So im about to finish this kit (didnt come out as i expected but i guess thats normal in newbies like me); anyway, before buying a new one id like to know if there are any kits more specific to beginners. This way i can make some research before buying it and things will get more easier i believe; most of the problems i had with this last one were mainly the fact i blindly folowed Revell instructions on colors and in the end i had like an UFO instead of a WWII airplane
I would say pick a subject you can be passionate about. It will lend itself more easily to research, and your passion can help surmount frustration you may stumble into while building.
Being a beginner means only one thing: you need to build more kits. With each kit, you will learn lessons that will make the next one better. A mentor of mine once told me: “It takes a thousand hours to become good at something.”, and I believe that. As time marches on, you will read the forums, subscribe to FSM or maybe pick up a few FSM publications that are specific to modeling (101 Tips and Tricks being an example). Eventually, you will glean shortcuts, better techniques, and find alternatives that make your modelling less frustrating.
Don’t let the kit difficulty level dictate your possibilities. Every kit has gotchas, mistakes in the styrene, items that you will either want or need to change/update. Things will get easier by sheer fact that you have a kit under your belt now. You’ve learned things from it that will make you wiser in this next kit. After the next kit, you will be even more ready for the third kit, and so on.
Also, consider stripping your paintjob and redoing it. It will give you experience in that technique, and if you are upset with the model enough already, the final outcome won’t likely upset you much more. So there is an opportunity here to learn even more from mistakes. It sounds like things were going well up until the end, with the paint job. So the build itself went pretty much to your satisfaction?
Yeah building was no biggie actually. My real life job is manufacturing aluminium windows/doors etc… Ok, not as delicate as modeling but my hands are kinda trained for details The painting well… kinda frustrated me. I start to believe it is way hard to get those shining perfect models without airbrush; besides that the color scheme on some parts indicated on instructions dont make much sense from what i have seen from the plane either in finished models and also the real one. Anyway, im already re-painting those parts and see what happens.
Hey, if you have first-hand experience with the aircraft, trust your own knowledge. Sometimes these instructions are created using inaccurate resources, and they are incorrect.
I, too, have learned to dig up photos to work from.
As for the airbrush, I can’t paint well with a handbrush. I invested in an airbrush and compressor early on, and haven’t looked back. I’d recommend it. However, with that said, there are some guys on these boards that can handbrush a model and you cannot tell!
and [#welcome] to the forums! Pull up a keyboard and stay a while.
This is a hobby of try and try again. Also research and read! Here are some links I posted the other day to someone interested in books on how to begin:
Also spend some time reading through these forums, even Google subjects you’re interested in. There is a lot of help available online! Mostly though, don’t let it get you down. Very few people do an awesome job on their first model (or second, or…). Making mistakes is normal, and valuable if you learn from them. At the very least you’ll be able to recognize them next time!
Bgrigg is correct i use google alot to try and get refrence material i also found a web site that alows you to download 7 books per day for free http://betah.co.il/BooksCatalog.aspx?category=Aviation hope i dont get in trouble, but i have used the site or you join or buy witch ever. Some of the better builds ive done have been ones ive researched i know not alot of them are in color but if use ARC they have some very good walkarounds of ww2 planes as for the air brush i havent looked back and you can get them cheaper online than at your local store but remember get one you can get parts for localy. hope tis helps. and[#welcome]
First, the complexity of the kit itself. Revell puts a label on the kit that’s supposed to indicate how difficult it is… I don’t know how these grades are assigned, but it seems to be based on the number of pieces. Revell-Monogram kits are graded 1-3 (Snap-Tite’s are 1, most are 2’s, and I cannot recall ever seeing a 3), while Revell of Germany has levels 1-5; I don’t see any type of grading for the other manufacturers. You’ll probably want to keep an eye on these levels to make sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew, although your wallet may do it for you (the more complex kits are also more expensive). Kit reviews and galleries are available at many websites, including here (FSM), Aircraft Resource Center, Modeling Madness, Hyper Scale, Large Scale Planes, and Internet Modeler. Some of them are fairly instructive, and some are little more than “it went together well”. You also have to take stuff with a grain of salt, in that some people are interested in a lot of detail and will nitpick everything, and others will just love the kit and look past its shortcomings.
As to being able to research a subject, many builders are unhappy with the level of information that comes with a kit, but seeing that volumes of books and thousands of pictures exist, I think it’s unreasonable to expect that a kit is going to come with a book or CD covering the entire history and containing pictures from every conceivable angle (though that would be nice). Use the internet, your library, and used bookstores, and regular bookstores (especially the bargain rack) for references.
The other thing on colors is that sometimes there’s what the colors called, and what the color actually looks like, and also a difference between gloss and flat/matte, so that what you consider “light gray” will be much darker than what the kit was calling for. In these cases, external references are very important. Revell is usually pretty good at attaching a Federal-Standard (FS) color to the identified paint for military subjects though… Model Master has many of these paints available in hobby-sized quantities, and mixing/equivalency tables exist for other paint manufacturers.
Hope this helps, and feel free to ask additional questions… that’s what we’re here for.
Always, always, always, always research the plane your kit represents! Never take the assembly instructions as gospel. Many Revell kits are repackages of older kits molded several years ago and some will requier some modifications. As one poster pointed out collect pictures… they are very valuable as reference to accuracy and level of detail many kits lack. Reading up and collecting as much information as possible goes a long way toward deciding how you want to build your kit. Colors represented in assembly instructions are not always present on the actual plane or info is outdated. Military planes constantly change and they are always experimenting in newer color schemes. Also you may decide you dont want to use the color scheme or decals the kit came with. You may want to build the kit with different decal markings and often the decals you choose will have a certain color scheme to compliment them. Get pictures and technical info first and foremost before starting a kit. The knowlege you gain will go a long way toward getting your kit to look as close to the real thing as possible. Never hesitate to ask more experinenced modelers questions. Knowlege is power and…research is the key!
Thanks so much for all the replies; this is a really constructive opinion/advise forum ! Will take all your words into acount so i can achive my goals in modeling. Once again, thanks so much !
A magazine I read a while back was a guide to beginners. For aircraft it recommends starting your first few builds as tail dragging, single engine fighters. You can find the Tamiya Zero for around $10 and it is a good kit to start with. Or find another single enginer fighter that fancies you.
