Any scale modelers out there?
 

My son has recently gotten the model bug. Since he's 5, most of the actual building of the model falls to me. I'm not too upset by this, since I was a pretty avid modeler in my youth as well.

Anyone out there into scale modeling?

Care to share any projects?

Also, anyone have any suggestions on a decent starter airbrush? After I finish this NASCAR car, I have a 1/48 scale Spitfire in the wings. I have never done any airbrushing before, but since WWII aircraft are my favorite models to build I think an airbrush would be a reasonable investment.

I still do but with work, a child and the 911, I dont seem to turn them out like I used to. Everything gets sold on Ebay to help supplement the 911 bug!

Here is a couple of mine - I do 1/35 Armor.

Tiger I
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218758580.jpg
Panzer IV E
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218758599.jpg
German T34(R)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218758614.jpg
Panzer II Luchs
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218758706.jpg

I actually have a Tamiya 1/12 scale 934 model (the Jagermeister car) that I have been meaning to drag out and start building.

The last thing I built was a 1/48th scale WW2 F4U Corsair. We accidently left our digital camera with a friend - maybe I'll take a cell phone pic.

I have built one wooden ship model, 1/4" scale, have another in progress, 14 gun American brig.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218759754.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218760094.jpg

Wow Dave, those are amazing!

I also give props to Mark on the wooden ships, I have always wanted to tackle a wooden ship but never got the nerve up...

Thanks N'sD. And yes Dave those are awesome.!
It's really fun making the spares and such. Each cannon took about 1 1/2 hours to rig, and people say I don't have patience!!

I love building models :)... can't paint worth a damn though :(.

Nice work guys ;).

Thanks! I love those ships!!! I wish I could do that!

Here is a picture of the Tiger before I painted it. It shows how much time and detail I put in them.

A lot of photo-etch brass parts that have to be bent to shape and then worn for realism. It also has a turned aluminum 88 barrel.

The hardest part is the Zimmeritt. This was anti-mine paste (like cement) that was hand applied at the factory and only on the vertical areas. Most mid and late model Tigers (and other German tanks) received this treatment. As the tank was used in battle it tended to chip off. I replicated this with putty.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218764440.jpg

you guys have way too much time and patience. I suggest more coffee and kids :p

I do scale radio control model airplanes. I've got the competition bug but have only been competing on the 'fun' scale level which is mostly just flying scale-like airplanes.

I'm working on moving up into an actual judged class in 2010 or so. I'm contemplating my first competition model.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218768926.jpg

Since my early teens, I was into RC cars. I simply loved building them, tweaking with gear ratios, using different wheels/tires. Back then most cars were electric, now everything seems to be gas. I was borderline addicted. My favorite car was the RC-10. I also had an RC-12 and many other Bolink street racers.

Nathans_dad,

When I painted one of my tactical shot guns, using the Dura Coat finish, I purchased an airbrush and a small compressor. It worked perfectly for what I was doing, meaning, I didn't want to lay down lots of paint.

I have the Fusion F1 Air Compressor like this:
http://www.dickblick.com/zz251/28/

I have teh Paasch Model H airbrush, like this:
http://www.dickblick.com/zz250/05b/

I hope that helps.

Bill

I ordered the Paasche H kit today from Tower Hobbies. Got the whole thing for $50 which is a decent price I think.

I plan to hook it up to my garage compressor, I'm not worried too much about the noise (it only runs intermittently to charge the holding chamber) since there's no way my wife would let me airbrush in the house, lol.

I'm excited to try all these finishing techniques I have been seeing on these great looking models!

When I was in middle and high school I was an avid model builder. My holy grail of models was the 1/12 Tamiya Porsche 935 which I never actually completed. I had it in partial build status till I moved off to college. So sad. I was into the 18 wheel trucks and WWII Allied bombers before that. Sorry, no pictures.

Here's the one I have:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218800079.jpg

I'm hoping to get around to working on it soon.

Don't fret guys. My wife at the time bought the first ship for me. I started it in RI, moved to Mi. where I worked on it, finally completed it once I moved to NH. and cased it when I moved here to Ct. A span of more than a few years. Moving companies always crated it, (I made sure), very well and arrived intact. I bought the second one more than 20 years ago! I haven't worked on it in more than a year but this thread may help motivate me to finish it this winter. Getting all excited about it again. Shot, maybe a build thread in OT :D

Thats a $200+ kit! Those 1/12 scale Tamiya's are spensive!

Yeah, but once you build one, it'll ruin you for everything else. I was first given one as a kid, around 1970 or so, and it opened a whole new world to me. The size, the quality of the parts...

Nowadays, 1/8th scale is the holy grail. Believe it or not, you can spend thousands on a kit and related "transkits," which offer a level of detail unimaginable in my youth. Of course, you need hundreds, if not thousands, of hours to build one properly.

I have a bunch saved up in my warehouse, if I ever finish all of the crap on my to-do list and can afford to spend time building models again.

JR

I bought it years ago off of ebay for $50 (after it was NLA, IIRC). I haven't had time to start it, but plan to soon.

I also have a Tamiya 962 model (1/24th scale, I believe) that I also bought a Jagermeister decal kit for and various Revell 911 models. Now I just need to build them...

I also love 1/35th scale military stuff, but haven't built any of those since I was a kid. They used to make alot of 1/32 scale WW2 fighter plane models. Those were cool and a great size. I had a P-51 that had actually retracting landing gear (via a small wheel you turned on the bottom), a P-40 "Flying Tigers" and a Corsair with wings that retracted also. I had a bunch of 1/48th scale stuff too - even a B-52. Even in 1/48 it was big.

We didn't have much money when I was a kid, but models only cost about $3-$4 each, so I built them all the time.

Yeah I was a little bummed when I went looking for WWII planes. There is actually not much available in 1/32 which is the scale I would really prefer to build in. Everything is 1/48 so I guess I will do 1/48.

Funny thing is my son just wanted some airplanes to hang from his ceiling...of course that is just a silly idea, I have to build the best quality, fully detailed model out there...yeesh, I think I have a sickness or something...

The sickness metastasizes (sp?) when you start building what my Dad used to call "stick models" - those model airplanes made of balsa and covered in paper. I did a couple of those and finally decided that was just too much. I'll stick with plastic.

Oh I have dabbled in R/C airplanes before. I have two R/C kits in the garage, possibly to be started this fall/winter.

My problem is I get too nervous when flying a model I have built. I guess that's why static models have always appealed to me, they offer a somewhat mindless and detail oriented activity and then when you're done you just put them on a shelf and ooh and aah at them...

You guys trying to tell me there are other uses for models besides stuffing them with firecrackers?

Funny, I'm exactly the opposite. I used to fly the ones my dad built. I never had the patience to build them...I just wanted to fly them. Same with my car - I never wanted to work on it, just wanted to race it.

Oh, look...something shiny!!! :p

I just buy the real thing now...

You were into model spoons as a child?

Wow, Tabs has a WWII vintage Tiger Tank??

Suhweet!! Lets see pics!

So buy some premade airplanes to fly - you'll care less about them and build your flying skill enough to where you're more confident.

At this point I've been doing it so long that I don't crash very often. I also am confident enough and know that even if I do - it's just an airplane. I can make more.

I started with an ARF trainer then went to built models. Currently I have a Four Star 40 in the box waiting to be started. This will be my 2nd four star, I've flown my trainer, a Four Star 40 and a Sig Somethin Extra. I also built a 60 size Chipmunk but never flew it.

The Four star is such an easy handling airplane I figured it would be ok as a "getting back into it" plane after about 2 years off of flying.

I still get the jitters when I fly though...

Every modeler should have a 4*40 (or 60, 0r 120), they are one of the finest planes out there.

I've had 3 in the last 10 years. I've got another 40 sized one in line on the building board next.

My favorite was my 4*120 which I got from an estate sale. It was already 10 years old when I got it and showing age but it flew wonderfully for many more years. I passed it on to another fellow modeler who needed it more than I.

Jitters come and go, I thought I was a rock until recently. I just finished a Sig P51 ARF and getting the first few flights in I had some radio issues. Since then I just have not been totally comfortable with the airplane but it gets better with every flight now that the radio is working right.

Seems like an opportunity to revive this thread. With more time lurking at home, I've bought a pre-dreadnought battleship model to build...

Andyone else getting back to building scale models?

Tech,
Which pre-dreadnaught battleship?
In January I sold my HO train setup and stripped out the room and refinished it. I dug out some old kits I had stored, some Porsches (904, 914 & 959) and airplanes and about a dozen cars I had built when I was in my teens. I was amazed they survived.
The airplanes are balsa stick and paper. One is a spitfire , the other is an early model P 47. I am thinking I may try to modify it to a later production model with the cut down after fuselage and bubble canopy. I have also been toying with the idea of covering it with aluminum foil. Hmmm.

Best
Les

I got the IRN Tsesarevich 1/350. Russian ship built by France(!)...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587335614.jpg

I’m thinking about getting this model.

Need to run it by the boss first.

https://i.postimg.cc/xd97n9bD/284-DD...9672-B48-E.jpg

This guys SR 71 build is monumental
http://https://www.mmrca.org/lance/sledframe.html

Rich

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DQR5xrblVo

When I was in college I built an example of all the planes used in the Battle of Britain. I got obsessed and put correct unit insignia on all of them. I don't know what happened to them all.

Model builder.......
 

Here are a couple of 1/8 scale models that I built years ago (1978-9!). Fortunately, I decided to put them in display cases to protect them. They are two of the Pocher Alfa Romeo 8C3200 cars from the 1930s. The Monza (race car) was the least complicated and it had over 2,000 parts! The Spyder (street car) has over 2500 parts! Door handles work, upholstery is leather, brake shoes expand when the brake pedal is pressed, on the Spyder putting the key in the ignition switch turns on the headlights, turn the engine crank and the pistons go up and down, the steering works as do the hood latches. On the Monza, the brakes work, steering works, the knockoffs for the wheels work and allow removing the wheel and brake drum, the steering wheel is leather wrapped and the exhaust is wrapped to protect the drivers arm. The wheels were assembled and painted and then disassembled and the spokes and spoke nipples installed. Each wheel has about 150 parts! The hood emblem is painted and has 7 colors like the original and I made a head gasket for the engine by using the bottom of the cylinder head and an ink pad. Once the ink dried, I cut out the circles to match the tops of the cylinders. I had some screws left over so I drilled out the plastic spark plugs, put a tiny screw through the head and added a small piece of white wire insulation. Makes for some very real looking spark plugs! Some pictures:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587342731.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587342909.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587342986.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587343068.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587343317.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587343171.jpg

The big news in modeling in the last few months, aside from the Airfix Hellcat in 1/24 scale(!) has been the 1/200 scale Titanic from Trumpeter. This thing is as big as the Titanic, ha ha!

Spendy, but it will probably take a long long time to assemble and paint.

Also, if you haven't heard, the Wingnut Wings company has gone toes up, so get your hands on any of those if you're a WW1 airplane modeler, because those are fantastic kits, and they ain't makin' them anymore.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587347632.png

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587347907.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587347922.jpg