Scale Modelling

[plush nebula]

Let's use this forum to discuss everything related to scale models! Building, painting, techniques, current builds.

Just finally opened my Christmas presents and my wife's parents got me this beast!

[distant whale]

hello

i see me and @lament crater arent the only modelers here

That looks like a cool model

[plush nebula]

No train models allowed here though j/k

[vast ridge]

I imagine this thread will grow pretty well once people are aware of it. we see model pics all the time in general

[distant whale]

dont have much of those

[plush nebula]

It's why i made it, then cried silently to myself for a week while nobody came to it

[vast ridge]

Kinda like #emoji-requests we just have to advertise it more.

[distant whale]

That looks like a fun model to build

have you started on it?

[plush nebula]

Thanks! I'm excited to start it, but not yet. It's massive.

I'm going to build some more cheaper kits to build up my skill before I get to work on this thing.

[distant whale]

oh yeah that makes sense. Thats a good way to start

im in the process of building a massive 1:48 F-14D and it took a lot of time to get to even remotly that level

[pseudo cape]

I didn't include these in my 40k model backlog earlier, but I do have these 3 I need to try sometime as well

[plush nebula]

I used to make them a long time ago then stopped when I moved. Want to get back into it. Started on a F4U-1D Corsair that I need to get back into.

[plush nebula]

Nice. I want a Hornet and Tornado model.

I can't remember my backlog. I have a stack of kits to build, I know I have a Harrier, Intruder, F-16, and a Eurofighter, among others.

[pseudo cape]

If I get these built I'll probably pick up a eurofighter. Or maybe an F4

[plush nebula]

Phantom or Corsair?

[pseudo cape]

Phantom!

[distant whale]

My dads 1:48 F-16 that is still a work in progress

And my 1:48 F-14

[plush nebula]

I need an airbrush and compressor.

[civic roost]

my collection

to buy this month: Prinz Eugen (1/700, by Trumpeter)

[distant whale]

thats alot

[plush nebula]

Nice. I have a little PTC-38 to build, but that's all I have for boats. My dream is to build a big wooden sailboat.

[civic roost]

Top to bottom: HMS Astute, EA-18G, F/A-18C, F-16CJ, Su-57, Su-27, MiG-29SMT, F-14A, F-15J, B-1B, P-51D, Fw-190A, A6M3

[plush nebula]

That F-16 kit the Tamiya one?

[civic roost]

yup, excellent kit

all the aircraft are in 1/72

[plush nebula]

1/72 is my favourite scale. I have that Tamiya kit too, waiting to build it. I don't want to brush paint it.

[civic roost]

fair enough

[plush nebula]

Do you use an airbrush?

[civic roost]

yup

a harder and steenbeck

[wild nymph]

I have a Tornado just like that. lemme know how it goes!

[wild nymph]

1:72 and 1:76 > everything

My wallet didnt budge for this unfortunately however

[pseudo cape]

Don't hold your breath! Will be a while until I get to it. Now in a queue behind my backlog of 169 40k models 😭

[civic roost]

tbf I’m hoping to do a 1:48 F-35A (the brand-new tamiya one) at some point this year

as a sorta centrepiece of my model collection

[pseudo cape]

Right, question. What's the common gotchas of aircraft modelling I won't have seen in 40k? If I rip open one of those boxes where am I going to fuck up?

[civic roost]

the order of assembly in the instructions might be suboptimal

read the instructions all the way through first, and think about how you need to do things in order to paint it nicely

[wild nymph]

that Tornado, i have read the instructions and I think I have an ancient variation

the diagrams are horrible

[wild nymph]

fortunately newer models tend to "suggest" you paint certain bits (at least with newer Revell and Airfix kits) at certain points. Ejection seats and cockpit internals are common ones for painting early, engine internals too

[pseudo cape]

I usually ignore those suggestions for 40k. But I guess painting cockpit internal before I put the canopy on is a pretty good idea.

[civic roost]

a particularly thorny one is cockpit/canopy. some people put the canopy on, mask it off, then paint the livery. Others leave the canopy off and mask the cockpit itself, paint the livery, then put the canopy on. I prefer the latter, because fuck masking canopies

[plush nebula]

Wash your sprues with warm soapy water and a soft makeup brush, read the entire instructions first, leave all pieces on the sprues until you are ready to use them.

[pseudo cape]

I thought that was a resin models thing?

[wild nymph]

And don't stop building a model halfway there
I hodged podged a Lightning F.2A because I lost the instructions

[civic roost]

a wee bit of masking tape, write the sprue name on, then stick it to the sprue. Much easier to identify that way

[plush nebula]

The polystyrene stuff comes out of the molds sometimes with waxy or oily stuff on them that stops them from sticking. Washing them just gives you nicer paint and glue.

[pseudo cape]

Yeah I've heard of that, it's common with resin 40k models, but never heard of it with plastic sprues.

[civic roost]

get a little tube of putty (tamiya, for example, does some) to fill gaps. They’re especially common in the fuselage, where usually you’ll have the fuselage in two halves

[plush nebula]

Toothpicks, tweezers, cotton swabs, all very handy tools. Don't buy the little tiny sanding sticks from the store, they're expensive. Buy emery cloth or fine sandpaper and glue it to popsicle sticks for a fraction of the price.

And don't try to glue on paint. Use a knife or something to scrape away the paint on the surfaces you're going to glue.

[pseudo cape]

Cool I've got most of that stuff, tools and putty already

This is what's ahead of them in the queue though 😬

[plush nebula]

I'm going to assume you have a pretty good grasp on painting already 😂

Orks?

Oh, there are slightly different paints or glues you'd use on polystyrene vs resin, as well.

[pseudo cape]

Mostly Orks. A few thousand sons and a krieg kill team there as well. Plus some Black Templars in boxes

[pseudo cape]

I'm getting there! Different doing orks where I can get away with a lot of mistakes and trying to make a real world aircraft look good

[plush nebula]

I haven't played much Warhammer, but it looks fun to paint. I have a buddy who does lots of painting. I think a couple of his have been in that old warhammer magazine, can't remember what it's called.

[night tide]

What's this then?!

[night tide]

Probably White Dwarf! It's still kicking around but it's not as great as it used to be. I went from scale models to Warhammer because it was nice to be free of the constraints of realism, but now I've sorta gone full circle.

[pseudo cape]

Yeah I only buy if there's rules I want that month. Though its ridiculous you have to buy a £7 magazine for rules in the first place.

[night tide]

I miss the old battle reports, the DIY stuff...

[plush nebula]

White Dwarf! That's the one!

[night tide]

I'm gonna crack on with the F-5 now, got the paints I needed in the mail. Three shades of almost identical gray.

[plush nebula]

I've had a hard time finding nice F-5 models.

[night tide]

Yeah, I got the Tamiya one, I think it's one of the better. I don't really have points of comparison outside of Warhammer stuff though, but I'm not too impressed.

I think the best one is supposedly an old 1:48 Monogram one. I might get that somewhere down the line but I'm sticking with 1:72 for now and I really don't need more junk in my pile of shame, so...

Got any experience with Modelsvit?

[plush nebula]

As a tribute to the CAF and the people I know involved in a certain conflict in 2006 I want to make a LAV model but it's very hard to find the correct one.

[plush nebula]

I like the 1:72 scale, so that's what I want to find. There are plenty of nice kits in 1:48 though, they seem easier to find.

[lament crater]

Do you guys have good model shops around you or do you all have to order everything online too? I keep seeing YT videos with people in really nice, well stocked stores and it makes me jealous.

[night tide]

There's a tiny one halfway to town that stock a little bit of really old stuff but it's kinda hit and miss. Some good ones in Oslo, and there's a great one in Stavanger where I usually pick up a kit in when I'm passing by. Otherwise, it's the internet.

[plush nebula]

We have a couple nice shops, Hobby Wholesale is pretty great and Great Hobbies is okay. There's a really nice one in Winnipeg that I order from online often enough but have never been into the shop.

Called Hobby Sense.

[night tide]

Like, I build maybe a kit a year or something, so paying ten bucks premium (for shipping) isn't the molehill that's gonna topple the household economy or anything.

[lament crater]

It's weird for a city our size that we don't have a good one anywhere. Maybe a good thing overall because it keeps me from making impulse purchases. Couple of places around that have a few things but not much.

[lament crater]

It's more the realizing I don't have something I need, or the right paint color, and then having to wait to get it that's occasionally frustrating. But then if we had something good locally it'd probably be like the hardware store - three trips a day for any major project.

[plush nebula]

It's hard to walk into the shop and not walk out with a kit, even though I have a stack of unopened ones.

[lament crater]

Exactly.

[night tide]

The one in Stavanger sells B-stock, so it's dirt cheap.

[plush nebula]

I didn't consider having to wait on some or the smaller stuff like paint. It's fine to wait on the whole kit to get started but it can't be fun holding the whole thing up because you don't have a certain colour.

[pseudo cape]

I was in Edinburgh a couple of months ago and picked the one day of the week this place was closed to try and go to it (was just round the corner from my hotel)
https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/

Otherwise, locally we just have a Hobbycraft selling a few of the obvious models for scale stuff. Got a GW shop and a few independent shops selling 40k models though so bit better off for that. Having said that it's cheaper to buy from the larger 3rd party online shops.

[plush nebula]

I was Edinburgh a few months back for a day, and that day happened to be the day of the Queen's funeral procession, so I didn't get to see much that day.

[pseudo cape]

Aye, in a way it's a shame you didn't get to see the city as it usually is. But I guess you also saw something that's never going to be repeated.

[plush nebula]

100%. We'll go back. We loved what we saw of it. Our plan is to spend the whole vacation in Scotland instead of only spending one day In Edinburgh.

Half of our trip was spent in France... 🤮

[shrewd karma]

i go there very frequently

its a amazing shop

saw their booth at scale scotland and was some good stuff

[pseudo cape]

I love France!

https://tenor.com/view/bonjour-simpsons-gif-5029855

[civic roost]

"Three shades of almost identical gray"
Nato moment

[shrewd karma]

sorry to derail conversation but this is what im working on atm.
I suffer from hand tremors so please excuse the shitty paint job 😄

[plush nebula]

I actually didn't hate it. France is an exceptionally beautiful country, and we just had a bad time because it was towards the end of a too-busy trip and my wife was sick and pregnant.

[plush nebula]

Don't be sorry, I derailed the conversation, you're bringing it back on track!

[pseudo cape]

If anything, we've derailed the conversation 😂

[civic roost]

a mod, derailing the chat?

for shame.

https://tenor.com/view/modern-family-shame-shame-on-you-mitchell-pritchett-jesse-tyler-ferguson-gif-21700267

[plush nebula]

I am shamed

[plush nebula]

Looks good! 1:48 scale?

[shrewd karma]

yep

here is full jet prior to decals

excuse my messy workbench

really need to set some newspaper down so dont get more paint on it

[wild nymph]

no derailing here, unless its concerning a phoenix!

god i love the F-14

[civic roost]

decals

truly the worst part of any build

I hate decalling

[shrewd karma]

i find it quite satisfying

love adding all the small details even if its a pain

[wild nymph]

two words to deal with that: finished product

[pseudo cape]

I only recently plucked up the courage to try applying decals to some 40k models. Hate it.

[wild nymph]

the Phantom FG.1 i have needs finishing. her decals as is tho, ugh, i love it

[pseudo cape]

Not been happy with any of them.

[shrewd karma]

40k is warhammer right?

[plush nebula]

I like decals on small little things, like if it's an instrument panel or something like that. I don't like doing the big long ones, like a stripe down the side.

[civic roost]

yeah those are the worst

I had to do a few of those on the Astute

ones that had to curve all the way round the hull

really fukkin annoying

[shrewd karma]

i find the bigger ones easier than small ones

cause my shaky hands

[pseudo cape]

Yeah Warhammer 40,000

[shrewd karma]

i couldnt get into warhammer stuff sadly

i much prefer star wars legion

[pseudo cape]

Small decals on curved surfaces, can't get them to sit right.

[plush nebula]

Each their own! I don't like the big ones because i find them difficult to get straight and smooth without crinkling them

[shrewd karma]

i find micro set and sol mitigate any crinkling on my ones so far

[plush nebula]

Never played Legion but i played a lot of X-Wing miniatures back in the day.

[shrewd karma]

i never played legion i just have the minis

i have 0 desire to actually play it so i just buy my ones with german cards since its cheaper for some reason

[plush nebula]

That works then

[shrewd karma]

im curious what was everyone's first model kit?

my one was very basic and was a airfix spitfire starter kit

[civic roost]

hm. I think mine was a big Airfix D-Day diorama boxset thing? With a german bunker, an LCVP, and stuff? That's the first one I remember getting as a kid

[plush nebula]

My very first kit was a Canadair F-86 Sabre. I can't remember the make of it, but it was a long long time ago. My first as an adult is the Tamiya F4U-1D I'm working on now.

[pseudo cape]

Can't really remember. I have fond memories of building an airfix Hurricane in the late 80s/early 90s with my dad and gluing my fingers to everything

If that wasn't my first, it was one of them

Tried some colour shift paint for first time tonight. It's like magic.

[plush nebula]

I think it was the old Hobby Craft one, 1:72 Golden Hawks

[shrewd karma]

thanks for the answers all. its interesting to see where everyone else started 🙂

1:72 is hard work i find 1:48 and above alot easier

[plush nebula]

What's your's?

[shrewd karma]

spitfire starter set when i was 15 i think

kinda took a break from it cause never had money but did a eurofighter aswell i believe

no clue where it is now

[plush nebula]

My stepdad builds model kits, so he's got an airbrush and I used it as a kid. As an adult I don't have access to one, so I want to buy my own haha

[shrewd karma]

airbrushes are amazing

[wild nymph]

mine was a Typhoon 1:144 i did with my dad. didnt end well cause his eyesight isnt the best and I wasn't into modelling then

[shrewd karma]

i use mine for alot of different projects

[shrewd karma]

thats very small scale 😮

i didnt know they made 1:144 scale planes

[plush nebula]

They make even smaller. You can get some tiny minis for putting on the deck of a carrier, and that sort of thing.

[shrewd karma]

mad respect for anyone who can do small scale models

at scale scotland i saw this awesome aircraft carrier one

let me see if can find photos

[plush nebula]

To me they look more like vaguely airplane shaped blocks when they get that small

Apparently i've got an F-4C and UH-60A on the way because my mother-in-law's friend had a bunch of old unopened kits she's giving away.

[shrewd karma]

im waiting on my airfix club box arriving

should get the 2022 one and then the 2023 aswell

[plush nebula]

That's cool

[wild nymph]

they do. i recommend refraining

1:144 is quite fiddly

[lament crater]

Unsurprisingly my first was a 1/72 F-16. 😂

[civic roost]

shocking revelation

[lament crater]

Do you have an air compressor? There are surprisingly decent cheap airbrushes on Amazon. I got one as a backup for my “better” one and have really ended up using it more.

[lament crater]

I know, right? I wish I knew how many I’d built overall by now. Got at least two partially complete upstairs.

[civic roost]

cheap ones are also good for using with the more difficult paints, like metallic ones

[lament crater]

Yeah, I’ve done a bunch of the cheap Hasegawa ones just as practice.

[distant whale]

i thought you said it was an SU-27 or something like that as a kid that you destroyed with a baseball bat

[civic roost]

why would you do that to a beautiful FLANKER?

[distant whale]

he said he was bored of it or something

[plush nebula]

I do, but it is inappropriately large for an airbrush...

[lament crater]

Nah, the Su-27 was way later. Definitely wasn't the first one I built.

[lament crater]

😄 Yeah, I can see that. My tiny pancake compressor works well but a big one would be major overkill.

[plush nebula]

I'm pretty sure my compressor would explode an airbrush

[pseudo cape]

I would like an airbrush, but I know it would get stored in a box and never used.

[plush nebula]

Like most of my hobbies. Expensive and rarely taken out of their boxes.

[viral coral]

This is my first scale model, any tips for making/painting this?

[shrewd karma]

take ur time with it and dont speedrun it

i can link u to a good paintset if u dont have paints yet

[viral coral]

i have no paints or glue

[shrewd karma]

https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/tamiya-extra-thin-cement-40ml/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vallejo-Paints-Airbrush-Various-17ml/dp/B07FD5PS3V/ref=asc_df_B07FD5PS3V/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=314662623259&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14011819994310804856&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007380&hvtargid=pla-596856776052&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

not specifically for su34 but it works

[viral coral]

nice, i shall check these out

[plush nebula]

There are a ton of tricks and tips depending on how into it you want to get. Painting can be as simple as using the approximate colour and applying it with a brush, all the way to highlighting and preshading your panel lines, airbrushing, and using washes and drybrushing to make it look worn and dirty.

[shrewd karma]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD4Uk0PKuYk&ab_channel=QuickKits

i really like this channel

he has stuff aimed at beginners

[plush nebula]

Oh yeah, i've watched some of his videos. good stuff, and this is a good one to watch.

[sudden sluice]

I built a Tornado IDS with my father a few years ago!

[viral coral]

@shrewd karma has graciously gifted me a Harrier kit and a bunch of tools/paints to use 👀

so looks like i can get started into this today

[shrewd karma]

all i do is be kind and admins give me karen tag

[plush nebula]

It's that level of complaining that got you the tag in the first place! 🫵

[shrewd karma]

xD

true

[vast ridge]

you did a great job earning it. but only temporary 🥰

[shrewd karma]

@viral coral show us progress so far 🤔

[shrewd karma]

very nice

[viral coral]

it's got some significant gaps in the model

where i have just glued poorly

[shrewd karma]

nothing some filler wont fix

[viral coral]

true

[pseudo cape]

https://tenor.com/view/futurama-robot-mafia-mafia-clamps-gangsters-gif-3814055

Need some clamps

[viral coral]

clamps is a great idea, would help a lot for the tricky to hold pieces

[pseudo cape]

You can get wee boxes of tools on Amazon for not a lot of money. Search for model tools or gundam tools. They usually have a pair of snips, hobby knife, files and a few plastic clamps for about £10 - £15

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/SUNYOK-Modeler-Building-Equipment-Plastic/dp/B09FSC1M59/ref=sr_1_10?crid=33U2ENKZL1FT7&keywords=gundam+tools&qid=1672835411&sprefix=gundam+tools%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-10

[plush nebula]

I recommend making your own sanding sticks instead of spending a fortune on buying them.

[shrewd karma]

i got some files are they any good?

idk if files is correct name

[plush nebula]

Little metal ones? I use some too, they are pretty fine. Good for taking bigger pieces off, but nowhere near the 7000 grit sanding sticks

This was my "starter kit" 😂

[pseudo cape]

Cat included? Good deal

[plush nebula]

No cat was extra and he wasn't a good deal, eats alot

[pseudo cape]

Finished that Ork Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun I was working on. First completed model of 2023

[plush nebula]

That looks awesome!

[pseudo cape]

Always love that meme

[viral coral]

first coat of paint is on the harrier 👀

[viral coral]

decals are pain

I messed most of them up

[plush nebula]

There are lots of techniques to using decals. They work best wet and with softeners

[viral coral]

i think i needed to be more slow with it

[feral comet]

Currently working on an iran cat

[viral coral]

behold the kinda scuffed harrier

still need to add the pylons and weapons but thats a job for tomorrow

[pseudo cape]

Looks good! Scuffed adds character.

[night tide]

Let me tell you about decals my friend!

Main hurdle is that microscopic air bubbles get trapped between the decal and the model, making the decal appear matte. If you have an airbrush, give the model a coat of gloss varnish pre-decals. If you don't, paint the panel the decal goes on with gloss varnish instead: Just painting the actual spot is prone to leaving a visible border between gloss and non-gloss area.

Then, you'll want a bottle of this:

Coat the area you'll apply the decal with it, place the decal on top, give it another coat of Micro Set on top.

It softens it a bit, adheres it better, and makes it look "painted on".

Finally, cover up the gloss varnish with satin varnish to both protect the decal and kill the shine.

[plush nebula]

I don't have any micro set, haven't heard of it. I use Tamiya decal softener. Is that essentially the same thing?

[shrewd karma]

essentially yes

microsol and set are top tier tho

[plush nebula]

I'll hunt a bottle of this down then.

[shrewd karma]

think i got mine for £10 for both of them

or maybe it was £5

[plush nebula]

Ever use floor polish on your clear plastics?

[shrewd karma]

no never heard of that

what does it do?

[plush nebula]

Get a bottle of this. Make sure it's the same one, it's a clear floor wax.
Put some in a little bowl/container and dip your clear plastic parts like your canopy in it. I usually leave a bit of sprue still on it to hold it with tweezers. Take it out and gently shake the excess off and let it drip, then set it down with lots of circulation and let it dry thoroughly for a few hours or a day.

It makes the clear parts look more shiney and thin.

Set it on some toothpicks so it gets airflow and doesn't pool.

[viral coral]

Not bad i think for a first attempt

room for improvement definetly but not horrible

[pseudo cape]

Looks good enough to wave in the air and make jet noises with your mouth. That's all that matters.

[viral coral]

do you have cameras in my room cause i stg i was literally just doing that 😂

[plush nebula]

Looks good mate!

[lament crater]

I ordered some of this stuff from Amazon a couple of years ago. Thought I was ordering one bottle and accidentally got a box of six. 😬

[plush nebula]

I just bought it at Walmart.

[pseudo cape]

Bet your floor looks great now

[plush nebula]

That one bottle will last me until i die, I'm sure. I don't have wood floors to use it on!

[pseudo cape]

https://tenor.com/view/slide-thug-life-gif-7697299

[viral coral]

What are some good brands for cheaper beginner kits?

[shrewd karma]

revell and airfix do good starter sets

[viral coral]

where do you buy revell? from the official store or a different supplier?

[plush nebula]

Hasegawa can have some nice kits, too.

[plush nebula]

Around here revell is sold at pretty much every shop, they're pretty common.

[shrewd karma]

wonderland models is good for us lewis

can order or we can go up with jake at some point

[viral coral]

I may have to get a few when i'm paid

cause the harrier was very fun but now i have nothing to build 😂

[shrewd karma]

u got the red arrow coming soon

just got to wait on postage

[plush nebula]

The airfix one? Lemme know, cause I was eyeing it up

[shrewd karma]

i built one before its pretty good

no clue where it is now or would send a photo

[plush nebula]

All good. I want to build a Hawk.

[shrewd karma]

i recently got a double kit of hawks for signing upto airfix club

has the first ever hawk and the last ever hawk

[viral coral]

at least there is no strikes this next week

[shrewd karma]

true

[viral coral]

so should get it soon

I think the next one I want to get is a spitfire so I can practice doing camos by hand

[shrewd karma]

@plush nebula

[viral coral]

is the discount you get with airfix club worth it?

[shrewd karma]

depends if u order from them often

its 10% so for me its worth

[viral coral]

i suppose since you get like a set every month it is worth for you

since you only need to buy 10 sets on average to save the 30 quid you spent on it

[plush nebula]

I have never heard of this club. I wonder if they have one in NA, because that kit looks awesome.

[shrewd karma]

i know they have a "rest of world" program

but think u need to buy the kit seperate as where since im uk i pay £30 compared to the £10 for rest of world so i get physical benefits (kits , magazines and a calender)

[pseudo cape]

If you're close to Wonderland go there. Every week.

Otherwise Hobbycraft stock a load of the most popular revell, italeri and airfix stuff.

[viral coral]

I can get the bus to hobbycraft for free cause I have a pass 👀

or i can go to wonderland on the train for like 6 quid

this is certainly epic

[shrewd karma]

ok people need opinions
what kit do i build next
these are the 2 options

[civic roost]

the f18 is a great kit

I have built that exact one

[shrewd karma]

i shall do that next

also i linked the wrong apache its the same one but 1/72 and not limited

[civic roost]

my one

also got a VFA-192 patch

[shrewd karma]

thats sick

i have recently ordered some patches to start collecting

[civic roost]

yeah, they’re pretty fun

my full collection

[plush nebula]

Seconded, definitely the Hornet. I shall keep an eye out for it if you say it's a good kit, cow. I want a Dambreakers hornet, too.

[civic roost]

yeah I’ve found Academy’s new-tool stuff to be top-not h

very easy builds

[shrewd karma]

i have went abit overboard on patches i ordered some from the US and alot from uk sellers

[plush nebula]

I kinda want a VFA-195 patch, even though I don't have any at all.

[civic roost]

my patches each has some specialness to me

[shrewd karma]

thats really cool

[viral coral]

f-18 i'd say

although the apache one is cool too

[plush nebula]

i'm not American so don't have an association with any of the US squadrons, but with the reading I've done I just decided to make VFA-195 my squadron

[plush nebula]

awww that's sweet of you to say! 😊

[civic roost]

😐

[lament crater]

Wow, never seen @civic roost get sentimental before. That’s so sweet. 😂

[civic roost]

i have a soft heart under all these layers of granite

well, granite and pedantry

[plush nebula]

Ogres have layers

[pseudo cape]

Trying to get another piece of backlog painted

[shrewd karma]

thats sick

i just got some ww2 british infantry minis today

£9 not bad

[viral coral]

Picked this up today 👀

[pseudo cape]

One step away from playing Bolt Action

[viral coral]

revell instructions seem a lot better than airfix at least to me

seeing as they are coloured and show you exactly what colours are needed to paint per step

[shrewd karma]

went too heavy on the black wash so looks very wartorn but happy overall with it

[pseudo cape]

Looks great! Would you not usually bring the highlights back up after applying the wash?

[shrewd karma]

i probably could but im not sure how

im very new to weathering and the likes

[pseudo cape]

My usual process for 40k is to put the base colour down, apply a wash to bring out the shadows and recesses, then reapply the original colour to the neutral areas before finishing with the highlights for the raised details. So if it was me, I'd go over the flat panels, at least on the top of the plane, with a thin layer of the original colour to bring that back and just leave the wash in the recesses.

But there might be more efficient ways of doing things for big planes like that. I think usually mini painters are behind the curve with techniques compared to the scale model guys (common theme seems to be if you want to find a good way to do something like weathering or terrain, go look at what the model railway people do).

[shrewd karma]

will ask my brother

he is big model railway nerd

[civic roost]

for aircraft, I do a blackbase, then a layer of spaghetti in white, and then I do the actual livery over the top

adds up to give a lot of tone variation

then light touch of panel lining if necessary]

[shrewd karma]

layer of spaghetti?

[civic roost]

random squiggles

[shrewd karma]

ah ok

will give that a try on my next model

[civic roost]

adds to the variation

works better in 1/48, but on my 1/72 it works ok as long as i get in close with the airbrush

[plush nebula]

Yeah you want tiny squiggles on smaller scale.
Another technique is preshading. Prime the model. Paint some black or other darker shade along all your recesses and panel lines, anything you want to be darker. Then do the random highlight light squiggles on your raised and light areas, then do your livery colour.

[civic roost]

ordered my next model today - 1/700 Prinz Eugen

[plush nebula]

That big is that? It was a huge battleship, wasn't it?

[civic roost]

nah Eugen was a heavy cruiser

[viral coral]

man, getting the decals to exactly line up feels so good

i literally was punching the air cause i got the text perfect

why'd it take me this long to pick up scale modelling 😂

[plush nebula]

It's a good feeling when it works out. I want to buy two identical kits,make one now, then make the other years from now to see how I've improved over the years.

[swift badge]

I’ve got this and a few other sitting in my bedroom closet that I need to put together sometime soon. Found it at a used book game store

[viral coral]

I really like that idea, I think i'll get another harrier if I stick with it for a year and see how they differ

[pseudo cape]

I paint a number on the bottom of my 40k minis so I know what order I painted them so I can see how I improved... or not.

[viral coral]

today's project

[wild nymph]

gnat? i have one of those, admittedly not as good looking

[plush nebula]

Very nice

[viral coral]

yep a gnat, i'm happy with how it turned out

[stray jasper]

since when in this a channel

oh it’s a forum thingy

[plush nebula]

It's less a channel and more a forum thingy. I made it, I don't know, 10 days ago?

Just noticed there were a few of us talking models, so I figured I'd give us a place to chat about it.

[stray jasper]

ah

did this one a few days ago, still need to weather it and stuff

[plush nebula]

That looks awesome!

[stray jasper]

thank you

[stray jasper]

I bought one from Amazon and 2 shipped so guess who is making a gear up and a gear down version ha

buy one get one free

[pseudo cape]

For scale model cars, can you build them so the wheels turn freely, or are they always glued stuck?

Fancy building some classic F1 cars but almost feel like if the wheels don't move what's the point?

[stray jasper]

most models the wheels glue fixed, you can modify it easily to spin but I wouldn’t want to even be tempted to roll it around as they are so fragile

@pseudo cape

[pseudo cape]

Yeah, see that's what would bug me about it. Though real F1 cars are fragile as well, breaking at the slightest tap, so maybe it's just realistic.

[stray jasper]

god I hate painting 1/48 my hands are too shaky at 1 am

[shrewd karma]

not scale modeling but we dont have 3d print thread i dont think so i show here

if anyone knows how to make threads and can make me a 3d print one i would be very grateful

[stray jasper]

you just tap ‘make new post’

[shrewd karma]

thank you

[plucky plinth]

My first real model painting attempt for some of the creatures in my Nemesis set. Blood and bone colors made me feel like it would be an easy way to start to learn mode painting lol

[short trail]

freaking groovy, cool dude!

[plucky plinth]

Thanks!

[night tide]

Very effective!

We played Nemesis on Saturday actually, great game, got pretty tense at the end.

Also managed to spill beer on some of the game pieces, d'oh.

[pseudo cape]

Awesome first model! Good job

[plucky plinth]

It’s definitely become my favorite board game. The betrayal hijinks some people get up to towards the end is always hilarious 😂

[plucky plinth]

Thanks! Now I’m itching to do more. I don’t know how I’m going to balance model painting and DCS but I do love a challenge lol

[night tide]

Yeah, I had to destroy the ship which it turned out nobody was with me on... So I ended up going from engine to engine destroying them, while the others frantically tried to close the doors on me. But I knew where the pods where, and I had the key to them too, so when I finally worked my way through the doors and go to the escape pod bay...

...A random event triggered and sent the last pod into deep space before I got to board it.

The others would have succeeded if I didn't go for it, but they were asleep in a ship with no engines now.

[viral coral]

So i've got two coats of paint on a spitfire i'm making and I really hate how i've done the camo. What can I do to remove the paint or do I just need to paint over it and hope I don't lose the panel details?

[lament crater]

What paint did you use?

[viral coral]

Acrylic paints with some thinner

[lament crater]

You can sometimes get away with putting thinner on something soft and wiping it off. I like to use the square or round cotton pads they sell next to cotton balls at the store. Thing is, I’m never sure if it’s getting it all back out of the fine lines or not. You might be best off testing painting over it on a small area and see how your details look before you try it.

[viral coral]

it's a really thin coat currently but i'm reprehensive about painting over it as the camo that's underneath might still be visable cause it's quite dark. I'll see if I can wipe it away though and if not. it's not a big issue cause i got the kit for free anyways 🤷‍♂️

[night tide]

Can you post a picture?

Like, it's hard to strip localized parts. But you can remove all paint on the model. Nooks and crannies are troublesome, but if you've only painted the fuselage and that's all you want to remove, then I'm your huckleberry.

[viral coral]

i don't like the shape of the camo is the main issue

good thing I decided that before i did any more coats

[pseudo cape]

Pretty happy with how this guy has turned out

[night tide]

Dunk it in either isopropanol or Dettol. Should come right off with a toothbrush scrub!

[pseudo cape]

More importantly, what tunes are Certified Bops? Who is the certifying authority?

[viral coral]

I am the certifying authority 😳 really it's just a playlist of good vibes (mainly)

[viral coral]

I'll give that a try :)

[night tide]

Camo like that is tricky... I'd start small and gradually work the shapes outwards, if that makes sense.

Like you'd spread the sauce on a pizza.

[viral coral]

yeah that makes sense

[viral coral]

it worked very well, thank you for the tip :)

[night tide]

You're welcome!

[shrewd karma]

anyone else see the new airfix 2023 range

really hyped for the dambusters 80th anniversary set

[plush nebula]

Muh squad!

[viral coral]

I really like the look of the dambusters set. I think I may need to get it 😂

[plush nebula]

Wrong dambusters ☹️

Pretty cool kit though. I'd be down for it for the Lancaster. And if the F-35 let's you build it with all its vtol doors open.

[wild nymph]

spicy

[plush nebula]

Oh that's cool

[night tide]

Noice!

(Wouldmakeforasweetmodulecough)

[stray jasper]

it would though

[stray jasper]

holy 1/72 that’s tiny

[plush nebula]

That's my preferred scale! 1/144 is tiny

[wild nymph]

1:72 is a nice scale

plus there's a 1:48 tooling planned

expensive tho sooooo

[pseudo cape]

Isn't that the most common scale?

[stray jasper]

for airplanes 1/48 is most common

[lament crater]

1/72 is a pretty close second, really, especially for jets.

[short trail]

I saw maybe twice the amount of 72s compared to 48s

[civic roost]

yeah 72 is very common

it’s my fave scale

[stray jasper]

huh, almost every model in both hobby store in town have mostly 1/48

[civic roost]

fair enough

I guess it depends

I love 1/72

for me it's the right balance of cost and level of detail

I do enjoy a 1/48 for sure, but I can't afford to get very many of such

[lament crater]

Yeah, especially once you get into the nice ones. Would love to build a Tamiya Tomcat or Phantom but I can’t bring myself to pay $100 for a kit very often.

[civic roost]

yeah

this year I wanna do the new Tamiya F-35 in 1/48

looks so nice

[lament crater]

Even I’m tempted by that one.

[plush nebula]

1/48 looks like the most common scale in the shops i frequent.

[plush nebula]

That's why I waited until Christmas and get the B-52 in 1/72! 😅🎅

[wild nymph]

personally i do 1/72 because I mostly can't afford much else

mind you I want a Victor in 1:72

[plush nebula]

I like 1/72 because they don't take up so much space and you can fit more on a shelf.

[viral coral]

I tried to recover it, still not overly happy with the camo layout but it’s still much better than before

[lament crater]

Yeah, definitely looking better.

[plush nebula]

Looks good.

[civic roost]

my next model has been despatched

hype

[plush nebula]

Which is it again?

[night tide]

https://twitter.com/Airfix/status/1612846943641948161?t=P5VhTqAP3B81w7Y9Am8Esg&s=19

Airfix (@Airfix)

Introducing the NEW TOOL 1:48 Fairey Gannet AS.1/AS.4!

Widely demanded, the aviation enthusiasts among us will know, the Fairey Gannet was as capable as it was unique and arguably the most unconventional Fairey-designed aircraft to enter full production.

Likes

718

Retweets

233

Twitter · Jan 10, 2023, 4:20 PM

[lament crater]

So, question. I’ve never built an Airfix kit and my impression has been that they’re not great quality. Is that accurate or am I just picking that up from YouTubers who don’t like them?

[wild nymph]

Ehhhh, depends. Some can be hit and miss. Personally i've never had major issues, but let's just say it is advisable to have bits for sanding

[civic roost]

trumpeter 1/700 Prinz Eugen

[civic roost]

adding to what firestarter says, i’ve found airfix’ new stuff to be more reliable than their old

[pseudo cape]

I see they have a new Phantom model coming in the summer. Wonder what will arrive first, the DCS version or airfix...

[shrewd karma]

some good old toolings but their new ones are superior

the vintage classics are decent from what i heard aswell

[plush nebula]

I plan on getting a kit and trying them out. They make a ton of different ones and they're easy to find.

[shrewd karma]

can highly recommend the new hawk tooling

let me get a link

A03085A BAe Hawk T.Mk.1A

thats the product code

im in the middle of building 2 of them one raf valley and one of the development scheme ones

[shrewd karma]

i say new but 4yrs old

[lament crater]

That’s pretty new really. It’s not like some of the ones that are decades old and still being produced.

[shrewd karma]

one thing i will say is airfix has top notch decals

they are done by cartigraf i think

[wild nymph]

I've been meaning to grab one of them. The kits look cool and I am a fan of the Hawk ngl

[civic roost]

https://youtu.be/wXdoQyvVgmY new 1/35 apache kits from takom

[plush nebula]

That must be huge and expensive

[pseudo cape]

Trying one of those scale model thingmies

Oh it's quite small. This will be fun.

Wonky finger for scale

[swift badge]

Ah the good xwing

[shrewd karma]

revell star wars kits are very nice

but yeah quite small

[night tide]

I want to build an Y-Wing.

[pseudo cape]

Advantage is they're really cheap

This was about a fiver

[night tide]

1:112, weirdass scale.

[shrewd karma]

thats very good for a kit

closest place to me sells those kits like £10

[pseudo cape]

Good for a practice and figuring out what my work flow should be for them and what works

[pseudo cape]

This was a couple of years ago. It's been on my shelf for a while. Checking amazon it looks like they more like £7-8 now. Hobbycraft usually has them too.

[shrewd karma]

hobbycraft is my closest place but they overcharge abit

its ok for convenience of getting kits tho

[pseudo cape]

I just took a break and went and took it all outside as I decided it was going to be easier to just put a quick primer coat on everything now before I start glueing. Normally never do that.

[shrewd karma]

if i want a good deal i travel to wonderland models they have a excellent range

[shrewd karma]

primer can sometimes interfere with glue but u should be fine

[pseudo cape]

I'll scrape off the bits glue is going to contact. Using plastic glue so needs to melt the plastic.

[shrewd karma]

smart man

[pseudo cape]

Need to check out that shop next time I get down to Edinburgh. Was closed when I was there in the summer.

[shrewd karma]

that shop makes me feel like 12yr old in a toy shop

its great

[pseudo cape]

Does revell contacta work with clear plastic i. E. Cockpits? Or should I superglue that bit?

[shrewd karma]

i think it can cause fogging

best bet would get some proper canopy glue cause i think superglue can fog it too

"Re: Attaching canopies with superglue
This is a really bad idea, the solvents in superglue will react with the styrene of the canopy and cause it to go 'foggy'"

[pseudo cape]

Hmm. Well I don't care about this so I'll go with the contacta and see what happens

[shrewd karma]

oh wait contacta clear

im a idiot missed the contacta clear part and assumed u meant their poly cement

yeah that should be fine

[pseudo cape]

This stuff

Just put a spot in a non visible bit to hold it in place. It's so small it won't matter

[shrewd karma]

ah ok that will fog it up was abit confused what glue u meant they all have such similar names

if u are careful it will work

just dont get any on the main canopy part

[pseudo cape]

Hmm, looks like I should paint the pilot before proceeding with the next step.

[shrewd karma]

i dont include the pilots in my sets cause dont have right paints for them 😄

soon tho i got some infantry colors coming which should have the fleshtone needed

[pseudo cape]

I've got plenty of paints. Not necessarily the right ones though

Fiddly little bugger

[shrewd karma]

looks awesome

[pseudo cape]

Getting there. Think I should try and out some of the decals on before I glue the foils and body together

Which is a job for later

[plush nebula]

There's a bunch of 1/72 scale star wars models that I would like to get, but they have been difficult to find and expensive.

[feral comet]

Sooo close to finishing my F-14A iranian

[civic roost]

hoorayyy!

old livery or new livery? this is mine 😛

[feral comet]

YOOOOO, mine'll be similar. Though I chose to make it more faded camo then hard edge

[civic roost]

fair

[wild nymph]

I'm looking hungrily at the S.2B 1/48 Bucc

mind u i better build all the other aircraft i have

F-16D Tigermeet, 21SMT, Raven, my smaller Bucc, etc etc

[pseudo cape]

Felt sorry for myself and ordered a eurofighter and a phantom off Amazon. Whoops.

Had managed a visit to Hobbycraft earlier without buying anything too

[night tide]

"Whoops!" But it sounds like you needed a reward.

[pseudo cape]

I look forward to admiring the boxes on my shelf for months to come

[lament crater]

Oh good, I see we all have similar philosophies about self control and rewards. 😂

[pseudo cape]

That's why we fell into all these modules in the first place I assume

[lament crater]

https://tenor.com/view/ok-oh-yes-yes-o-yeah-yes-no-yes-go-on-yea-yes-gif-24983806

[civic roost]

it arrived

gonna start it tomorrow i think

never built a ship like this before

dunno what order to paint things in

[night tide]

Nice! We're still very proud of sinking Blücher.

Ancestral bloodlust flares up at the slightest mention of the Kriegsmarine.

1/700 is pretty big, right?

Like, for a model kit.

... For an actual cruiser it's of course way too small.

[civic roost]

in 1/700, the Eigen is a nice size tbh. will fit nicely on my top shelf

it’s maybe…I dunno, 40cm bow to stern?

[night tide]

One of my friends was a naval officer until recently, and since we're both into wargaming I've been trying to push naval wargaming at him. In particular 1/2400th scale World War 2 stuff.

Like, look at this stuff.

[plush nebula]

Neat

[civic roost]

the number of times i dropped pieces doesn’t bode well

six double-mounted 105mm secondary guns

[lament crater]

That’s the only thing that worries me about doing ships. I’m not good with small pieces.

[civic roost]

aye

nor am I tbh

but it'll be a challenge

and I like a challenge

🙂

[lament crater]

Then tiny pieces or decals or whatever are shaking at the end of some tweezers. 😄 But yeah, I make food use of two or three different kinds.

[plush nebula]

I just like using that meme

[civic roost]

smol main turrets

[shrewd karma]

https://tenor.com/view/thats-adorable-colin-jost-saturday-night-live-thats-cute-how-cute-gif-24584217

[civic roost]

i know right

[civic roost]

not gonna even try to do a camo pattern on them

they’ll be getting a flat colour

screw realism

[short trail]

Wow that's a steal, gratz!

[lament crater]

Ouch. You know this means you just have to order two at a time so they have to put them in a bigger box.

[pseudo cape]

Funnily enough, I did order two at a time! The Italeri Eurofighter is being sent separately 😂

[civic roost]

on to superstructure next 🙂

[pseudo cape]

Also me: masks my address on the box, but includes my postcode on another document in the picture. Whoops. Guess I'll delete that!

Going back to the xwing today. Just noticed I glued the windscreen on without painting the control panel in the cockpit. Damn.

[pseudo cape]

Getting there. I hate decals. Body doesn't fit together very well, which is a little disappointing but the kit is so cheap it's probably not unexpected.

[night tide]

If only Vader had clamps like that.

https://tenor.com/view/futurama-robot-mafia-mafia-clamps-gangsters-gif-3814055

[pseudo cape]

R2

[pseudo cape]

What do people use for display stands for plane models?

[feral comet]

My dresser shelves lol

[swift badge]

The ceiling and some clear fishing line

[lament crater]

I got this acrylic stand off of Amazon for my not quite finished Viper and been very happy with it.

[pseudo cape]

Think I'm done with this. Been chipping away all day to get it finished. Good learning experience. Feel a bit better about decals now. Bit disappointed I managed to scratch up the canopy. Went a bit hard with the wash as well but a dry brush and bit of a clean up with some dirty white helped slightly.

[pseudo cape]

As nature intended

[viral coral]

this looks awesome :)

making me want to have a try at making a star wars model now

[pseudo cape]

Definitely give those wee Revell models a go. Can't go wrong with the price

[night tide]

Meanwhile, people are doing stuff like this...

Inspirational or depressing? You tell me.

[pseudo cape]

Holy crap.

But at the same time, I'm fine with not being great at painting. You're allowed to just be OK at things.

I saw this video last week and liked the attitude https://youtu.be/ee_xAxjbDfA

I do like seeing stuff painted really well sometimes though. It's not like I don't want to improve and there's often little bits I can take into my own stuff. But most of the time when I'm painting I'm just happy if it looks good on a table

[night tide]

Absolutely! It's just mind boggling what people manage to create.

[viral coral]

that's very cool 👀

[lament crater]

This is a good attitude to have about it. This is one of the things that keeps me from working on models more often - never being happy with how they look in the end. Getting frustrated with the painting process.

[pseudo cape]

I mean, it is a frustrating process. A lot of the time things look rubbish until near the end when it all magically comes together

[lament crater]

It's also dumb to let that be a hang up because it's only through repetition that one would get better.

[plush nebula]

This is the reasons I want to buy two identical good quality kits, make one now, then make one in a few years, so I can see how i've improved.

[night tide]

Yeah. Not to sound like I'm an expert or anything but that's a trap I see people fall in all the time, like @lament crater mentions. People will start out, they'll look in the magazines and online and be blown away at the level of stuff people paint, and give up because they can't match that. But that's models painted by experts and professionals, it's like starting drawing and immediately expecting to draw the Vitruvian Man.

My main advice is: 1) Never postpone painting a cool model because you "have to get a little better first", because then it'll just sit collecting dust forever. 2) 90% of painting a good model is knowing the tricks to make it look good, not necessarily something that takes a lot of practice. It's like playing a guitar, if you got some basic chords down you can fake playing a song that sounds decent pretty fast. Picking up tricks like washes, drybrushing, how to apply decals, stuff like that is honestly most of the job. 3) Be proud of what you've done and enjoy the process.

[civic roost]

deck painting after work

[civic roost]

my airbrush is blocked

and i dunno where the blockage is

pain

[plush nebula]

What brush do you have? Is it easy to get it all apart?

[civic roost]

harder and steenbeck infinity

I’ve taken it apart to the extent I can

cleared out a bit of gummed up old paint

but I think there might be blockage in one of the parts I can’t seem to get at

[night tide]

What happens when you try to paint?

[plush nebula]

Have any paint thinner to try and run through it or to let parts soak?

[feral comet]

QUESTION

What type of paint do you use?

[night tide]

Mostly Vallejo, Games Workshop and Golden.

But different brands are good at different stuff.

[feral comet]

Right, I wanted to ask cow, because I've run into this problem several times

I knows how to fix it

[civic roost]

acrylics

vallejo acrylics and the occasional tamiya

[feral comet]

Mk, but the stuff that comes in the 10 and 23ml tiny bottles right?

[civic roost]

yeah the mini ones

I usually don't thin the vallejo model Airs, but I thin the tamiyas

[feral comet]

What I learned was that these are not properly mixed for airbrushes yeah, ALL non airbrush specific paint should be thinned with 30-50% thinner

Ever since I did that I stopped having that problem, also use windex to clean, it's basically airbrush cleaner

[lament crater]

Really cool, long build video of the new Tamiya F-35 kit. Between the detail and watching the guy work, it’s like porn for modelers. https://youtu.be/fglfZ8-yScU

[civic roost]

I wanna get that kit later this year

spensive tho

[pseudo cape]

I haven't touched any hobby stuff for a few weeks. Might have to dig the paintbrushes out in the next few days

[civic roost]

ayyyy

[pseudo cape]

Just noticed this wee shop has opened right across the road from my office.

Checking Facebook it seems it stocks aircraft kits and starting to stock warhammer stuff

[night tide]

Oooh yeeeeah!

[civic roost]

it’s coming along

[ruby rampart]

Daughter gave me this for a Christmas present 2 years ago. Now, I'm ready to begin after a couple of hundred $'s for an air brush, compressor and other cool tools I found going down the model aircraft YouTube rabbit hole. Been 40 years since I last made a plastic model I think.

Going to use this livery, They were stationed where my Dad was at Amendola flying in B-17's

[pseudo cape]

Sad times, went into this shop today and it's almost entirely die cast car models. No plastic kits. Think the guy is still finding his feet, but doesn't sound like he knows much about kit modelling or has any interest.

[swift badge]

Then why the hell open a model shop

[civic roost]

because plastic kits aren’t the only kind of models

[lament crater]

Could stand to have a more descriptive name, at least.

[swift badge]

No I mean if he has no interest why do it it’s like starting a yard business and being highly allergic to grass

[pseudo cape]

It's very literal. "Mark's Scale Models"

My theory is that his partner forced him to clear out some of his collection and a car boot stall grew arms and legs, so now they're small business owners.

[civic roost]

lol

[pseudo cape]

They were very nice, and very expensive, die cast cars. Some trucks too. Just not really my thing.

[plush nebula]

My enjoyment of models comes from building them, looking at them after they are built, and enjoying ones other people have built.

[night tide]

Can't go wrong with checkers!

[night tide]

https://twitter.com/DadZedds/status/1626330398711066628?t=T4Ohcec6-CEg_rONTC8i6A&s=19

ZeddsDad (@DadZedds)

Finished the Trumpeter 1/48 U-Boat. It’s huge. Sound on!

Likes

263

▶ Play video

Twitter · Feb 16, 2023, 9:19 PM

Damn!

[ruby rampart]

Wow!!

[plush nebula]

Wow is right

[stray jasper]

furious german yelling

[short trail]

There's Hasegawa 1/72 A-6E Intruder early for 15$ in one storage across the country... Should I? Even if I didn't finish eurofighter yet, that's a steaaal, delivery would be around 5$

https://tenor.com/view/thirsty-i-need-it-spongebob-gif-11796572

[night tide]

I'd get it.

[pseudo cape]

If its a model you like then $15 seems cheap! Do it!

[short trail]

Haha, will order when grt back home then! 10 days delivery, but I am not in any hurry

I am really loving A-6 vibe yes

Some say tomcat is 80s synthwave, tbh intruder suits that terminology better

This box

Tool is from 1968 oof, that's gonna be interesting

It only has bombs no harms or harpoons, sadge. But from photos kit seems quality

Surprisingly low on parts, just two spruces. Though also not super well detailed, but it's intruder so doesn't matter for me I just love the frame

https://www.mojehobby.pl/products/A-6E-Intruder-173766.html for real, very humble kit but somehow works out in result which I find a better approach since I am not looking for super deep details really

[plush nebula]

I have that kit. Haven't built it yet, but it seems decent. The cheaper Hasegawa kits you get what you pay for. The more expensive kits can get really nice. Best bet is to check out a review of every kit you're interested in and not assume that a price point from a specific company is good.

[short trail]

Aha need to look up for reviews, somehow forgot about it. There's also decent italieri kit of intruder in that same storage but it's twice as expensive

[plush nebula]

And sadly you can't anyways trust the price being an indicator for a better kit. But yeah, check out reviews, I do so for all the kits I buy. I'm not fantastic at it so of I can get a kit that's atleast decent I'm happy. Super cheap kits are fun to try new things and not stress on doing a bad job on.

[lament crater]

Yeah, the inexpensive Hasegawa 1/72s I like to think of as practice kits and toys. I’ve got a bunch of them I’ve built and just fly them around by hand when I’m bored in a meeting.

[short trail]

Are they of a bad detail level only visually or are also affected in a way it gets pain the ass assembling them?

Because I got mi-28 zvezda for practice because it was cheap. And now I am in mindset I'd rather ruin good model by painting than burn out on terrible kit where details don't connect or need a bucket of green stuff

[plush nebula]

I wouldn't say they're bad quality. They fit decently, no major fit issues, usually recessed panel lines as opposed to raised which is nice. Maybe just not a lot of parts or extras, not a super detailed cockpit, minimal amount of stores if any.

The biggest difference between this kit ($60)

And this kit ($15)

is the amount of stores it comes with, the quality of the panel lines, detail of the cockpit, that sort of thing. The Tamiya kit is overall better, but the Hasegawa kit isn't bad either.

[short trail]

sounds like my cup of tea
I just want an intruder on my shelf without much of hustle
not looking for details
so I might buy hasegawa cheap one if it most likely aligns well

thanks a lot for the advice Patches!

[plush nebula]

I can take a look at my kit when I get home in about 10 hours if you want me to take a closer look at it. I have that one you're looking at sitting in the box, so I can give you a better idea of what you're looking at.

[short trail]

would be awesome!

[plush nebula]

I will do my best to remember! Lol

A little bit of epoxy putty and some sanding sticks can go a long way to fixing up a kit that doesn't align perfectly. I like to take my time and test the fit of stuff before I start glueing.

[short trail]

I am ok with some filing down, some extra putty, but in case of mi-28 I mentioned it was impossible to align without a bucket of stuff and 2-3 tighteners

[plush nebula]

I've never built a zvezda kit, wouldn't know. There are a bunch of Trumpeter kits I want to try, I've heard good things about them.

[short trail]

I heard that Trumpter and Revell almost never miss

[plush nebula]

Old Revell is meh, but then a lot of old kits are meh. I have some very old revell kits my dad gave me and some of thr newer kits for cheap are better.

[short trail]

EF I have from Revell is a masterpiece after disaster Zvezda

that reminds me

hey @inner edge did you have a chance to build up few pieces of that Zvezda HIND?

I really hope that's a right Corvus

[inner edge]

Nope it's just chillin on the side waiting to be built

[short trail]

good ol pile of grey stuff

[civic roost]

progress with eugen

[plush nebula]

How many pieces is that kit again? It looks huge.

[civic roost]

quite a few lol

and often quite small

one of the medium-sized assemblies

[plush nebula]

Oh those are small!

[short trail]

@plush nebula have you had a chance to take a closer look at kit 👀

[plush nebula]

Ahhhhh thank you for reminding me!!! Things are a bit hectic for me right now, didn't get a chance to, but I'll do it in the morning!

[short trail]

Understandable and completely fine. I found one in my city in hobby shop, not across country, so I will go there and get it on Friday most likely. It will be cheaper and faster than 9 days of delivery

[plush nebula]

Actually I just ran down and looks. The quality of the mouldings looks good quality, but it does have raised panel lines instead of recessed so that isn't ideal. There aren't a great many parts, and there isn't a tremendous amount of detail on the plastics, and the cockpit is a decal instead of moulded, but it looks like a nice decal atleast. Overall, I would say it's a decent kit for the cheap price, but I wouldn't want to spend more than the $15 on it. If you were looking for a super detailed 1/72 Intruder I would look elsewhere, but if you want a decent kit for fun and for a good price I think it'll do you fine.

[short trail]

Awesome, thanks! Sounds like my cup of intruder, I will most likely go for it then!

And part about panel lines - can I still file it down or it's too big you would need to cut it out?

[plush nebula]

Now I also have a $40 Hasegawa Eurofighter Typhoon kit, and it's a big leap in quality. Recessed panel lines, moulded cockpit details, three times as many parts.

[plush nebula]

By panel lines i mean the lines on the body of the aircraft where panels of it's skin are. Raised panel lines are little tiny raised ridges along those panels to highlight them, instead of them being indented like on the real airplane. Raised is easier and cheaper to make, but it doesn't look as nice. If you had the inclination, you could sand them flat and use a razor or scribing tool to etch them in.

[short trail]

Aha, understood

[plush nebula]

If you don't do washes or shading or that kind of fancy painting stuff then the raised lines won't bother you.

[short trail]

There's also Italieri intruder for twice the price but I can't really afford it, so I will go with what I can get.

Thanks a lot for your time!

In enabling my hobby money spending 😛

[plush nebula]

I think the hasegawa kit is more than fine. And if you want to take your time on it and fix it up it'll look even better.

[plush nebula]

Any time! Happy to spread the hobby.

Now I'm off to bed! 👋

[pseudo cape]

No, you should buy all the kits and admire the boxes on your shelf!

[civic roost]

do a ship model, they said

it’ll be a fun change of pace, they said

my sausage fingers weren’t designed for this

[short trail]

fun times

I struggled gluing strats of gear on EF already lol

[plush nebula]

Hey, i see you're familiar with my approach to scale models!!

[lament crater]

This is exactly why I chicken out every time I think about doing a ship. Unsteady, clumsy hands aren’t well suited to all those tiny parts.

[plush nebula]

I don't do ships because i don't really know anything about them. Except for wooden ships. Those i absolutely love and its my dream to one day build a big detailed intricate wooden ship model.

[short trail]

Me happy

[night tide]

Nice!

[pseudo cape]

I really need to do some building and painting this weekend.

Though I also need to do some more progress on my button box

[night tide]

Chipping away on my Warhammer Wyvern.

[civic roost]

needs more <NULN_OIL>

[night tide]

We're not at the Nuln Oil stage yet. 😂

[pseudo cape]

Ooh, that looks fun to paint. AoS does have some kick ass models

[night tide]

It's an old Fantasy Battles model, we're playing 6th edition over the weekend in three weeks.

[pseudo cape]

That explains the square base

[night tide]

It's a big boy! 600 grams of white metal.

[short trail]

Woah looking good!

It's been two days and intruder box was so far tossed around room and that's it 😂

[civic roost]

glued the superstructure into place

[swift badge]

Seems to be coming along nicely

[civic roost]

it do be

fit is kinda shit in places, which is annoying, but hey ho

[plush nebula]

Looks pretty awesome though!

[civic roost]

dry-fitted to the hull parts

still got some small parts to do first though, and gotta paint the hull

base coat on the hull is today’s job, plus doing the lifeboats

[civic roost]

started on the hull camo pattern

[civic roost]

angular

[civic roost]

done on the port side, starboard almost done, thwn it’s just assembly and decals

once this is done, I’ll be doing a 1/48 SBD-3 Dauntless

[plush nebula]

Oooooh a dauntless would be fun to do.

[civic roost]

yup

gonna be good

I have a 1/72 A6M3 that it will be paired off with

and once the Dauntless is done I'll be doing a 1/700 CV-6 Enterprise

and then I'll probably be done for WWII stuff, and go back to modern stuff

[plush nebula]

I want to get a bunch of WWII stuff. I have a very cheap and very basic B-25 kit i was gifted. Probably use that to try out some painting techniques. I doesn't even list paint colours and has stickers instead of proper decals 😂

[civic roost]

lol.I have quite a limited set of WWII stuff right now, just a mustang, Fw190, Zero, and the Eugen

what’s nice about WWII is that I can get planes from WWII in 1/48 scale without them overwhelming my shelf

whereas a 1/48 modern jet is a bit too big for my shelves

kinda wanna do a Wildcat too

[plush nebula]

Wildcat and hellcat would be nice. I prefer 1/72 scale myself. I have a couple 1/48 scale warbirds I as given, i think a spitfire and a wildcat if i remember correctly.

[queen thunder]

Ah yes! I just found this one too! You people are very diverse! I used to do a lot of plastic kits when I was younger, and I have a little collection in the loft at the moment. All unbuilt in boxes, I'll get some photos sorted out some time soon. I think SU-34 could be the first dabble back into kits as I have all the paints for it.

[pseudo cape]

Kits unbuilt in boxes? I refuse to believe it!

[civic roost]

deck is in place, and waiting for the glue to dry

then I glue that onto the hull, glue the anchors in place, do the decals and job’s a good ‘un

should finish it by this weekend

then I’ll take a couple weeks rest from modelling and then get the Dauntless

[plush nebula]

Oh it's quite a bit smaller than I was expecting, unless you have absolutely monsterous hands

[civic roost]

yeah it’s small

1/700 I think?

[plush nebula]

Looks great though, very cool.

[civic roost]

yeah 1/700

yeah it looks nice. some janky areas where my hands weren’t really dextrous enough

[plush nebula]

Can't wait to get better and build that B-52 I have posted at the top of the channel. I need an airbrush for that first, though.

[civic roost]

but overall good

B-52 would be cool

my overall list of ones I want to do after the Eugen is:

• 1/48 Dauntless
• 1/700 Enterprise (CV-6)
• 1/700 HMS Belfast
• 1/48 F-35A
• 1/48 SR-71

with a wildcat in there somewhee too

[plush nebula]

I'm working on a F4-U Corsair, then I'll probably do that cheap B-25, then I'm not sure, maybe my A-6. All 1/72

[night tide]

Want a top tip? Do it pre due date.

[plush nebula]

That's not gonna happen.

Due date is less than 2 months, and I don't have an airbrush and paints in the budget 😅

[pseudo cape]

RIP your hobby time 😂

Though for the next year or so early morning gaming sessions while you let your wife catch up on sleep and you have the baby next to you are great!

I also kinda miss waking up in the middle of the night and watching documentaries for an hour while feeding the baby.

[night tide]

Yeah!

I actually got a little hobby spurt when the first kid was about six months or so, we had a steady rhythm and weren't going out much. So I got it a couple of nice sessions during naps.

[civic roost]

dry fit onto the hull to see how it looks

looks good

fit is nice

[plush nebula]

Looks really awesome!

[civic roost]

it is now glued on

just gotta paint over a little dribble of glue that happened, do a couple decals, and do the nameplate (which I’m on the fence about)

views from the port and starboard

[pseudo cape]

Looks great!

[civic roost]

glad it’s done (nearly) though. It’s been a stressful build

looking forward to getting back to aircraft for my next one

[pseudo cape]

Not exactly scale models, but I was not caring about the new 40k edition but now it got announced overnight I am hyped.

[civic roost]

lol

[plush nebula]

40k is welcome here! The figures themselves, the rules and the like confuse me lol

[pseudo cape]

Good news! 10th edition is simplifying the rules!

At least initially. They said the same in previous editions then codex creep set in.

[night tide]

They said that about 9th too and then it started bloating.

So we'll see. I'll probably dig out my storm troopers.

[plush nebula]

I said the figures are welcome here... 😤

Just kidding. Go crazy lol

[night tide]

Found a sweet hobby store in Trondheim!

Hasegawa, 1/72.

[night tide]

Eh, kit turns out to be... Not great.

[pseudo cape]

Boo! Well, at least you got to have fun browsing a new shop

Or you build it and let the kids play with it

I'm gonna start building these at the weekend

[shrewd karma]

its getting there

need to let decalsol dry before clear coat

hence the drips on it

[plush nebula]

hasegawa kits are hit and miss. the cheap kits are very cheap... the expensive kits tend to be really nice

[civic roost]

I forewent the half-swastikas

it now sits on shelf

gonna take a week or two break, and then buy and start on the 1/48 dauntless

[night tide]

Turns out it's ancient. The tooling is from 1967. But I've seen pictures of finished kits that look totally passable.

[plush nebula]

I've got a cheap A-6 kit that looks pretty meh with raised panel lines (the bane of my existance), then I have an expensive EF Typhoon kit that looks really good.

[pseudo cape]

Back on the paints with a trio of Ork Boyz

[swift badge]

Is that a sea wolf on the shelf next to it or a British sub

[civic roost]

HMS Astute

Sea wolf doesn’t have the stealthy bow, and has a smaller, blended fin

[pseudo cape]

I paint a number on the bottom of all my 40k models, mainly so I can see at a glance how experienced I was when I painted them. It's fun to see how my painting changes over time.

I decided to make a spreadsheet to keep track of them and have now found a load of duplicate numbers. 😬

[civic roost]

RIP

[lament crater]

How many have you done? Sounds like a lot.

[night tide]

My life right now.

[lament crater]

Looks like a good life!

[plush nebula]

Definitely better than some

[pseudo cape]

I thought I'd done 42, but it turns out I have 3 duplicates so it's 45. Not too many in the grand scheme of things. Especially as an ork player. But I've only been doing it for two and a bit years.

So the duplicate numbers is not a big deal. But it is slightly annoying.

[pseudo cape]

Square bases! It's like the pages from my old white dwarf issues come to life

[night tide]

My black orcs are in trouble while my chariot is meandering around.

[plush nebula]

Those look great, I may be asking you for some painting tips! You warhammer guys do awesome work.

[night tide]

Thanks! I'm not super productive, but I've picked up a trick or two over the years.

And ask away. 🙂

[shrewd karma]

how do you get this shine?

i assume a gloss clear coat?

[night tide]

Yeah.

Also... You can paint it on, but that's a really difficult technique.

[shrewd karma]

i got a new airbrush

so might buy some clear coat i can spray with that

if its a thing

[night tide]

Yep, it absolutely is. Any gloss varnish should do it, I use Vallejo.

[shrewd karma]

awesome thank you

this one?

[shrewd karma]

ah ok its out of stock at local shop sadly

what is difference between acrylic and polyurethane

[night tide]

Hmm, the polyurethane one might possibly stink to high heavens. Not sure.

[shrewd karma]

thats ok i wear a respirator when airbrushing

im overly cautious

@night tide would satin work aswell to a degree?

or i need to find somewhere else to buy it from cause satin is all they have

[night tide]

I use satin a lot.

Matt dulls the colours quite a bit, while gloss (if you're not looking for the shine) makes it look wet. Satin is a very nice middle ground, so that's what I use to protect the paint job.

Especially when working with thinners over acrylic.

[shrewd karma]

ok thank you

[pseudo cape]

That seems like the right amount of cautious to me. Have heard of folk coughing up paint coloured flem after spending long periods airbrushing.

[shrewd karma]

i ended up going with vallejo mecha gloss

cause someone in another server said it does metal well

[plush nebula]

Acrylic paints and the like are moderately less toxic than polyurethane, and they don't smell as bad. Wearing a mask while airbrushing, especially if you're not in a well ventilated area (and let's face it, we're all probably doing this in a room in our house without any real ventilation!) is a good idea. I've coughed up and blew my nose of colourful bogeys a few too many times. 😅

[civic roost]

I tend to just do quite short airbrushing sessions instead

[queen thunder]

What airbrush did you get?

[shrewd karma]

just some cheap one i already had a iwata neo but not very good at taking care of it so want to learn on this £16 one

[night tide]

I had a decent cheap one before, it worked just fine but it was a lot more prone to wear and was a lot harder to clean than the one I've got now.

[queen thunder]

Where did you pick that up? I do have an iwata Revolution CR, but I'd like another one just to save changing colours as much. One thing not to do (I found out the hard way) is to clean your seals with alcohol or anything like that.... It swells them and causes problems with re-assembly and operation.

[shrewd karma]

amazon will get the link 1moment

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01984G9F8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

[lament crater]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem.

[queen thunder]

Do you mean you're finding it hard to clean or keep clean?

[night tide]

Both, really. But mostly the former.

[queen thunder]

I use Vallejo airbrush cleaner between colours. Just stick a little in the cup, cover the nozzle, press the trigger and pull back slightly. It bubbles in the cup and then spray it out into my holder thing. If you're using enamel colours it needs to be enamel thinners. After use, I'll do the same then take the needle out and wipe it with thinners/airbrush cleaner then run a little more through from the cup just to make sure the inside is clear. I find that's enough.

One of these is handy to have, you can spray your dregs/cleaner into it.

[civic roost]

or just spray into the sink if you have one nearby

(i do my models in my kitchen since i don’t own a table)

[pseudo cape]

I saw a guy on YouTube that keeps a bucket of water beside his painting area and just dunks his airbrush in that as soon he's sprayed to clear it out and change colours.

[queen thunder]

There's a guy from the UK called scalemodelmedic on YT, he's not posted in a while but his content is really good for model building. He also did some promo vids for humbrol paints/ weathering powders.

[plush nebula]

I've watched a few of their vids.

[night tide]

I have all that stuff. Unfortunately I can't "bubble the cup" with my current brush.

[civic roost]

I have the same issue with my harder and steenbeck

[lament crater]

I’m fairly sure I get mine thoroughly clean but I still struggle with it bubbling and spitting. Not sure if the o-rings or the needle maybe needs to be replaced, but neither is that old or seems to be damaged. Needle’s not visibly bent and the tip looks fine. 🤷‍♂️

[queen thunder]

Ah, not come across that before. Odd! The other thing I sometimes do is use a cotton bud (q-tip) or two around the inside of the cup.

[night tide]

It's because of how the nozzle is.

[civic roost]

on harder and steenbecks, the nozzle is like this (one mo while I photo)

[civic roost]

so you can’t form a seal for sprayback

[queen thunder]

Right.... Never seen that feature before

[civic roost]

easy enough to clean otherwise, though

just have to make sure you’re on top of it

and make sure to clean the nozzle specifically

[queen thunder]

Does that design reduce any problems with tip dry?

[civic roost]

maybe

I don’t get many issues with that, but I always clean the needle post-painting

so whether it’s because of the design or because of my cleaning is not easy to tell

[queen thunder]

It tends to happen more with acrylic paints because of the quicker drying time I believe.

[civic roost]

I use acrylics but yeah

I always clean the needle pretty quickly after painting

[civic roost]

new kit is on its way

1/700 USS Enterprise (CV-6)

hype

[wary lintel]

I have started some models more than 15 years ago an never finished them. I didn't knew many of the techniques I need to finish them. But with the help of YouTube now I know what to do. My biggest problem is that I have only brushes and no airbrush. I am doing airplane models the ones I have started are f14 and the Apache helicopter.

[night tide]

Airbrush is neat and all but you don't need-need one.

I started out with Humbrol enamels as a kid and the results were so-so, but Warhammer made me switch to acrylics and it's a lot easier to get a good even coverage with brush that way.

[pseudo cape]

I'd be a terrible painter without YouTube. Without a doubt it's the only reason I'm able to hit the heady heights of quite adequate.

[pseudo cape]

Gluing sand and pebbles onto bases before priming this batch of models in my backlog

[pseudo cape]

Painted more Ork Boyz. Just two left then I've finished them.

[night tide]

Orcs are just the best.

[pseudo cape]

There's just so many of them 😭

Once my standard Boyz are finished I've got 15 stormboyz to paint, 10 or 20 beast snagga Boyz and a load of kommandos to paint. Plus a load of bigger units.

[night tide]

I've done like 30 Orcs and 26 Black Orcs for Fantasy Battles. Should do 25 Savage Orcs too to bulk out the army but the threshold for actually starting the unit is just unsurmountable.

[pseudo cape]

I've ordered some contrast paints to try and speed up getting all these Boyz variations done and other troops. Have seen some great results from friends using them lately.

At the same time I also ordered Magnus the Red as a reward if I can get them all painted, then I get to have a go at his massive wings and stupid nipple horns 😂

[lament crater]

I haven’t done any model work in a while but I got this beauty today so maybe I’ll be inspired.

And holy crap is this thing huge! I’ve really gotta start paying attention to dimensions on Amazon. 😳

[turbid fulcrum]

😂 I know the feeling

[pseudo cape]

Wow that's a big box

[plush nebula]

Imagine a 1:72 scale Enterprise...

[night tide]

No thank you, I don't have a double garage.

It would be almost exactly four meters long, for your information.

[civic roost]

different kind of enterprise

decent-sized ship

[civic roost]

waiting on Measure 11 paints for the exterior, but i have some general greys for the interior

[pseudo cape]

Finally got round to buying some contrast paints. First ork I did with them I wasn't too happy, but with a bit more heavy zenithal base coat the next two came up better. Definitely sped things up a bit (3 Boyz in a single day!) but think I still prefer normal layered paints overall

[civic roost]

i have beginned

gonna paint some lifeboats and the interior deck tomorrow

[civic roost]

very nice kit to build

fit’s good, everything just snaps into place

big fan of academy’s builds

tempted to build it with the aft lift lowered, and some aircraft in the hangar deck

that’ll be a fun setup

[lament crater]

Are their planes similar? Haven't built any of their kits but always looking for companies that are generally reliable.

[plush nebula]

I keep seeing some Academy kits of planes I like so I was planning on picking one up. I hear good things.

[civic roost]

yeah their new-tool (generally recognisable by the aircraft name being in the top-left corner of the cover art) stuff is top-notch, imo, as far as fit and ease of build goes

my B1B, F-18C, and EA-18G are all academy

great builds, the lot of em

if you’ve done the tamiya F16C? you know how the parts for that kit tend to snap into place, and tend to be sorta male-female orientated? eg. part A has a peg in it, part B has a hole, so it’s really easy to situate properly and very secure once it’s there?

Academy’s new tool stuff is very much similar

as far as I can tell, academy’s stuff is pretty accurate too

I’d say, value wise, they’re probably the best balance I’ve found

highly recommended

my Academy EA-18G, for reference

working on Enterprise, I can’t help contrasting the build with that of the prinz eugen I did a few weeks back (a Trumpeter kit)

the eugen was a battle the entire time

fiddly, lots of trouble situating parts correctly, build structure seemed kinda weird at times

fit was a bit off at times

wasn’t a fan

[lament crater]

This is really great to know. Thanks! Yeah, I love the Tamiya kits. I'd buy any of their newer ones just because their name is on it.

[plush nebula]

I have that F-16C kit. Haven't started it yet but I checked out the pieces and they are very well made.

[civic roost]

on that note, the new tamiya 1/48 F35A is on my list to do in the future

[civic roost]

you’ll love it. It’s a great kit.

[lament crater]

I've watched several YT videos on it and it's even on my future list. 😄

[civic roost]

aye, looks so good

[lament crater]

That makes two Enterprises started in here today.

[civic roost]

nice plate

[lament crater]

Isn’t it though?

[plush nebula]

Enterprise-D or bust.

(I only say this because i haven't watched all of TOS)

[lament crater]

It's the movie 1701, so no TOS needed.

[civic roost]

finding the right colours for this is a massive pain, so I’ma just go with whatever I think looks close enough lol