It took the better part of 6 months but its finished. Its a long way from my one day builds with more glue than plastic, no paint, filler or quality in any way shape or form. But what do you expect from a impatient 10 year old. (See my whole sorted story here: ( /forums/945140/ShowPost.aspx ) Well I’ve learned alot but there is a long way to go.
First, no more 72nd scale fighters for some time. I’m switching to 1/4 scale stuff from now on. You 144 scale guys are crazy. [8-] IMHO Two, its best not to squeeze glue onto you fingers while building the wing then using the same fingers to clamp the halves together. That lack of experience introduced me to the fine art of filler, sanding and re-scribing panel lines. Go team… Decals, the jury is out on that. Was the problem in my hands or that of Academy??? Only the shadow knows. Weathering. I can see where there is an art in that. I’m no artist! [sigh] On the plus side, I did find the airbrushing easier than I thought. Even the pre-shading went reasonably well. I’m far from the master status, but I’m not reluctant to spray when need be. I did get alot of tiny speckles in my Acryl flat coat. Maybe it was old stuff. I’ll try a another bottle and see what happens.
Welcome to the ranks of model finishers, Wrinkles! The next one will be much easier. 1/48 is a better place to start, I think. And yes, Academy decals have been known to fluster even the Master Builders here, whoever that might be on any given day. Most people seem to toss them outright and get a better set from the aftermarket guys.
Excellent Alluetian Tiger! You’ve got all the motivation in the world to build another right down the road off of Col Glenn Highway. What’s next in your plans?
Good work for a first. Academy decals are well known for their poor quality. I use PollyScale flat, but I’ve never seen Acryl cloud up that much. Did you thin it with something that might have caused a reaction ?
Yes, I thinned the Acryl with Windex, about 25% Windex to Acryl if I remember correctly. Its whatever Swanny indicated in his DVD.
Next on the board is a Spitfire Mk-II by Revellogram. I wanted to re-scribe a model in whole and what better to start with was my Michael’s Art Store purchase using their weekly 50% off coupon. You can’t complain to much for $6. I’m part way through that build and so far so good. The only pain was the number of panel lines on the lower surface of the wings.
[#ditto] Those Aleutian birds took enormous punishment from the elements they were exposed to. Well done, looking forward to seeing pics of your Spitfire! [tup]
First, welcome back to the fold! earlier this year I completed my first a/c in almost 30 years, I have a head start on you
Very nicely done; preshade looks good… I would add a tad of a wash to the wheel wells to bring up some contrast. I know what you mean about weathering! I paint with enamels (basecoat), t hen seal with Future. My wash/weathering is acylic base on top of the (well cured" Future. This allows me to fix weathering/washes errors… I have even scrubbed HARD with a Windex-soaked Q tip to erase/fix weathering…without touching the basecoat color! Also the Future coat helps with the decaling. Hopethis helps a bit!
Very nice build there, and welcome back to the world of plastic, PE, resin, wifey’s hair, and whatever else we fanatics use to complete a project.
I completely understand what you are going through with all the changes in the modelling world, as I just got backinto it myself about 5 years ago (my first model was at six years of age in…well, let’s just say it was in the cold war era when B-36’s were flying overhead).
Anyway, keep up the good work and show us more.
stinger
PS - Very cool that you are also an RC Soarer pilot. I was into that about ten years ago, still have my old birds and would like to get back into it, but just like plastic modelling, so much has changed (mostly in radios). Any advice you can give me on getting back to it would be greatly appreciated.
Great build! I seriously don’t see anything wrong with it, though my skill level is probably somewhere between where you were at 10, and 31 years later. I probably have to pick up a copy of Swanny’s DVD myself. Glad to see the diagonal stripes worked out for ya [:)]
