After answering a post from ED Grune I got to thinking. When I started modeling the only paints out there were Watercolors, Oils and Housepaint! Oh ,Yeah! There was Hot Fuel proof Dope! Whatta high that stuff would give you using it in your room! The stink even traveled downstairs to Grandma’s kitchen.
For years the manufacturers gave us models in color. O.D for Armor, Silver and Blue( some Red or Green) for Planes and everything from Yellow ( bright ) to White and Cream for Model Cars. Ships were either Black/White or Black/Tan, all White or Grey. Molded that way.
Neat way to avoid paint in innocent hands. Are we headed that way again? Just think Models in color or pre-painted! You never have to worry about having a plane or whatever in the Colors or Squadron you want. They do it all for you, WRONG! Give me a BreaK!
I bought a nice Gr,Mk7 Harrier Jump Jet in 1/144!( Yup, the one my first wife called the “Mad Mosquito” at that scale all armed up ) Darned thing was Prepainted. Now I have to re-paint it and buy the decals for a Marine aircraft and do this. I don’t know but I will say this. Based on what I see in the stores nowadays Even modelers are getting lazy when it comes to modeling. When they really get into a project they will be sorely dissappointed. Why? Well to get it right they will actually have to Brush or Aribrush the model with Paint. Where will they get it? Cuckamonga?
My personal preference is that a kit be molded in light to medium gray plastic.If it is molded in color,I do what I always do and primer it with Tamiya neutral gray.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the old Matchbox kits that used to come in two colour tones. It might even have been two sprues - one of each colour. It was a little wierd, but at the time they were a nice set of models. And they used to come with a little diorama base. It looks like Revell have the molds now as their Comet, Jadgpanzer, and Panzer II have the same bases I remember from the Matchbox models. It doesn’t look like they’ve kept to the two tone plastic though.
I think Bandai pioneered the multiple-colour parts on one sprue concept on their Gundam kits. Some of them are pretty complex- up to five or so shades on just one sprue.
I have two “kits” that I built that were pre-colored and decaled…an F-4E and an SR-71. They’re Smithsonian kits that I bought when I was at the SAC Museum. Not all that accurate, in fact I’m not sure they’re really any particular scale. With those, it wasn’t really about the kits themselves, but more about where I was when I bought them. Its really not a big deal, and I can’t say that I’m seeing any kind of trend toward “lazy” modeling. If what you’re looking at buying isn’t up to your standards, then don’t buy it. Still plenty of kits out there that get built the old-fashioned way, and more being released. Paint isn’t much of an issue, since there are so many new manufacturers that are filling the void that others left…you just have to look around, and try new things. The new paint I’m trying right now makes me wonder why nothing like it was available until now.
I am just starting a Tamiya Ferrari that is molded in red. The problem with spraying red paint over red plastic is that it is difficult to see how good the coverage is, and if everything is being painted. So I’ll need to sover th red plastic with a primer.
when my wife says she has been thinking, it will cost me time, or money, or both
On the subject of colored plastic, the Academy MCP - multi-colored plastic kits are nice. Advanced snap kits that will be good for an advanced novice colored plastic & stickers. Or for a intermediate & up modeler good molding & detail that can be painted & decaled with a full suite. Their F-35 A is quite nice
Here we go again , people taking a dump on stuff because it doesn’t meet their exact preferences. Who cares if them there multi colored kits get some young ‘uns interested in the hobby and maybe give it a future? My need to whine and cry about it exceeds any thought that it might be good for the hobby, or simply not targeted at me! So instead, I’ll just be an old crank on a message board, and shout Get Off My Lawn! at anything that is scary and different from exactly what I want.
Yeah most of us prime first anyway. JohnnyK mentioned the Ferrari molded in red. I finished the Ferrari 640 F1 car not long ago and it was molded in red. I’m guessing manufacturers do this so kids can build their models without painting. This is a good thing.
I remember when I was about 10 years old, I bought an ESCI 1/72 M48A2C (later known as “Old glue”) - the box art had a tan (!) istraeli tank, and the parts were molded in tan plastic. Finished it in one afternoon while watching TV at the same time (no painting of course). Encouraged by the success I’ve bought ESCI 1/72 M901 ITOW. The box art was just so prettty:
I remember the disappointment after opening the box at home and finding the parts molded in grey!
Of course today I’d be perfectly OK with it, but in the days when young modellers were the main target for the model manufacturers I guess molding parts incolour made perfect sense.
I also remember feeling the same about two-colour Matchbox kits - they even had a drawing on the box showing the model without paint but with decals on - it kinda gave the young modeller “thums up” on not painting the model.
I was just thinking last night that my favorite part of modeling is the assembly, and least favorite is painting and weathering. I’d be all for a prepainted kit with the detail of several hundred part count.
I’m the opposite. I love painting. Well, I love building also. I really in 60 plus years of modeling, I never prime, unless the model is resin or metal. Colored plastic may be great for youngsters, that’s fine. What ever it takes to get them into the hobby is a good idea.
Speaking of youngsters, I just remembered that the Blue Thunder model I built again as an adult was molded in the same dark blue plastic that it was molded in 36 years ago when I built it the first time as a kid. The first time I built it, I brush-painted everything with Testors in the little square bottles. The second time I primed and airbrushed everything with Model Master primer and enamels. Even though it was colored plastic targeted for young modelers, it still built up into a fantastic model with really good detail right out of the box. I did reengineer some parts of it and did a little slicing and dicing, but it wasn’t to improve detail…it was to make things like the main rotor go on last so I didn’t have to constantly worry about breaking it. Cockpit detail was superb for its time, and actually exceeds a lot of what is out there now.
