Hints and Tips

HINTS AND TIPS

!!!THROW THE DIRECTIONS AWAY!!!

Just kidding

First and most important rule is Tip #17

"When you are frustrated, and about to throw the model you are working on accross the room, set it down gently, and walk away for 20 minutes."

Get A Model Kit That Suits Your Skill Level

Follow The Instructions, Unless....

Get The Right Glue For You

There are many different kits for the various skill levels, and it is important to buy the proper kit for your skill level. If you dont, you can over pay for a kit that can overwhelm you. If you are a beginer, the best kinds of kits to look at purchasing are Revell-Monogram, AMT/ERTL, and Testors. More advanced kit companies include Italeri, modern Revell-Monogram kits, and Academy. The best kits on the market right now include Tamiya, Hasegawa, Trumpeter, and Academy (32nd scale). The difference in cost between the skill levels ranges from $15.00 to $40.00 to $160.00 for the best kits.

It is important to follow the instructions of the kit, unless you have previously built the kit and have a good feel for the construction of the model. The instructions can be both helpful, and sometimes a hinderance. Some things seem to be done out of order, but for the most part, they do help you out with an unfamiliar kit. The best way to apporach an unfamiliar kit is to spread the "trees" aka the "sprue" (Parts still connected from the manufacturer) out and look over the directions prior to seperating the parts from the trees. This enables you to make a plan for construction of your kit. Become familiar with the parts, and how they will go together prior to gluing. Another tip, prior to gluing pieces together is "test-fitting". Test-fit your pieces together after shaving them of any excess plastic and see if they fit together correctly or if you will have to do any modifications to the piece.

Different needs call for different glues. Testors makes the basic long dry time and not very good glue that you probably used when you were a kid. Over the years many glues have been developed and are for various purposes. Testors makes a thin, needle applicator glue that is good for quickly attaching pieces much like super glue. It is CA based which has the same properties as super glue. A company by the name of Bob Smith Industries (www.bsiadhesives.com) makes a fantastic line of glues for all uses. You can find his glues and accelerators in most of your local hobby stores. Gap filling, thin, extra thin, thick, and a debonder to seperate the CA with out damaging your kit. An accelerator spray can help set the CA glue even faster, within a second without damaging the various types of plastic. Over all, one of the best produced glues and accelerators in the market.

Painting And Weathering

Painting and weathering your model can make your model look like a plastic kit, or a smaller replica of its real counterpart. Paint apllied correctly will make your model stand out from others, and often makes the difference between a winning model and a runner up if you compete in model contests. Techniques for paint application are by brush, can, or airbrush. Different parts and levels of construction require the different application techniques. For instance, a small piece that is not a surface piece might only need to be hand painted, whereas a large surface area looks better when the it is airbrushed. Airburshing leaves the surface looking clean, evenly coated, and smooth. If you tried to hand paint the same surface, you would see brush strokes, and uneven levels of paint due to the lack of paint being applied to the surface, and the quickness of the paint drying on the surface. A spray can is good, but has its drawbacks as well. The majr drawback is that it is usually a heavy coat, and very hard to control the area of spray because the nozzel is made for a large surface cover, whereas an airbrush can be brought down to a pin point with a double action airbrush.

Weathering your model correctly can make your model a real competitor in any model contest. All too often, modelers forget that machines of the military get down and dirty in all sorts of climates and regions. Different climates and regions will "weather" these real machines of metal from sand to mud to salty-air from the sea. If you are building a tank, it should reflect its surroundings. If your are building a car, the car should be clean but the engine should reflect that it is a machine, so it will naturally have signs of oil and other fluids on it. If you are building an aircraft, it will have all sorts of evidence of its surroundings ranging from paint chips, to hydraulic fluid leaks, to oil and natural marks on the entire surface and wheel wells. The wheel wells are usually more dirty than the outer surface areas...usually. Dont forget the ordinance! The most common "mistake" modelers forget to do to the beautifully weathered aircraft is to weather the weapons, pylons, and pods which receive just as much if not more grime and dirt simply because they are never washed like the actual aircraft are.

Techniques for weathering are actually really simple....

One of the easiest techniques is to use a mechanical .05 pencil. If you follow the lines of the panels, it creates a grayish dark seperation between the two panels. Your eye perceives it as dirt and asociates it with real life differences it is used to seeing. Another techniques is taking black paint on the very tip of a thin point brush, then dipping it into thinner and touching the panel lines and letting it run down the cracks. Once you do this, you take a Q-tip or napkin and wipe it in the direction of wind. This is very common in aircraft. It creates a weathered look that you often see on aircraft that have been out to sea, or are being used in operations when cleanliness is not of importance.

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Pre-Shading

This is a great technique, and if done right will make your model look like the real thing! The technique is called pre-shading and is done with an airbrush. Basically after you have completed the construction phase of the model, and filled in your seams, before you lay down your paint, pre-shade. Step one of pre-shading is knowing what color you are going to paint your aircraft or tank. If you are painting the model a grey color, you will want to pre-shade with either black, or a dark grey. If painting your model black (such as a Stealth), then you will want to pre-shade with white or a light grey. So the rules are simple...pre-shade with the complete opposite color your model will end up! Here is an example of pre-shading being done on a 48th scale F-117 Stealth Fighter from Revell done by RFSM Member George. (This model is casted in black, it has not been painted)

You can see in this Figure A that George has accented all of the edges and even made some airframing swipes on the leading edges of the wings as you can see on the real aircraft. The next step that George does is to make pre-shading effective is misting. Misting the model with the color you want to finish the model in will give it the real weathered look that aircraft and tanks get after being exposed to the elements of Mother Nature. In the next picture you can see the differences between a pre-shaded side, and one where George has misted over half of the model with flat black, the Stealth's actual color scheme. When you mist the model, you want the paint mix to be thin, which allows you to spray your model in a misting technique at least 2 feet from the model. This allows the paint to lightly coat the area, but not dry in the air before it reaches the surface. Paint that is too thick will dry and create an orange peel texture....Not Good!!!

Here in Figure B, you can see what it looks like on half of the model.

Figure B shows half of the Stealth with the misted technique. You can clearly see the faint contrasts on the edges of the panels, where as if the model were painted flat black with no shading, the eye would loose the angles of the panel lines. In Figure C George's airframe lines on the leading edges of the wings are seen and immediately draw the eye towards them, bringing out detail and adding definition to the model that otherwise would have been over looked.