Am I frustrated with 1/72 scale because it's hard to work on or because I'm a rookie?

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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Kind of an odd question, but seeing that I haven’t modeled that many aircraft before I’m finding that prepping my plane for a paint job at 1/72 is really frustrating. With all the small panel lines and rivets I’m finding it impossible to keep glue, putty, my sanding job and everything else from mucking up the details. I’m now wondering if I should be working in 1/48 since I’m just starting out?

I’m at the point where I’ve put my aircraft together and am preparing for primer. The kit fit together pretty well, but there were still some gaps and uneven areas that I had to take care of. I found this to be extremly hard, especially with something so small. For example, there was a small gap between where the wing and fuselage meet and so I tried to fill it in with putty. By doing this I got it all over the lines of the wing and body. When trying to clean up my mess it seemed to only make it worse. When smoothing the seam of the plane I chose to use glue to melt the plastic together. I then sanded the area down. Unfortunately it took away some of the detail too. I could go on, but I think you get my point. Do I just need to keep working at this, or do others agree that 1/72 is just a tough scale to work in? Should I switch to 1/48 until I get this down?

Thanks

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When first starting out, there’s a couple things to consider as far as scales go. What’s your display space like? What’s your modeling budget? How good are your eyes? The list could go on and on. To me, it sounds like you’re just making a few rookie mistakes. No big deal, we all make them. I still make them all the time! But, to see if 1/72 is just too small, maybe buy an inexpensive 1/48 kit, just to see what the other side is like. In other words, I wouldn’t sweat the mistakes you’ve made so far, but if space, budget, and eyesight allow, maybe try a bigger kit. Don’t forget to post pictures!

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After a while you’ll probably narrow your interests in subject matter. This happens as you invest in books or do online research about specific subjects. At that time you’ll probably have a better idea of what you’re after, for instance I like big multi-engine machines, esp. flying boats and airliners, so 1/72 is my choice because of the space they (don’t) require, and the most common for those subjects. If you like German single engine fighters, you might (or not) choose to trade up scale: a 1/48 FW190 takes up about the same amount of space as a 1/72 DC-3. Until then, don’t restrict yourself.

When I mask and putty, which is often, hence my screen name, I mask around the area, like if I was painting it. Blue tape resists sanding sticks, minimizes knicks from slipped knives, and makes a nice clean edge to the putty seam.

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Burt - Sorry to hear you are having trouble with your project. 1/72 is kind of an aquired taste for many. Getting back into modeling I stocked up on 1/32 kits - I found that I did not really care for them because of the ammount of glue, paint and shelf space they take up. I bought several 1/48 kits and honed my building skills with them. Then one day just for the fun of it I built a 1/72 aircraft and became very fond of their size. I have 10- 1/72 aircraft models on a shelf and right above them 4 -1/48 aircraft in the same size space.

When building 1/72 I use masking tape for filler guides and to protect the surrounding details when sanding.

I think you should go ahead and build some 1/48 kits. You might decide that is the scale for you or you might decide to try 1/72 again after half a dozen 1/48 builds. The main thing is to find your comfort zone to learn and improve your skills and have fun. Then when you feel like a new challege try a different scale.

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When it comes to filling in panel lines, the small size of 1/72 kits is both a curse and a blessing. On small gaps that aren’t that bad, but still need to be taken care of, yeah, it’s a PITA. That’s why many of my wing-root gaps are still there- I just leave them. I figure 99% of them are actual panel lines anyway, so I’m happy.

On the flip side, other seams (like the top of fuselage halves) are a breeze. Because you have a small aircraft, problem seams are that much smaller!

My recommendation (crazy as it sounds)- build a small fighter in 1/72 from a “sub-par” kit. Not total crap (unless you feel up to the challenge), but worse than Tamigawa quality. Preferably something really small, with little to no surface detail. That way, you can get use to not being as finicky with taking care of seams and gaps. Instead of worrying about detail, you can focus just and only just on taking care of the seams.

Also, the small size will automatically keep seams small and easy to manage.

Try it. You might come to like it, as I (somehow) have… [}:)]

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Those things you say you are having problems with occur in every scale, my friend. Keep at it and you’ll see improvments. And once you nail 72nd scale to your liking you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to add insane detail to a bigger scale kit.

I wish I could still model in 72nd scale but my eyes won’t allow it. Hence my collection of finished 72 scale kits hasn’t had an addition in over two years.

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I refuse to give up - I just bought a 7x optivisor to continue with the battle [(-D]

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[:O] 7x!!! Really!!!

Like Sean I refuse to give up on 1/72 because of my eyes and between my reading glasses and my magnifying lamp I get by.

The issue with losing detail when sanding is common with all scales and takes practice and the learning of new techniques like masking with tape and rescribing panel lines where necessary to get around the problem. Learning how to assemble wing to fuselage joints without a big seam in the first place is often easier. Inserting lengths of excess sprue inside the fuselage to spread the fuselage to eliminate gaps between it and the wing or glueing the top wing half to the fuselage before glueing on the bottom half of the wing are two techniques often used to eliminate unsightly seams. Sometimes though you just can’t eliminate the problem no matter what you do.

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Thanks everyone for their input. You all bring up really great points and appreciate the overwhelming response. I’ve uploaded some photos of the plane I’m working on so you can see the issues I’m having. Is there any hope for this one?

Image 01

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Image 05

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Burt:

The first things I would work on in those photos is not getting glue outside the joint, especially on a kit as well molded as the one you are working on. As others have said, tape around areas you need to fill, but also apply filler with a toothpick in very small amounts, and don’t try to fill a joint in one pass, let the first application cure and then add a little more in a place like those oil cooler intakes. Take your time placing such parts too, to minimize any gap. Gel super glue is a good filler for a place like thet, applied very carefully and then cured with accellerator.

I use the back side of an exacto blade to scrape seams rather than sanding, I can control it better. After that I use fine sandpaper to polish the joint.

What you are dealing with there does not look to me like it has anything to do with scale.

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It looks fine, really. Maybe a 7 out of 10. Keep going. The underside looks great. The tailplane joint is kind of a mess, but so what, next time you’ll just live with some gaps and use less glue. The cowl top, nose is pretty good. I’d just sand it out smooth with some 1800/2400 and try to maybe rescribe the one or two main seams and forget about the rest. The oil radiators in the wings look least pretty, but try some Tamiya putty and sand them out smooth.

Look at the detail you were given to deal with though.The rivets are too big, too few and vary all over the place. The panel lines are wobbly and inconsistent, not to mention wouldn’t really exist. Here’s an opinion, and it’s just mine. Lucien Harpness made a very good point that I agree with and didn’t state too well before. In 1/72, all this business kits now have with all that etched in detail might be better sanded away to a smooth surface. If you looked at your Corsair on a table, sitting in a chair, you’d be about 18" away from it which is a scale 100 feet or so away. Are you going to see all that stuff on an aircraft that far away, maybe even in bright sun? And an 18" model is a fine thing, mine are usually 36"'ers or you’re gonna get sick.

IMHO at 1/72 panel detail is much better done with paint, mask off and change shades; rivets fuggetaboutit. The spaces between the airframe and the control surfaces, sure. It might work to sand everything out and give it a nice smooth coat of paint. Let the lines of the aircraft tell the story.

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Frankly, unless it’s an aircraft that, A: is 100 % completely unavailable in 1/48th and, B: I must have it in order to keep the Earth from breaking orbit and spinning off into Space, I’ll leave it on the LHS shelf… They’re just too darn small for my tastes… I’d not only have to wear an optivisor to build them, I’d need one even see them (in detail, that is)[8D]…

I built the standard 1/72 fare of .39-cent HAWK, .79-cent-Revell and Monogram stuff in the 60s, but when, in 1974, Monogram released their 1/48th B-17G with Shepard Paine’s diorama sheet, my modeling world changed forever… It was like an awaking for me, the turning point from just building airplanes to blow up with firecrackers to becoming a “seroius” modeler… From that point on, scale fidelity was my “thing”, at first, just to show accurate size-comparisons, and later, to allow multi-plane dioramas, which I started building then as well… 1/48th was the perfect combo of size and “detailability” for me… Easy to scratch-build the super-details, and large enough for it to be seen without any magnification…

I don’t care about space, since I don’t keep my builds forever. After a time, they get torn down and the parts go into the salvage yard, known locally as “The Mad Baron’s Good Kill Bar & Grill and slightly Used Airplane Parts Store”…

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“Am I frustrated with 1/72 scale because it’s hard to work on or because I’m a rookie?”

Maybe both, and I mean that with all due respect, no offense intended on the rookie part.

Some of the other posters have noted how difficult 1/72 scale is, and it’s not for nothing that it’s sometimes called “Braille scale” (though imagine working regularly in 1/144!). And if you’re just starting out, it will take a few kits until you start to hit a stride-that’s the rookie part.

Don’t get discouraged. When I got back into scale modeling, I swore I wouldn’t build any 1/72 kits, mainly because of the size, and because I built 1/48 and 1/32 aircraft the first time around, and 1/32-1/35 armor. So what happens-I wind up accumulating a little collection of 1/72 kits, some through my club’s monthly raffle, some via eBay. I have a good stash of 1/48, because I still like that scale best for aircraft.

But the first plane I finished as a returning modeler was the old Airfix Fw-190D. I decided that I would use the build to practice things I didn’t do back in the day, but had read about in the meantime, like sanding all raised detail and rescribing panel lines, adding brass tubing for the cannons, using Future before decalling.

The second plane I finished? A 1/72 Zvezda (originally, Frog) Hawker Tempest. Same thing-test new techniques. The third was the old Monogram P-40N, a decent kit, really. I now have 2 Monogram P-36s nearing completion.

So, if you stick to it, you might like the scale. But don’t let it get to you, if you find it difficult. If you don’t like it, you can always move to another scale, and look on it as a learning experience (which every kit is, anyway, isn’t it?).

BTW, first armor kit was a Hasegawa US halfrack in 1/72, too! But not to worry, 1/48th fans, I’m finishing 2 Monogram TBFs now for my first 2009 build.

Anyway, build what you enjoy, and enjoy what you build, that’s what it’s all about!

Regards,

Brad

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I would also look into a basic modelling book (I know none of us like to read the instructions). When I was younger I never even looked at any modelling book, I “knew” how to build stuff so I didn’t need to read them. When I got back into modelling about 8 years ago, I did buy a few books. Sure 50% of the stuff was not really useful to me based on my past experience but the other 50% helped me build better models.

I don’t know off hand any to recommend, I got some of the ones Kalmbach (this magazines publisher) produces and I liked them but there may be better ones out there.

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Loads of good advice…Sean, you have any 1/32 left you want to get rid off?..Harv

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Well theres loads of good advice already being thrown about. If i had to add my [2c] it would be to use Scotchbrite. You know the green scourers that hardware shops sell. I think you can get them from some LHS. Use them to clean up an area thats been glued with a hot glue like tenax or proweld or similar. They polish the area sweetly without removing excessive ammounts of detail.

…Guy

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What is 1/72?

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THAT IS GOLDEN ADVICE… plus the masking thing for puttying. I learned those both from these forums. They work great. My models come out better now and are easier with those techniques.

I feel your pain. I’ve got a tinesy little 1/72 currently under construction (Renault C-14 Cauldron “Cyclone”) And it’s got THE MOST DELICATE surface detail I’ve seen. And it’s very cool! It COULD give me fits but I won’t let it! I’m going super slow and using all I’ve learned from the experienced folks here to make it come out really good. I’ve lost a little detail but not as much as I would have in the recent past…

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Cessna Skyhawk, I seem to recall…

Or a T-41…

[:D]

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I too still consider myself a rookie, so I can relate. But I think I can add some to this discussion since I have this habit of researching any new hobby I take up with obsessive passion, scale modeling being no different. Ok, I started out with 1/72 as well. I have like 3 or 4 unfinished kits in 1/72 because they are so small and my fingers to fat and ungainly [:D] (and but I have taken up scale modeling ships too, and for space sake I had to go 1/700 there, which is tiny.) Thats not to say I have given up on 1/72. For the bigger craft I have to go 1/72 because of the noted space available for display…an example is my first finished model was a 1/72 PBY catalina. I have since taken a liking to 1/48 kits. They are a good size, but not overly big for my display space. They are big enough to make my weathering experimentation easier. And the detail you get in the cockpits is pretty much always better than 1/72.

Now, as for techniques. Most of what I have to say I learned from visiting fellow posters websites. Swanny’s, Wingnuts and Hawkeyehobbies websites/blogs have provided some inspirational methods for me. It cut down my learning curve quite a bit. Gerald’s (HawkeyeHobbies) blog is where I learned about working those seams. But he did a GREAT tutorial on another website:

http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=111677&page=1

Also, looking at a product called Mr. Surfacer. For smaller gaps it can be an amazing thing. Use multiple thin coats to fill, not one heavy one. Tape off as close to the seam as possible to help preserve detail in the surrounding area. But sometimes good ole stretched sprue is the only way to go. Learn to stretch sprue, then you can use that to “melt” into the gaps. In fact, if done correctly, when sanded up and polished a seam that had sprue welded in will disappear and look like the surrounding plastic (assuming you used the same color sprue as the one the model came off of). And as mentioned above, I discovered the beauty of using an exacto blade to “scrape” sand a seam. I had bought this fancy Squadron seam scraper, but it is offset and a bit annoying to use. The xacto blade is much easier for me to control, and it will not destroy surounding detail if you are gentle and careful. You will only ned to rescribe detail that was directly along the seam.

I hope this helps you as it helped me!

Brian