A couple issues ago, we were challenged on the editor’s page (I forget which editor, and don’t have issue with me, sorry), to get even better at whatever aspect of modeling we were best at. That gave me the idea for this thread. I thought it might be neat to find out what aspect of modeling you struggle with. By the process of elimination, there has to something, right? I think I safely say most modelers are perfectionists to a certain extent, some more than others. The meticulous, exacting, measured nature of the hobby are the things that appeal to us. Someone will look at one of my builds and say “wow, that’s an awesome model!”, and I’m standding there looking at a half dozen mistakes. He he. Anyhow… For myself, one aspect I have managed to conquer isn’t a tangible thing. Patience. I don’t know how many times I’ve messed something up because I moved too fast. I don’t have that problem any longer. That model will still be there on the bench tomorrow. The one thing that’s always been a thorn in my side is painting. I’m just simply not good at it. I’ll choose the wrong brush, or have trouble with going too thick or thin, etc. I’m way better than I was at 10, but I’m still a ways off from where I’d like to be. But, I keep plugging away. Anyone else care to share their own personal Achilles heel?
I still have a lot to learn and practice with my painting. In my 66 years of building, I only used brushes, even on large R/C planes and boats. The last two years, I’ve been using an airbrush. Still getting the do’s and don’ts of it. Like what I’ve learned so far, but I’ve got a lot left to learn.
Jim [cptn]
Painting, airbrushing really. I hate it.
I used to be really terrible at painting White paint.
That was a very big problem for me, since I like the Light Gull Gray over White USN aircraft so much.
So, I hunkered down and “got it right” and painted White enamels with my airbrush.
Then I switched to Acrylics, and had to master it all over again,but, the good news was that I already knew a bunch of ways that wouldn’t work, so getting Acrylic Whites right didn’t take very long.
That puts me in the position of liking every aspect of model building,except I can get a bit put out when I find that I need to sand and fill for three or more tries before my model is ready for painting. But, even then, I know how to do it, and don’t really hate it,I just want to get to the next stage, lol.
Rex
Up until early this year it was figures, especially the faces. But I think I have got to grips with that. I think my main issue is attention to detail, especially when it comes to seams, I always seem to miss some.
If you know the magic answer to that then let me know because I REALLY struggle with this. Aside from that , my seam filling is the weakest area I have right now. I seam…er…seem to get it really close to disappearing and I get scared to go any further with it for fear of really messing up.
SEAMS. They just won’t go away. At a close second, gloss coat.
I struggle to keep the model clean when finishing. And, afterward! I have several times finally got a really nice finish, then smeared a big gob of CA on surface gluing on some tiny detail 
Hi;
I just recommended to a friend and fellow modeler , this way to solve seam problems . It’s called " Sprue-Glue " . Yup the old melted sprue in the glue bottle trick !
Thing is I have three kinds .Yup , Three .Very thin , medium and thick .I am now working on four ( extra thick ) Why ? Well , for me at least I have found that this works way better than putty , especially in wing fillet areas and fuselage seams.
This is particularly true of those I choose to " Foil - Chrome " , No , I don’t use Alclad on my planes ! I aluminum foil them .So , better not be any seam flaws !
The fact is remember you are using a base of liquid glue for styrene .You are adding bits of styrene to the glue to make the stuff . So you have a substance that will be the same color ( usually ) as the plane And support the seam strength .
my weakness is figures i cant do the faces at all i am so bad at them if you held a gun to my head and said paint i’d say shoot
I have many weaknesses that I enjoy working on. Everyone I feel looks at their model and can see what they perceive as incorrect or not good enough. Patience is my biggest issue. I get into a model and want to be working on it all the time, and when I do work to a point where I need to let something dry or sit for a while, I get inpatient and inevitably mess something up by rushing. Getting better but still working on walking away. Also seams are tricky, but the Dynamic filling putty I found is amazing and helping me a ton!
Squatch, that is one of the reasons that some of us build more than one model at a time.
Like you, I hate having the time and the inclination to model, and then hitting that magic point where I have to stop to let cement set up, or to let paint dry.
Having another model or two (or 4, lol) going at the same time lets me keep on modeling on something, instead of having to stop for the day.
Rex
Mustang, I would be of some help, except that I “cheated”.
When I found out that Polly Scale was going away, I bought every bottle of every different White in the Military and Railroad lines that I could find.
I found out that there are a couple of ways to get white right. One is to use a white primer, instead of gray,or at the very least, using a very light gray primer. Another is to start with a flat white, and then cover with gloss white. And yet another is that “white reflection” idea. You paint a light coat of silver paint over your primer, and then as you build up very thin with the white, it sort of reflects into any tiny spots that you didn’t cover so perfectly.
So, I combined the deal into using Badger’s primer for the model, Badger’s White primer (it is ‘flat’) for the white areas (and any red, yellow or orange areas), then Reefer White from Polly Scale for the color coat. This whole thing combines to help make the Reefer White last longer, since the primers are still in production. When the Reefer White runs out in a few years, I will have a bunch of Badger’s own White paint, it sticks just fine to the Badger primer. I use Aeromaster and Polly Scale for the clears, too. With Alclad Aqua Gloss for when the clears run out.
You could do the same thing with something like using Badger primer with whatever your favorite Acrylic paint range is, using Pledge Multi-Purpose Future or whatever you clears are.
Rex
Ditto on figures and faces… I still have a long way to go in that area… And my newest branching out- bases- I am a total novice there!!!
Figures and faces always was mine. Hated doing them. That’s one of the reasons I stopped doing figures a long time ago even back during my younger years.
…and double ditto on figure painting. Scared to death of it.
I’m ok with painting, bases and patience (because like TarnShip I do multiple builds at a time), but you may notice… figures are conspicuously missing from most of my builds. I’ll put a pilot in a 1/72 build, but my weakness is figures. I just can’t seem to get the skin color right.
Steve, I got a set of paints from a company called Scale75. It has 8 colours and includes a guide on how to paint white and Indian skin. I have found that a real blessing and have finally been able to get skin tones I am happy with. I would highly recommend it.
Scale75? thanks Bish. I’ll do that, It’ll help with the Ace’s GB and the Italian pilots you helped direct me to.
Figures, seams, canopies, and tracks.