Don't know if any of you are into model making? I don't recall a discussion about it.
Anyway, I'd like to be but am so cack handed I don't do more than imagine it might be fun. However, a chap on the infamous Pistonheads is clearly to be worshiped.
He's working on a Bristol Fighter Airfix kit...
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=95&t=1836848
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I have a mate who builds kits, mainly of race cars, and very high quality and expensive (and time-consuming!) kits they are too!! But he gets a great deal of satisfaction from the process and the finished article.
I did Airfix kits as a kid (I clearly remember doing an Avro Lancaster) but the required patience and attention to detail is out of my grasp now...
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 6 Jan 20 at 08:31
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I think part of my problem is that I always think it would be a bit "so what" when it's done. It would just be a bit more clutter with nowhere to keep it.
But I do quite like the idea, for some reason.
I went as far as buying a kit of a WW2 ship. Got it all out, read the instructions, gathered all the tools, made a space to work, got the lighting and work surfaces set up, drew a deep breath. This was it. A new and exciting hobby.
In my mind's eye I could see the resplendent piece, built, painted, almost indistinguishable from reality. It would be in pride of place, and the visitors we never have would be slack-jawed and drooling over the craftsmanship.
I pulled myself together and turned to the work in hand. Step 1. Remove the anchor from the sprue.
After googling "sprue", and just to be sure, " anchor", I placed the sharp knife at the appropriate point and started the adventure.
The anchor shot over the room and buried itself, lost forever in the carpet.
The rest of the kit remains to this day upstairs on a shelf, where it taunts me every time I see it with unattainable promise.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 6 Jan 20 at 09:04
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Every so often, especially at this time of year, I think it might be quite nice to retire.
Then, thankfully, someone posts something like this and I get this vision of the future...
;-)
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Runfer....go to Spain. Join my friends swimming laps across the bay in shorty wet suits, towing a red buoy behind them. Then fall off a paddle board, or even fall off a mountain bike in the Marina Alta. Capsize a kayak then rehydrate early evening sat outside watching the sun set from a beach front bar at El Portet.
See you there
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>> Runfer....go to Spain.... See you there
I get all of that LL, but I'll bet none of them are making Airfix kits too !
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S’pose so
Even my multi tasking friend isn’t able to make model kits whilst she’s swimming laps.
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I go to Hobbycraft, and the memory of burning ME 109's or JU88's hanging from a string in my bedroom ceiling dropping molten plastic onto the carpet hit me, and I think "no - those halcyon days can never be recreated" and I move on.
(tho it might be fun to sink Scharnhorst in the bath again)
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>>
>> I went as far as buying a kit of a WW2 ship.
I had a few Airfix kits as a boy. The only one that I really remember was of HMS Warspite. No idea what happened to it.
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>>
>> >>
>> >> I went as far as buying a kit of a WW2 ship.
>>
>> I had a few Airfix kits as a boy. The only one that I really
>> remember was of HMS Warspite. No idea what happened to it.
ran aground under tow in 1947 on rocks near Prussia Cove, Cornwall, and was eventually broken up nearby, you did well to get it out there.
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I loved Airfix kits as a kid. I don't think I have the inclination to pursue it as a hobby now, I have subscribed to their website and get occasional mailing from them. My childhood friend still has his collection stashed in his attic.
Funny since I fully retired last March, I don't find time to do everything I want.
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>> I loved Airfix kits as a kid.
Me too. However I didn't realise the decals had to be soaked off the card in water then applied to the model.
I carefully cut them out and used the polystyrene cement to glue them onto the model.
It was only when a friend mentioned it, that I had a one of them d'oh moments. Even then I didn't immediately believe him until he showed me.
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That guy is the level of model maker I wish I could be but never could get close to. I shall follow that to the end, thanks.
#1 gave me an Airfix Lancaster for Christmas. At some point I shall do the model and will really enjoy the whole process.
I obsessed over Airfix models when I was younger, totally loved them. Then I went to some exhibition or show or something and they had models there which had been built and assembled as well as it was possible to do with superb attention to detail.
But they still looked like little plastic self-build kits, better than mine but not the *awesome* I had expected. It rather put me off the whole thing.
So I build one every few years, thoroughly enjoy doing it, do an ok job, and then eventually some little relative gets the finished article to play with and ultimately destroy.
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Static models don't do it for me, I prefer things that work. I have a collection of radio controlled cars and motorcycles built from kits that I've got over the years. Next on the list is a Tamiya Citroen 2CV.
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"Static models don't do it for me"
Does it for me. They're easier to jump on.
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>> "Static models don't do it for me"
>>
>> Does it for me. They're easier to jump on.
>>
...over my dead body.....?
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It’s a peculiarly male obsession isn’t I it? Never met a women who makes plastic model planes or builds models of cathedrals out of matchsticks. I know a couple of blokes who build model railways but otherwise they seem fairly normal.
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Tried Plasticine, gave up and after that cycling took over - never looked back :-).
Forced to take on LEGO and Transformers ( 100 stickers to be applied early Christmas morning) when son was young but BBC and PCs soon took over.
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I know a couple of women who are seriously into making doll's houses and one of the judges on C5's Model Railway Challenge is female, herself an expert model maker.
But yes, in the main it is a male thing.
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A few years ago, I designed a book for someone called Cherry Hill - Cherry's Model Engines. Cherry is a lady, and an absolutely fantastic steam model maker. Her work is amazing and although she must be pushing eighty, still at it. I became absorbed sifting through h-res images of her models. Quite incredible.
My favourites were steam rollers with the steam engine actually inside the roller.
I'm totally out of superlatives for her and her work.
When you think, it's all manufactured from scratch. From plans from the original full size engines.
tinyurl.com/ydtffjc6
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A different kind of model, but my 7 year old nephew and I (and he did most of it) spent three days building a Lego model of the new LandRover Defender before Christmas. Almost 2,600 pieces, a working 4 speed gearbox, 6 cylinder engine with crankshaft and moving pistons, front, rear and centre diffs, working steering and suspension (including wishbones and dampers). Great fun, but hard on the fingers. And, like all real LandRovers, though it’s complete it does need some warranty work to rectify a few build issues that we couldn’t be bothered to fix as we went. It works, after all..it’s just that the bonnet and tailgate don’t shut properly, and the steerings a bit sticky!! That and we have a few bits left over. Spare parts I expect...
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That looks like loads of fun Peter. Lego has advanced a bit since I was a kid.
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It has but it has also lost something. It used to be a construction toy to fire the imagination of kids. Bricks were multi-purpose, you decided and planned what you were going to build. Now for the most part they are selling expensive specific construction kits based on films an TV shows.
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Back in the day Lego was one of my best Christmas presents ever. I seem to recall the bricks were red and white, and they came in a wooden box.
Over the years I had a Scalextric , a Triang train set and my Dad had a table tennis table built in our attic...we lived in a terraced house and the attic was huge.
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>> Back in the day Lego was one of my best Christmas presents ever.
>>I seem to recall the bricks were red and white, and they came in a wooden box.
>>
Yes just red and white in my day but mine were in a shoe box :-(
My children inherited them and in addition to some small kits I bought a big tub of s/h Lego
I was a little surprised to find a small selection of at least six different makers copies in the mix.
All very poor soft plastic that did not click like the real stuff.
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>> but it has also lost something.....
I entirely agree. It kind of spoilt it for me. Doesn't seem to have limited the enjoyment of today's kids that much though.
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>> It has but it has also lost something. It used to be a construction toy
>> to fire the imagination of kids. Bricks were multi-purpose, you decided and planned what you
>> were going to build. Now for the most part they are selling expensive specific construction
>> kits based on films an TV shows.
>>
That’s what I used to think, but, in my experience, the kits actually get built first as intended initially and are then subsequently rebuilt with other pieces into any number of things. Imagination is undiminished. The challenge then is to find all the bits needed to rebuild the original! But, a 7 year old’s ability to identify the correct part out of literally thousands shouldn’t be underestimated...
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I think I'm missing the Lego gene. I want to like it, but both as a child and an adult I just stare at a heap of bricks. At best I click ten bricks together to make a box and think, oh, I've made a box.
Making anything from a plan I always hated and found hard to follow though. I was forced into woodwork and "design and technology" at school and other than anything to do with sport and swimming they were the worst lessons of my school life. Utterly useless and dreaded every second.
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>>I think I'm missing the Lego gene
I don't 'spose you have the Meccano gene either Cc. I used to love all that stuff - from a very early age too.
I used to enjoy taking things like clocks and radios apart to see how they worked but I could never get the damn things back together again.
I'm quite good with my hands really (look out girls!) so when I was out and about at this time of year (back in the day) with my head stuck under the bonnet of some Ford Escort that hadn't been started for weeks, well, I luved it really AND I got paid for doing it too!
Meccano was created (that's God's job btw) in 1898 by one Frank Hornby.
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You'd be right, God.
Fixing cars is another thing I can only enjoy vicariously, alas. Though I did "mend" my cracked Moggie engine block with Polyfilla, and was pleased as Punch it ran for another year.
One of my older siblings had a "clockmaking kit", which was a wooden tray with a million compartments and a billion little coggy things, all arranged ready to assemble.
One day...well, I don't need to finish the story, really, do I. Come to think of it, I'm not sure she's spoken to me for some years.
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I reckon you're a bit of a boffin Cc, and at the age when I was playing with Plasticine, Lego, and Meccano,
you were more likely to be 'into' quantum physics, string theory, and E=mc 2.
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This guy is a bit in advance of us Airfix & Meccano modellers -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9zt3SF_Flc
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Just a little update.
The chap I first mentioned in this thread has finished his model. It is of course impressive, winning a prize.
Second, I was daydreaming about an app that would be a 3d version of an Airfix kit. You would have all the parts, move them into position, no glue or mess, and you could paint them as you wished, change the colours, whatever.
Just a pipedream until I googled for tools that would let me make such a thing and found someone already had. It's in the Google Play store, so Android.
It's called Monzo, it's buttons to buy models and some are free, and it's a great little time waster every time you have five minutes. Worth a look.
Shall be doing the Spitfire next.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 5 Mar 20 at 09:00
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It's on Apple too. Called Monzo - Digital Model Builder.
monzoapp.com/
apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id906362026
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 5 Mar 20 at 10:31
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Well thanks for that (Full sarcastic mode on). That's the chance of getting anything useful done today out of the window.
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Any time, guv. Stick it in expert mode to make it a bit more interesting of course.
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Gah. Do not attempt to completely build the Fokker DR1 and THEN paint it. Nightmare.
Paint as you go along.
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Model making - smokie
