my how things have changed

[RexCag]

Today is always a "modeling day" for me. My first model turned 51 years old today. On this date every year, I give it a lookover, and do something model related, even if it is not building. The house is quiet, Anne is at work, and our houseguests are doing the "drive him to work in order to keep the truck for today" thing. I am sitting here waiting for the Mail Snail to deliver a 2 day priority box that is two days late.

That made me think about what is in that box, as I look at that 1965 Revell Corsair. The Corsair is OOB, except for some landing gear parts it got during some "plastic surgery" a couple of years ago. You could say that it is 51, but, has had some work done later in its life.

I wound up comparing that old OOB model to what I plan to do with the resin bits in the package that should be here in an hour or so. The box contains the last few bits I need to build a Tigercat trio,,,,,,,,which was molded just a few short years after that Corsair. One Tigercat will have a resin cockpit, front and rear, a resin conversion, Quickboost replacement engines and cowlings, Starfighter resin landing gear bays, Squadron vac canopy, and when the box gets here, resin wheels and tires to replace those "Revell donut thingies" that come in the kit. Cover that 'cat with Aeromaster paints from an airbrush, Acrylic primer and Tamiya putty, then aftermarket decals with Alclad's Aqua Clear,,,,,,,,,,and it sure will be a stark contrast to that hand painted Testors square bottle Flat Sea Blue with a Future coat, also hand brushed on, that the Corsair carries after being refurbished according to the "Jeff Harrison rule."

I'm wondering just "how far off the deep end" have some of you dive into your models, comparing when you started to how you do it now?

*note, this Tigercats are not in any way unusual for me,,,,,,,it is just the way I do it today for almost all of my models.

[Thomas_M]

I no longer own the first kit I did build, Aurora´s Me 109 lookalike in raspberry plastic. It had raised rivets, no, spots! And the location of the few decals is given as raised contour all over.

But I managed to get a copy of this , my very first kit, on evilbay from the States. New, unbuilt, fresh and untouched. These days the kit has a special place in one of our cabinets.

But what´s the difference of building a kit then, as a young boy, to today? Man, almost everything is different! Being a schoolboy I got one larger kit for Christmas, usually a 4-engined Airfix kit. Christmas was almost over, but I had finished this beauty moulded in black plastic in about two days!

Thick UHU plastic glue out of those yellow tubes, no paint job to do, no decal solution, only water! What fun!

Today, there is the Internet. Things are way different now. Kits everywhere, all over the world. After market, different glues and paints, gizmos all over. Overkill sometimes...

These days, when I get a new kit, I search the Net for reviews or builds of it. I look for pictures and manuals of the thing I just got. Hours are spend in front of the screen. Hours that are lost for ... modelling!

No kit "can" be build without precut masks, photo etched parts, resin stuff. If I would do, I could think I didn´t what I could have achieved. Kills the fun, sometimes.

Back in the good ole times when TV was in monochrome, I could do a build in a day or two. Today,it takes weeks to assemble this "needed" additional stuff alone.

Sometimes, I think about sanding a gap or recess to death. Back then I simply added more of this thick Humbrol paint on the gap with a thick cheap brush until it was gone.

Fun then, the strive to perfectionism today. Sometimes I think I do something wrong. But then I go back to the bench and admire all the detail in modern kits and after market. I must build this! Where´s my knife?

[lawman56]

I think back to my first kit as well. It was Aurora's Black Knight of Nurnberg. I had picked it up in the late 70s from the gift shop at the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art. My Grandmother had taken us to see the King Tut exhibit on it's tour through the states, and had allowed us to get something from the gift shop.

Shortly after that, my uncle introduced me to 1/35 Tamiya armor, and things took off from there. By the time I joined the Army in 85, I had over 350 models of various types and scales scattered throughout my Grandmother's finished basement, where they stayed until her death in 1998.

Things were much simpler then. Everything I built was 90% OOB. Now I laugh at how crazy I can get sometimes with my detail!

Now I focus on 1/35 armor and 1/32 aircraft.

[RexCag]

I sort of meant this post to be a Pat On the Back to the aftermarket guys.

If you ever seen Monogram's "wheels" and their engine cowlings, with the engine faces molded in, you would appreciate how different things will look with the resin replacement wheels, and the separate engine and cowling set.
The same applies to the rather empty looking wheel wells up inside the engine nacelles. Monogram thoughtfully provided stark featureless cockpit sides as well, the Lone Star Conversions with the cockpit sets provide stuff to put in those places as well.

This is one set of models that I wish I could display alongside my first Tigercat model,,,,,,,but, sadly, that one did not survive as well as the Corsair did.

[Duke Maddog]

Well if this was meant to be a 'pat on the back' for aftermarket providers, then I shouldn't post here. This is because I don't get aftermarket parts at all unless I absolutely need something to finish a model that is missing something. 99% of the aftermarket I buy is decals anyway. I still build OOB as I did when I was a kid; the only main differences are that I fill and sand seams, align everything properly as best I can, airbrush my colors, weather my models and dip my canopies. In other words, I just try to perfect the basics. I don't do much research, if at all; beyond finding some info on how the subject was used and by whom. I guess I've never been bitten by this drive to make everything so perfect and detailed beyond all reckoning using every aftermarket piece in the catalog. To me, that isn't really building a model; it falls too far into modification and adjustment that I just don't care to do. If it looks like a DUCW and quacks like a DUCW; it's a DUCW!



Just my two cents.

[Thomas_M]

Only, some after market is too tempting too resist...
I must confess that, after having a new kit, I ususally have a look what after market is available for it. I am weak, I know...

[Medicman71]

Only, some after market is too tempting too resist...
I must confess that, after having a new kit, I ususally have a look what after market is available for it. I am weak, I know...

Same here. I love getting aftermarket stuff for my kits. Our model show is coming up in April and that's where I get a lot of stuff.

[RexCag]

Duke, it wasn't intended to be a pat on the back for them.

Just some musings about some of the changes in how we could do it now, that we couldn't back then.

I have dozens of kits from back then, the instructions say "blue" on the top, and "gray" on the bottom, and the decals consist of the 4 US Insignia. Now, we know which colors (and can buy them), and can get the nose art "shrunk down" to our chosen scale.

[BlackSheep214]

Like Thomas, I'd buy AM parts because I want to for certain kits in my stash - including decals. But I do have an eye on Yahu IP too. I do want to get a few of what's available. I just hate painting IP - IP decals are the worst. LOL!

[CallSignOWL]

im definetly moving towards buying more aftermarket for my kits, and making sure Im buying more of the better kits too. Im not just snapping up any kit that passes by anymore!