I must have missed the memo from earlier stating ‘It’s national donate your unfinished plastic model kits to your nearest op shop week. Because I’ve found three in a single day which in my op shop scrounging, is completely unheard of.
The last time I put together a plastic model kit from Airfix or Revell? Er…I’m reckoning it’s close to ten years now.
The last time I actually completely finished a plastic model kit? Eh…I can’t recall. But I have three on the to do list now and I’ve almost finished one for the first time in forever, so we’re off to a great start!
I am a very familiar face around the op shops in these parts..
And I usually pop in with a mental checklist of things to find on the occasionally dusty op shop shelves:
-Fighting Fantasy Game books. Once upon a time these were plentiful and now they’re a rare breed. I made a video about them on YouTube which was very well received as it turns out that a) I’m not the only one reminiscing about them or b) I’m not the only one trying to source them from the 80’s and 90’s nowadays.
-Other game books such as Tunnels and Trolls, Dracula’s Castle or even RPG supplement books including Cyberpunk 2020 RPG gear. Basically all those memories I grew up with, I’d like to buy them and have them on my shelves to keep me warm and entertained in my twilight years. Or something.
-Anything to do with home brewing.
-A box of Heroquest from 1988 with all the pieces still in it, waiting for me to break out the paint brush.
-And on a very rare occasion, plastic model kits that someone once opened, went ‘Ooh that looks too hard’ or ‘I didn’t know I had to glue and paint them too!’ and then put the lid back on. Because now I have the chance to finish off what they never actually started!
Previously I’ve found a couple of cars (An Aston Martin and a Jaguar XRR, now long gone to many a previous de-clutter and house move) then there was the truck kit that came with a whole heap of spare paints. So I kept the paints…and never got round to working on the truck.
But now that I have some more time on my hands, a little more skill than when I was gluing myself at 8 years old and far more patience, let’s see what we can do here with these plastic model kits hey?
Plastic model kits# 1: Airfix North American P51B Mustang – the decals have rusted and the pilot never returned from a toilet stop.
The Mustang was designed originally to be used with the Allison V-1710 engine – making it a very good aircraft. When the B & C models were made of the P-51, they added a Rolls Royce Merlin engine and this completely transformed its performance at high altitude (15,000+ feet) which meant it matched or even bettered that of the Luftwaffe’s fighter jets. – from Warhistoryonline.com
I’ve gone with the special edition Mustang plastic model kit first because it’s been previously opened (no plastic wrap on it like the other two kits) and I was hoping there wasn’t much missing. The great news is, it seems all there…save for the pilot. Yes wherever Steve the pilot is, (actually according to the box the ace in this was actually called Henry, but it’s my Mustang now so Steve is the pilot) he’s not actually here. Not much of a problem though because I have a new age solution I’m keen to try out for the pilots spot anyway (no not AI.)
As mentioned in the title, the decals have rusted. Okay, aged. This plastic model kit did come out when I when I was all of 8 so it’s seen a lot of shelf and attic action. Still, the decals are here and I’m hoping to transfer them to the plane without too much swearing (I’ve never been good with decals as you’ll soon see.)
When I first started with plastic model kits and miniatures I had no concept of a nice base coat for everything to go onto. And if there was any black model paint in this town (the local hobby shop is always out when I need it) I’d be using that – instead I’ve opted for a couple of thin coats of Game Workshop’s Rhinox Hide.
Additionally if my airbrush wasn’t suffering a case of the terminal paint blockage, I’d be using that to apply most of the paint on the Mustang too, so it’s brushes all the way – which if you thin your paints just right, work fine for something like this (which I’m sure they painted with rollers anyway back in the day.)
And since I don’t have anything on hand that even comes close to Mustang green, I started with a Valejo black green and added Sand Yellow in small doses to get to this drab green. The underside is Steel and white mixed together and while I’m not completely happy with it, Steve’s not around to complain yet so I can always redo it later.
While it dried and I peeled superglue off my fingers (yes I know plastic cement is the usual plastic model kits choice but I have plenty of superglue on hand, ergo…) I sat down to work on the missing pilot problem. Because I want Steve back in there, even though the canopy glass will hide most of him away.
Thank the 3d printing gods that some hosted up a pilot I could use over at Cults3d. Yes massive thanks to Electric-2000 for his Stearman Pilot, even though in it’s original form Steve is the size of a planet (and the complete printing area of my printer.)
Luckily you could take him down from 1000% size to what you needed, which at a guess would be more like thus:
Of course every time I went to print him the printer would throw a hissy fit and it wasn’t until today that I discovered it had somehow forgotten all the settings I’d stored in it, great. And so after giving it new settings and printing a few test Steves, I found out that a good Steve size for the P51B was at 14.5mm high or 603.16%
Anything less and it looks like Steve brought his kid to work instead. His mutant blob child.
Yes even though the 4mm point on the Ender 3 V2 really doesn’t like the tiny dimensions of Steve the Mustang pilot, he still looks humanoid which is good. Even though he’s now sporting an elf hat for whatever reason. With about as much detail as a Hyundai Excel, he’ll get the brown undercoat treatment and a spot of flesh where I think his face is, just to prove he’s not a robot.
A quick word on the decals
You may have noticed some battle damage on the WR decals near the cockpit and that’s because I put them there. Remembering how much I hated plastic model kit decals back then. I’m happy to report that nothing has changed and in 2024 I’m just as terrible at them. Including:
-Putting them in the wrong place. One circled star is supposed to be on top of the wing, the other under the plane on the other wing. I place them both up top before noticing.
-Some decals got really bunched up. It’s supposed to read The Hun Hunter N Texas near the propeller. It’s so bunched up now, it just reads Hunter N Texas. Oh well.
-Things have got ripped. Like the giant W. I’m just going to say Steve did that in a dog fight.
I also managed to brake one of the wheel struts, not realising the wheel flaps were supposed to be glued to them first as supports. Oh well, better here than during the war I suppose.
But in the end – I finally finished a plastic model kit!
It’s far from perfect but I’m insanely proud that I stayed the course and got it done, not getting distracted once by wanting to open the Airfix P38 Lightning or The Superbird (see below). Not that I can see any facial details on him whatsoever, but I reckon if I could then Steve would be beaming now that toilet stop is over and he can get back to being a fighter Ace.
99.95% DONE:
THE AIRFIX LOCKHEAD P38 H LIGHTING
Another $3 plastic model bargain sitting right next to the P51B Mustang, how could I resist? This will be a great reason to try and resurrect my gummed up airbrush and get it up to snuff again. Wish me luck!
I’ve opened it up for YouTube’s sake and now I’m starting to wonder if it’s been opened previously and resealed later..
Well as expected, things have gone to plan so far. Just as long as the plan was ‘don’t rely on the airbrush to sort itself out anytime soon.’ Because I’ve tried to un-gum it’s currently gummed up ways, but no dice. So it’s back to the passible brush work which did okay for the Mustang.
This one’s a bit more complex to the Lockheed though because I can’t glue the majority of the pieces together and then add the cockpit, it’s more the cockpit needs to be ready to go somewhere in the middle of the build. So I’ve glued what I can here and since the airbrush is down for the count, it’s back to basing which the last few dregs of Rhinox hide – a great way to turn plastic model kits into a prop for Netflix’s ‘Is it cake?’
I’ve also gone out and bought some more paint! The correct paint? Of course not! No I looked up what model builders use for this particular model and it’s just not there at my local paint store. Nor is the 2nd, 3rd or 4th olive drab suggested option. In fact every time I walk into this particular shop for paints, be there for plastic model kits or something fresh off the 3d printer, they’re always out, every time. Not to worry though, because I did find ‘Cayman green’ which looks olive-ish. I also found black, so now I have black, a shade missing from the collection for quite some time now.
A quick fill in of anything I missed with the Rhinox Hide (I was painting things while also watching an old episode of Doctor Who in average light conditions so there were a few gaps..) and I’m happy to report that the Vallejo Black is a fantastic flat black option and perfect as a base coat.
Cayman Green on the other hand is not really drab olive. To me it’s more ‘budget surplus army tank green that we picked up on a Boxing Day clearance sale’ or ‘Sprightly olive.; Still in saying that, it’s a fantastically strong green, has no problem going over the base coat and how nice is it to have oodles of the same green on hand, rather than having to mix it every time I missed a spot (like the Mustang!)
For our P38H Lightning, we’ll call it ‘good enough!’.
Now I’m not going to lie here, this build was a tricky one. As mentioned above you need to have the cockpit all good to go before you can start clamping the body shut. Then there’s a whole heap of teeny tiny parts that you either need a) tiny small hands to wield successfully or b) tweezers and a steady hand.
I have neither.
And so every time I carefully glued something somewhere, my clumsy fingers would break something else. Wheel strut in, fuel tank takes the damage. Fix the fuel tank, the wheel collapses on itself. A couple of times the instructions were a bit vague on exact part placement and so I’d either put something in a few mm’s away from where it should be or worse leave it out thinking it unimportant and then discovering it’s a support for something down the line.
Still, with most of the the paintwork done I’m glad that it’s looking Lockheed P38H Lightning-ish.
The decals on the other hand? A nightmare. And that speaks more to my nature to rush things to get them down rather than apply one and wander off for the next 12 hours to let it set and dry. I mentioned before how gluing in new parts would lead to me snapping off others, well it was a similar case here – I’d apply one decal then go to apply another and as soon as I looked away for just a second, decal A would be making a break for freedom. Or getting scrunched up. Or sliding down somewhere it shouldn’t have been.
Have I mentioned that I’m not good with decals? Still, I think I did manage to get them all on eventually..
Just the tips of the propeller to be done (in yellow) and a touch up of the green stuff in a couple of places, but otherwise I’m calling this one done! Two plastic model kits done and not relegated to the shelf mid build – I must be feeling ill or something!
Currently building:
THE FINAL PLASTIC MODEL KIT ON THE PILE..
A day after picking up the planes I chanced upon..
An $8 Revell 70 Plymouth Superbird! Wrapped in plastic since 2001, it’s about time this came out to play and now that I’ve finished off my first plane in forever, it’s damn time I actually get a car completed, so watch this space and wish me luck – it’s nice to be modelling again!
EDIT: The box is open eagle one, repeat the box is open, ten four!
Time to bolt a V8 together!
And as luck would have it, that’s where the instructions start on this 70’s bit of American muscle, on the engine itself. And for a brief minute, I was very happy with my gunmetal grey paint job with steel highlights over a black undercoat.
…right up until I googled the V8 Hemi engine for 70’s Plymouth Superbirds to see what colour I should paint the oil filter (although they come in a range of colours anyway) and soon discovered that all the Hemi’s of that time and beyond…are mostly orange. Yep, heavy on the orange engine paint. Like I said, I’m far more used to Rotary 13b’s and RB25 Neo engines than I am of American grunt. And so I painted most of mine orange too just to be vaguely period correct, even though a lot of it is going to be obscured by the engine bay…which will be primarily orange as well.
Adding all the chrome bits like the valve covers and carbs (still got the air filter to go later) is a real contrast to the black and gunmetal but again when everything is in place and nestled in the bay, a lot will be hidden.
There’s still the belts and pulleys to add as well as the radiator and exhaust pipes so while it looks like there’s a bit of room to play with, it won’t last long. Hilariously I also have a 3d printed Mazda 13B from yonks ago on the shelf and out of sheer curiosity..
And in case you’re wondering, it doesn’t work well the other way either – trying to shoehorn the Hemi V8 into a Mazda Rx7 model. Not without some serious surgery on this dusty project.. It does look something out of a Mad Max film so that’s pretty cool though!
TO BE CONTINUED!