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.