Let's get started

Hello good peps, 
Let's carry on our preparations to build our model. 
We know the tools we need, we are aware of how to read the manual and we know that we need to do a good research to achieve our goal of a perfect model.
The first step to do so might sound crazy to you but I can assure that works. On opening your box, you are gone find the plastic sprues were the parts are attached. Those sprues are injected into moulds, and for them to come out easily from the moulds, they need to be sprayed with some kind of release agent. This agent has a lot of greases that doesn't let the plastic get stuck in the mould. So basically what is going to happen is that even though the sprues go through some type of washing to remove the release agent, is more than certain that some of it will still be stuck into it. So here we go, we need a bowl with warm water and dishwasher detergent. Dip the sprues into it, scrub it with a toothbrush and once finished let it dry thoroughly. 
With the sprues dry, it's time to get the tools out to start separating the parts from the sprues.

On this stage, you will need the knife, the cutter, file and sandpaper.

First in line is the cutter,  and the right way to do this is to cut a little bit into the sprue, as in the picture. This will allow you to have some extra plastic on the part, then using the knife or a file, remove the rest of the plastic.


This process will allow you to have more control so that you don't end with some plastic missing from the part that you are preparing. If you cut to close to the part instead of leaving some sprue on you can end up with a "hole" that later you will have to used loads of filler to fill it.


And this is it if you did everything as you should you will end up with a very smooth part that doesn't need any more work done to it.
This comes to prove you that the preparation of the parts is very important to achieve a great result with minimum effort.
Hope you guys are finding this useful.
See you all soon.

The Research

Hi all. 
Here I'm again to give you some more tip's. Today we gone stress the importance of a good research in order to obtain the best result possible.
Has I have mentioned in the last post about the manual, we should never take for granted the inflammations that are provided by the manufactures. Like everything in life, they are bound to fail as well, and this is where the research pays off. 
The first step for this is to decide which version of the model you want to build, has an example, on the warplanes, you can check the version you want to build, the pilot, the theatre that it was operated and the time frame that was used. At this moment you might be thinking, why on earth do I need all of this?
The explanation is extensive but of easy comprehension. The version will give you the paint scheme information, the country that operated for, the kind of armament that usually would carry and the type of markings that were used for that version.
The pilot will provide you with additional information, like personal markings of the pilot.
The war theatre that the plane operated, will give you further information on the camouflage and type of weathering that you will need to do, for example, the same model of plane that operated in Europe, will have a different camouflage if operating in the north of Africa. Following this line, the weathering will be different as well. The year that you want to do is also very important and sometimes (not very often) the markings could change. 
With all of this you have a lot of information already that will allow you to build a very good model, but if you want to be even more thorough, you can go online and research the blueprints for the plane that you want to build. 
On the following website, you can find the blueprints for the Spitfire.
http://www.modelairplanenews.com/william-wylam-march-9-1915-june-4-2015/
On this, you can see the lines of the rivets, air intakes and many other things that you can check your model.


Another situation were researching is very important is were you try to build a model that doesn't exist on the market, for example, if you want to build the Merlin EH- 101 from the Portuguese Navy, you will not be gone find an exact model for the Portuguese version, and with a bit of research, yo will find that you need to cover one window, add the winch on for the SAR(Search and Rescue) version, you will need as well to add a search light on the right side, a radar on the helicopter belly, and this are just a few. With this, I want to prove the point that every country has their own specification.You can think to yourself that grabbing a box of one Merlin EH-101, find some decals and that is it. Well, at least this what a modeller that doesn't do his research will think. In our case this will not happen, as we have done our homework, and, we are aware of all these little additions that need to be done.
Another source of research and inspiration are the books, sometimes they are brought to us on the first person, one pilot or one maintenance engineer that worked with the aeroplanes and knows them like the back of their hands. They are the best persons to give us accurate information about our project.

I think that by now we all understand the importance of a good research. Usually, I follow the principle that, if you are on the Hobie just to glue plastic, then this research thing is a waste of time. If like me you want to achieve the closest possible with the reality then you need to do all of this research. I know that it is boring but is a fundamental part of the process.
Hope you all like this piece.
Thanks.

Instruction Manual

Hi Guys

Here I’m again with another entry for the modelling essentials. This time I will be in depth through the instructions manual.
This is a vital part of your new model kit, as this will provide you, the sequence of building to your model. We do have various types of manuals, some in black and white, others in colour. They can have also different ways to present you the drawings, some might present them in 2D others in 3D. No matter what, the final target is to lead you through the construction on the most logical order that the manufacturer thinks you will achieve the best results.

The second function of your manual is to provide you with the paint scheme, this is often found on the last page of the manual, or if the new starter set’s from Airfix you will find it on the back of the box. Once again this can be in colour, you will find that the colour ones are easy to understand but with time and practice, you will understand the B&W ones as easy to follow as the others. Beware that some parts, like cockpit or landing gear bays, need to be painted on the assembly stage, the manual will indicate you the numbers of the reference that you need in order to paint the part. As we are in the paint subject, some manufacturers can provide you with their own brand references, while others will give you an array of other brands as option, if you only have the manufacturers own brand, you can try to find some equivalences for them, for that you have an APP named Hobby Colour Converter, that have a vast collection of brands and their equivalences, making your job easier. Last thing on this subject refers to the accuracy of the guide, sometimes the colours shown are not the most correct so as anything else a great dose of research is advised. The Internet is a great place to find them.
Last but not the least, you will find the reference as well for you decals, this usually is together with the paint scheme and easy to follow, you decal sheet is numbered, and you just have to follow the order and be careful to not mess them around. Further ahead on this blog we will approach the decal.

On the middle of all of this, you will find symbols like question marks, a knife, a drill etc. This is to tell you that you have an extra option on that step, you can find this symbols on the second page of the manual usually,

In conclusion,
The manual is one of the most important parts of the kit, remember to follow through it, but, always with a little bit of reserve. If you find a way that works better for you, stick to it, the main purpose of this hobby is to have fun and not stress.
Most important of all and a gold rule, study you assembly instructions and plan your construction.
Hope you guys find this useful.
See you all next time.

The almost perfect building.

December 23, 2017

You know those later builds that are going so well, that you think, this is gonna be my best build?

Right at the moment, I have one of those on my bench, the Gruman F4-F from Airfix, this is being a treat, had some issues with the cockpit but apart from that, all going well. Paint worked as a treat. Decals even after I have placed in the bin(yes I have bined the decals) went really well on the aeroplane, weathering very light and looking a treat. But, as always, disaster strikes again. I have opted for the folded wings option. Started glueing the first one and all was good. Applied the glue on the triangle on the plane, placed the wing and have held it with a clamp, so far so good. Left it for a day drying and on the next day went for glueing the second one. Same procedure as above but when I removed the clamp nasty surprise arrises, the glue runner under the clamp leaving a nasty mark on the paintwork.

So, now is back to the sanding and painting. 

Will try with a 3000 grit sandpaper and paint on top again, but not sure if it will go down well. 

Stay tuned to further developments. 

Thanks 

Step 3 Final goods needed

Hi guys

I'm back to go with you all through the last few bota that we need to start producing, we have so far covered the pliers to cut the plastic from the sprues, the tweezers and the clamps. So time now for the last bits, and at least one of them brings a great discussion to the modelling world.

First things first we start with the component that ensures that all your components stay secure in place once you remove the clamps, that's it you may have guessed by now, I'm talking about the glue.

There is a few brands and types available on the market as you can see on the picture.

You will have people saying that they are all the same but not quite, on my personal case, I use the Revell and the Humbrol with the thin needle for “big” jobs where we have more space to work and there isn't so much risk of the glue spill out and damage your model, some say that the adhesive power is greater as well on these ones. Then you have the Tamiya thin that is the one that I most commonly use, this glue comes with a tiny brush inside that allows you to have super control of the application, usually you place the parts together and then add the glue on the seem and the penetrating power of this glue weld the plastic together.

And there you go, the basis of the glue is covered, time to move another must have on your bench for starters, a couple of knives.

On the picture, you can see 2 types of knives, the chirurgical style and the traditional Xacto. There is plenty of blades available but once again in my personal case, I preferred the thing end ones as you can do most of the jobs with this ones. The main thing to get the best out of them is to keep them sharp so that they can look after you. Careful that sharp knives usually mean deeper cuts hahaha.

And finally, we find ourselves on one of the biggest controversies of the model scale beginners, paint brushes or airbrush???

Personally, I always say you should go for the airbrush, difficult to get started but once you get the hang of it you can manage to get awesome paint jobs.

On the picture, you can see 2 of my beauties. The double action badger with a fine tip and the Aztec. The Aztec has a particularly that is it can do either single action or double action on the same airbrush. At the moment you might be asking what means the double and the single action.

A single action airbrush, once you press the trigger, the air mixes with the paint straight away, and the more you press it down, the .ore air/paint you have. On the double action, when you press the trigger the air comes out, but the paint only starts mixing when you pull the trigger back, the more you pull back the more paint you get. So it's is really a matter of personal taste. Most of the people on the hobby reckons that the double action ones are the better. Personally, I like both so I'm suspect on the subject.

Do not forget that this does not invalidate the fact that we need some paint brushes, in order to paint the figure of the pilot on that 1/72 model or the small details on the cockpit on the aeroplane.

Now we are ready to start producing models, so on the next step We will be starting to build a spitfire at 1/72 were we are going into depth to all that we talked on this step and the other previous 2.

Hope you guys like it, Will try to keep it simple so that is easy to follow.

See you guys soon.

The second step.

Hi guys, 
I'm back again. After a brief introduction the the start on the art of building model kits, we are now moving on to the next steps, once you decided what you want to do, is time to start preparing your bench for the construction of your future model, for that you will need some key elements such as a good light, some essential tools and some consumables.
As for the light, I can advise this lamp (https://www.shesto.co.uk/lighting-magnification-1/lamps/lightcraft-triple-tube-professional-task-lamp/) as this is a daylight lamp and will give a great visibility for your build. You can always opt for other different lights but I would advise you guys to always choose the daylight type.

Now that we can see we need to focus on how we are going to build the model, and for that, you need some essential tools such as snippet pliers, tweezers sandpapers wet and dry and a knife. In order to obtain a great finish, you need a good preparation and that is why these tools are so important. On the picture I have placed the 2 types of pliers that you can get, the first one is a manicure one that you can buy in any shop that sells cosmetics or beauty products, the second one is a proper modelling one that you can get on any model shop for almost the same price as the first one and is a lot better.

So with the cutting sorted, we need something to hold the parts for placing them on to the model. For that we use tweezers.

On the picture on the left you can see the 5 types of tweezers that I use, from left to right we have the flat end(one) the spring tweezers(two) the curved thin(3) the straight thin(4) and another thin end which is narrowed on the end to fit in smaller places(5)

This is going to be your best friends during the construction as I said above to place the parts on the model to make a dry-fit or glue them. They are very useful as well if you need to paint some small part.

Another very important tool is some small clamps as shown in the picture.

These are useful when you need to hold parts in place during the time that the glue takes to dry. They are as they old and make pressure ensuring that you get a tight bound for your parts.

You can find these ones in a Poundland shop if you leave in the UK if you live outside the UK, you probably can easily find them at a euro shop.

With this we have almost all our essentials covered, on the next step I will try to present you the remaining ones that we need and by step 4 we will be starting a construction where you can see all of this action and better understand their function.

See you all soon.

Introduction to the world of plastic Modelling 

Hi all, in the first place would like to say a big hello to all of you following my blog. In second place let me guide you a little through the world of the plastic models. 

Through this blog I will try to guide the novice people through the fantastic world of model building, starting with essentials, theme, scale tools needed and once all this is covered I will advance for some tips. 

This is a hobby that requires a lot of patience in first place and a lot of persistence, don’t think that you gone start building a model and you will achieve great results straight away, but the beauty of this hobby is that with persistence and willing   you can achieve great results. 

When I started my journey through the build of plastic models, I didn't had a clue of what I was entering, I thought to myself, how hard cant his be, and let me tell you, it is bloody hard. 

In the first place you have to face the decision of what you gone build, Armour, airplanes and on this one you have a wide variety of themes and decades that you can concentrate yourself from WW2 to Vietnam, modern fighters and so on. You can go as well to the civil models such as cars or bikes, but I think that by this point you can see that it's not easy to choose a theme.  

Assuming that you have chosen your theme of choice, now comes another decision, the scale that you want to build. On this field you have to decide carefully, if you have unlimited space you can go with 1/24 or 1/35 scale if like me your space is limited you can go with 1/72 or 1/144. 

In my personal case, I have decided to build what have would please me. My main focus is the Portuguese Air Force but also have a go on all the other areas of modelling, having built already some ships, tanks and some cars.

Well after choosing theme and scale, comes the so much waited build, but till we start it we need to cover some more points, after all the essentials covered will start a build of an iconic spitfire so that we can go through all the steps together. On the next post I will try to cover all the tools that we need to begin our adventure. 

See you all next time and hope you enjoyed the reading.