read in some modeling threads that people think this is a good kit. They have to be kidding me. It's awful. Raised panel lines, poor fitment, and bad design decisions abound here. The guys saying it's a good kit must be referring to accuracy rather than construction quality (there are other 48th scale kits available that are criticized for errors, so that could be it). 

Ye gods. After recognizing the poor fit of the engine parts during dry fitting, I again considered selling it. At a low price, someone else would certainly buy it and I could be rid of the kit's hassles. But I had my glue and workspace set up and just said, "oh, just go for it and you'll have a ready paint mule."

So I continued. I spent about six hours so far on it (better than half that time spent sanding, OMG, this kit). I started some of the assembly for sections that didn't need the fuselage (I hadn't painted the cockpit yet). The engine nacelles are poorly designed. There is a cylindrical piece to show the front of the engine's nose cone and blades and it's hard to know exactly the best way to fit it. You sort of have to just hope that when the top of the nacelle is put on it'll look ok since you can't manipulate it much once you glue the top piece in. The rear of the engine also has problems. There is a piece to mount near the back that serves as a place to glue on the rear engine directional nozzles, but the fitment is very weak and after it was all done my two engine nozzles aren't perfectly aligned. Paint mule. 

I did see these build reports online from these guys:

• Stephen Young [ModelingMadness.com]
• Wayne Hui [ModelingMadness.com]
• Len Roberto[ModelingMadness.com]
• Gil Hodges [Scaleworkshop.com]

Most of them found the same problems I mentioned (except for Roberto, who I think was too kind to it). Young and Hodges did mostly out of box builds except for a few changes. Hui did an amazing job, upgrading several parts and scratch modifying the kit's open speed brakes into closed position. The kit really should have made that an option on the brakes (open or closed). It was a strange design decision not to do this.

Hui's build really inspired me to consider saving this paint mule and make it at least presentable. At this point I have to paint and build the cockpit before I can finish the construction. After that I have to decide if I want to go grey or green camo for the paint. 

The kit does have a few high points. First, although I just said the designers should have made the speed brake position an option, providing an open one is very interesting. I think that wasn't that common a thing to show back then. Lots of kits just have a single molded wing; flaps up, end of story. Second, the cockpit detail isn't up to third party upgrade standards, but it isn't awful, especially for a 1986 molding. The overall shape and look of the kit is good and several online have praised the kit for being more accurate than the competition, which makes it a worthy build even with its problems. Finally, the array of included ordnance is formidable. In some kits today you sort of have to go buy third party add-on weapons if you want to have a plane that's ready to ride dirty. Not so with this Thunderbolt II, although the fit on those bombs and missiles will indeed need some work (more sanding!). 

I think in the end it was a good choice to build this one. It caused me to go find Aaron Skinner's video on how to scribe panel lines so I now have a plan to replace this kit's raised panel lines. That may come in handy if I ever run across another classic kit that needs such work.

UStar: 1/144 Soviet T54 MBT

Well, here's something completely different. I have not built many armor kits. But I saw this on sale the other day and figured for a few bucks it wouldn't hurt. There's a growing community around the 144 scale, and with today's manufacturing capabilities, these models are showing up with a respectable level of detail. Plus, it's more practice.

I started this kit today and after spending just a couple hours I'm almost done with construction, but during that time I oscillated between saying "I love you, little 144 kit," and "I hate you, little 144 kit". 

The love comes from the cuteness of seeing this tiny tank you can fit in half your palm. And the quick build of a small kit that has only two small sprues and a photo etch(!) sheet. And from seeing such neat detail on such a kit this small. 

The hate comes from having to work with tiny parts with old failing eyes. Putting the turret's spotlights and machine gun on was an absolute bear. I'm getting nightmares about the photo etch parts that still need to be done. The kit has a few flaws too; there's some flash on a few parts although it's not a lot. A pronounced seam line mars the middle of both tracks. Where light sanding can fix that on some models, I think these track seams must be very deep because sanding and scribing hasn't fully removed them.  Cleaning up flaws on these tiny parts is also tougher than working on the 1/48 A-10's parts.

This will make for a good paint practice though. I can experiment with some of the washes and filters. It'll be easy to store too. And if you want to make dioramas, 144 scale makes it easier to do large scale battles. 

This kit is an experiment and a learning exercise, but it's opening up some ideas and I can see why people like the scale. 

Other Thoughts

So I'm kicking off with a bang and have several projects in the works. Some of them will stall until I get an airbrush; I thought about just hand brushing the first few but then figured, why spend the money on regular paints and spray paints when I will use the airbrush anyway? To be sure, I think any modeler still used mixed styles (brush, airbrush, and spray), but so much of what I've heard is the airbrush is a huge difference maker. While it will take extra time to learn how to use it, and each use requires some setup and cleanup, I think it will make several parts of painting much easier and produce better results. 

I'll have more thoughts on airbrushing later, but in the meantime I've having fun watching thin cement go to work with capillary action, and discovering the joys of sanding. I know, I know, I bitched about sanding in my discussion of the Monogram A-10 kit, but sanding really is quite therapeutic. It doesn't require expensive tools, a laborious setup, or take much time, but you get nearly instant gratification. It's very satisfying to dry fit some parts, see where there are imperfections, and gradually create a perfect fit with just some sanding. I'm particularly intrigued by the use of super-fine grit paper (10,000 and higher) that can be used to polish glass and plastic. 

It's both fun and work, and I can see why lots of people use modeling for therapy (although there can be frustrating moments too). I think I'll have fun with this for a good ten years before I quit to save my eyes. That's the one thing that's noticeably worse this time around; when I was a kid I didn't need magnifiers. Now? I'll have three or four different magnifier devices before I'm done!