No doubt there are some folks who, like me, as a young boy growing up, has fond memories of his time spent putting together those marvelous little model cars, planes, tanks, and ships. And, like me, now coming to the start of a new chapter in life (retirement), would like to relive those moments. And in searching the possibilities of doing so, you find this website with all the incredible photos and videos of models that far surpass anything you ever imagined. And you’re hooked!
Yeah, that’s me. Specifically, I love the old tall-ships, their bulging sails, the intricate rigging, how they weathered the high seas, the winds and storms, the genius it took to navigate the globe by following the stars. Remarkable!
Right off the bat, let me assure you my work is light years behind anything you good modelists submit here on FSM. Being encouraged by a good friend and fellow-modelist who frequently posts the results of his work on this forum, I offer my sad performance for your “constructive” critique and suggestions.
Revell’s 1:200 tallship model, the “Dom Fernando II e Gloria,” is my fourth model attempt in just under a year. Actually, as a beginner, the first three builds (i.e., the 1:196 USS Constitution, the 1:253 Gorch Fock, and the 1:110 H.M.S. Bounty), have turned out relatively well considering it’s been over 55 years since I’ve put together any kind of model at all. On average, each of those models took about three months to build. But this one, the “Dom Fernando II e Gloria,” is a different animal altogether. After over two weeks, I’m still working on the hull!
This first photo shows an example of my attempt to partially hand-paint the hull with with minimal amount of air-brushing because I was too lazy to spend the time it would require to properly tape it.
As you can see, the bottom-half looks fairly decent using the air-brush. The top-half, not so good. Yeah, all that’s the work of the novice “naively” believing he can hand paint as well as an airbrush! So, with the other side of the hull, I decided to take the time needed to tape it before painting. However, during the taping process, while trying to remove some tape that I had inadvertently put in the wrong place, I pulled both the primer base and main coat of paint off the hull! This after several hours of taping already.
To make a long story short, it took several hours (days), to tape every nuance, nick, and corner of the hull before I felt confident enough to apply the paint. The photo below shows the results of my efforts.
Much improved, eh? But, I’m recognizing that even though I spent an inordinate amount of time taping this side of the hull, there’s much room for improvement. As such, I welcome your advice and suggestions on how to better tape these models to bring out a smoother paint job, that is, to better eliminate the “scraggly” paint lines rather than the “clean” ones. I’m using Model Master’s Acrylic paints. However, the “copper” plating was airbrushed with Tamiya’s Acrylic Dark Copper paint. Which, by the way, brings up another oddity I’ve noticed: I’m seeing that Tamiya’s brand of acrylic paint doesn’t work well when painting over a coat of Model Master paint. Have any of you ever noticed that? Or is it just my imagination?
Anyway, the $64,000 question is this: what do I do with the other half of the hull that looks like crap? Do I try to “fix it?” If so, how?
Thanks much for anything you can send my way. If anything, my hopes here are for you new guys who are venturing to delve back into this fun world of modelling . . . reliving the good ol’ days . . . and recognizing that, like me, you gotta’ start somewhere before you can become a master modelist.
Thanks much!
