Model Kits C/D, S/D

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http://ilx.thehold.net/thread.php?msgid=2432

Continuing on from the above. Model Kits y'all. Apart from Lego (which is God according to ILX Hivemind [I agree] and has plenty of it's own threads) what are everyone's feelings or memories regarding honest to goodness model kits. You know the kind: comic-like instructions, glue, fingersmudged paint, wonky decals, never looked like the box.

Except sometimes it did. Sometimes you'd make something (in my case the first time was a Tamiya M-16 kit) and it was right you know? It looked to scale, the weathering was spot on and the decals looked painted on.

I moved away from planes to armoured vehicles because they took less space on the shelves and the accompanying figure packs that Dragon and Tamiya were coming out with were original and funky. Also Airfix, all nostalgia aside, were craply molded with large chunks of extra plastic to shave off. I never got into boats except a "PT Boat" in 1/32 which looked terrible under all the grey paint. Never bothered with resin, I was a modeller but only in the most amateurish of ways.

So come on people tell us all about your models be they R/C, resin, plastic, balsa or even matches. Were you a slave to instructions or a free spirit? Do you still have any (mine are boxed away with the parents)? If so, pics please. What were your preffered brands/types of vehicle/era?

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Thursday, 7 September 2006 12:13 (nineteen years ago)

Oh crap, I forgot Revell. Great for getting started but man were they terrible when you started to try to build a scale model rather than a toy! Hark at the purist, it's not even like I was that good!

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Thursday, 7 September 2006 12:16 (nineteen years ago)

Would look at these kits and drool until I realized there was no way I could actually build it.

http://www.historicships.com/TALLSHIPS/Latina/IMAGES/SAN_JUAN_NEPOMUCENO_AL20720.jpg

I would usually settle for a bi-plane or one of these

http://tamiya.com/english/products/56012kubelwagen/kubelwagen.jpg

Destroy: Testors paint. Way too glossy.

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

Wasn't much of a fan of those things, too much like work! Ditto biplanes, keeping the top wing level with the bottom wing while keeping the struts properly perpendicular or at the correct angle? Nightmare!!!

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Thursday, 7 September 2006 15:02 (nineteen years ago)

ah the Albatross. Bi-planes were a cinch!

http://arizonamodels.com/images/albatross-d2-600.jpg

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 7 September 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

The Chance Vought F4U Corsair (of which I'm sure there are pictures but I can't do the linky pics thing) was a total bugger to get the wings level on.

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Thursday, 7 September 2006 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

I got all nostalgic, and bought an Airfix 1/72 Westland Lysander the other day. I forgot to buy glue or paint though. On the side of the box, it listed 14 different humbrol paint colours (all at a quid each) - the kit itself only cost £4.99, quite an expensive little thing, if I buy them all! Also I was surprised at how small it was.

The most excited I ever remember being as a kid was the Tamiya King Tiger. I saved up for weeks to buy it, and when I finished assembling and painting it, it was the most badass looking thing imaginable. The mosdt fucked thing about ww2 models etc was that the coolest technology by far (king tiger, me262, dornier "pfeil") belonged to the bad guys.

In retrospect, the ones I remember best were Heller's range of between-the wars french aircraft, which were really elegant, and that range of Matchbox tanks that came with little dioramas that you could stand them on when you'd finished making them. I still get tempted to pick up a set of them (Revell makes them now)

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 7 September 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

ww2 american carrier planes were cool b/c they had that lovely-looking colourscheme - white on the bottom, pale blue in the middle, dark blue on the top.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 7 September 2006 15:22 (nineteen years ago)

The Corsair had the folding wings!

It was my painting skillz that kept me from being a pro modeler. Also, the brain damage from the glue.

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 7 September 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

I was into buildin whitemetal tram and train kits. Often some filling was needed to get the parts to mate properly.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 7 September 2006 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

Airfix HMS Fearless! With little landing craft and helicopters included!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 7 September 2006 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

For a quick and geeky fix, I started to do the Gundam model kits. The larger ones are fairly well made. They were articulated, so it was basically like building a custom action figure. Way more fun than I thought it would be!

― patita (patita), Thursday, 7 September 2006 17:22 (nineteen years ago)

wtf? i'm not a model.

― it's teh_kit! (g-kit), Thursday, 7 September 2006 17:29 (nineteen years ago)

I built a pretty AWESOME one of King-Kong. The local Mormon temple vistors' center displayed gingerbread houses every year. I made one of King Kong model demolishing a wee gingerbread house. That was the greatest acheivement of my life.

― Abbott (Abbott), Thursday, 7 September 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

range of Matchbox tanks that came with little dioramas that you could stand them on when you'd finished making them.

I built a few of those. The one I was happiest with was the M3 tank as I was on summer hols but the kit and diorama base were in the proper sandy muddy colour so it looked fairly accurate.

I made a lancaster with my mother once. It was not a success but that was through my desire to play with it before it was really finished than anything else! I always liked the B-17, someday I'll try another. I keep meaning to pick up all the equipment, I'm an adult and can afford these things dammit!

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 8 September 2006 07:10 (nineteen years ago)

the one i remember was an F-14 Tomcat complete with swing wings. 'pigeon grey' was the official name for the colour of most of it. also had quite a large american truck, a Mac i think, for christmas one year. took me a while to figure that building these things as fast as you could wasn't the point of them.

― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Friday, 8 September 2006 07:31 (nineteen years ago)

So true. I did the Revell F-14 I think. It had a kind of T bar and slide for the wings. Mine was 1:72

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 8 September 2006 07:33 (nineteen years ago)

I bought this airfix kit of Wallace and Gromit's plane, motorbike and sidecar for my Other Half last Christmas, and I'm STILL waiting for him to assemble it for me :(

http://www.frontiermodels.co.uk/images/products/Airfix%20Gromit.jpg

― C J (C J), Friday, 8 September 2006 12:47 (nineteen years ago)

> It had a kind of T bar and slide for the wings

mine must've been different as this one had the wings sat on a pivot and their hidden ends were cog-toothed to ensure they were always both similarly swung.

this does't ring a bell:
http://www.abcmodelsport.net/p348829/Airfix-05013G-1/72-Grumman-F14-Tomcat.html
decals are right but box picture not familiar. mine didn't come with paint either - distinctly remember the pigeon grey in 'proper' Humbrol tins.

brother had one of these, probably bought at the same time:
http://www.abcmodelsport.net/p348307/Airfix-01030G-1/72-Messerschmitt-Me262.html
which i always coveted. looks very sharky.

had some tanks too, including one of those WW1 tanks with no turret. this was 1977, around then.

― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

I want an SDF-1 model!

― Machibuse '80 (ex machina), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

I built a German plane out of a balsawood kit when I was about 11, and covered it in tissue paper and cellulose dope as per the instructions. It never flew, because I'd forgotten to add the elastic band to power the propellor at a suitably early stage in construction.

Later on, I graduated to Parkside Dundas rolling stock kits. In fact, I still have a stock of unbuilt ones that I keep meaning to go back to, and build with sprung underframes rather than the supplied rigid ones.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

Are trains very satisfying to build? What I mean is: is it the actual train or the setting or recreating an environment that's more important?

When I was very young I had a kit of a cross channel plane that opened at the front and could carry cars. Anyone any clue? The set was vintage and all, feel a bit guilty now.

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

is it the actual train or the setting or recreating an environment that's more important?

Um, it depends. Some people like building the trains; some like building the railway to run it on; some just like running them.

Personally, I prefer the latter, because I'm not good enough to build models as good as I'd like them to look.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

I get you, thanks.

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

i could sell all you motherfuckers some scenery.

― teh_kit is a pantomime villain! (g-kit), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:31 (nineteen years ago)

I loved these when I was a kid, but didn't always have the patience. My Dad, apparently some sort of model kit rockist, kept trying to push balsa-wood kits on me over the plastic stuff.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:31 (nineteen years ago)

i could sell all you motherfuckers some scenery.

??? Could I have an alp please?

My Dad, apparently some sort of model kit rockist, kept trying to push balsa-wood kits on me over the plastic stuff.

Why did your dad hate fun?

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

sorry, i am drawn to this thread. i work with model stuff, and there's KIT all over the place. it's quite welcoming.

an alp? what's an alp?

― teh_kit is a pantomime villain! (g-kit), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

that range of Matchbox tanks that came with little dioramas that you could stand them on when you'd finished making them

OTM

i never liked jet planes, couldn't get into them.

― a rapper singing about hos and bitches and money (Enrique), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

an alp? what's an alp?

A mountain in a the alpine range I guess (please say that makes sense to everyone, the clunky sentence has struck again)

What kind of models? Do you make them professionally or something?

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

yes, but i don't like to talk about specifics.
anonymity etc. however you spell it.

― teh_kit is a pantomime villain! (g-kit), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

I understand. What are your preferred models without discussing work if possible?

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

well, that's the real trick, isn't it?
i work with models, logically, therefore, i can't stand the sight of them.

― teh_kit is a pantomime villain! (g-kit), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

I read somewhere (I think in the works of Terry Pratchett) that "alp" is the standard unit for belief - a belief of one alp is strong enough to move one alpine mountain.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:51 (nineteen years ago)

i have egyptian pyramids.

― teh_kit is a pantomime villain! (g-kit), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

Ha ha ha! Was it an interest that brought you into it or were you uninterested before you started?

(xpost) brilliant.

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

> some sort of model kit rockist, kept trying to push balsa-wood kits

balsa wood is pretty tame in model buillding rockist terms. i don't know why but i read a lot of scratch build model railway magazines as a kid and that stuff is serious shit, handrails made from fuse wire etc.

― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Friday, 8 September 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

Mmm, model railway people rarely use balsa because its grain is just too large.

I'm a member of the Scalefour Society, which has a probably deserved reputation for consisting of some of the biggest rockists in the business. Our nominal track gauge, for example, is specified to .01mm (I can't remember off the top of my head what the tolerance is, but we're considered model rockists just for having formally defined tolerances)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 8 September 2006 15:02 (nineteen years ago)

nine months pass...

Bump because I picked up the Revell catalogue a while ago and there was a model of a Laser dinghy! WTF?

A second cousin of mine makes these incredible competition level models, it makes me both envious and relieved that I never stuck with it as more than a hobby (albeit a serious one in my teens).

What was everyone's most ambitious project? Mine was either the 1/48 Corsair or the 1/48 set of four identical F16s of the Thunderbirds. The former went well, the latter I didn't bother my hole painting in the end :(

― kv_nol, Thursday, 5 July 2007 23:16 (eighteen years ago)

five years pass...

A fleet of nearly 500 warships. Made out of matchsticks. All handpainted..

― hyggeligt, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 19:44 (thirteen years ago)

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dio/collection/matchbox-pw/images/100_6290.jpg
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dio/collection/matchbox-pw/pages/100_6256.htm
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dio/collection/matchbox-pw/images/000_6301.jpg

Child's reaction in 3rd shot totally OTM.

― hyggeligt, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 19:47 (thirteen years ago)

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dio/collection/matchbox-pw/images/100_6256.jpg

― hyggeligt, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 19:48 (thirteen years ago)

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dio/collection/matchbox-pw/images/100_6261.jpg

― hyggeligt, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 19:48 (thirteen years ago)

These custom car kits ruled my fever dreams up until I discovered rock and roll. (Well, actually after: Monkeemobile.)

http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/kits/images/CarMonogram/mono-baron-bilt1.JPG

― Ermahgerd Thomas (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 21 August 2012 19:55 (thirteen years ago)

That looks like something Lemmy would drive if he made a guest appearance in a Peanuts cartoon.

― no-one seemed to hear him so he leafed through a magazine (snoball), Tuesday, 21 August 2012 20:00 (thirteen years ago)

Ha! Man, I loved these things so much...

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt297/redlinesredlines/MonogramPieWagon062.jpg

― Ermahgerd Thomas (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 21 August 2012 20:04 (thirteen years ago)

I would very much like to eat whatever pies such a fine wagon would be offering.

Were they plastic or was there metal detailing? I can imagine the helmet on the Red Baron was a bugger to polish (oo-er missus, etc.).

― hyggeligt, Sunday, 26 August 2012 08:05 (thirteen years ago)

The brass parts are usually photo-etched brass (a method for making small detailed parts similar to circuit board etching), the 'chrome' parts are metalised plastic.

― no-one seemed to hear him so he leafed through a magazine (snoball), Sunday, 26 August 2012 08:28 (thirteen years ago)

Although sometimes when a part is just a rod, it'll be a plain piece of tube made from brass or aluminium.

― no-one seemed to hear him so he leafed through a magazine (snoball), Sunday, 26 August 2012 08:31 (thirteen years ago)

Photo etched brass is a bit of a pain. Those sound far more builder-friendly than most.

― hyggeligt, Sunday, 26 August 2012 08:52 (thirteen years ago)

I made a few of those Tom Daniels kits a couple of years back. Not sure why I stopped maybe something else came up. I'd also bought a few classic cars that I'd done up in psychedelic colours. Think I meant to finish off one that I'd about half made in 2010 but couldn't find the instruction booklet.
Also did about half of a Big Daddy Roth set and have another yet to do.

Bought a new bottle of glue a couple of months back with the intention of getting back into doing stuff but not used it yet.

this place did a large range of the customs and showcars (as well as more classic types)with good p+p
http://modelexpress.net/product_category/customs-show-cars/

― Stevolende, Sunday, 26 August 2012 10:17 (thirteen years ago)

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