Model Construction 102

[NeilE]

The "new" Revell Se5a has Khaki thread in the box.

Neil.

Oh Yes... the first kit with rigging...Would that have been Hauptman Bolgo Von Toko-Roden's Freidrichshaven kit made out of potato during the famine in Berlin in 1919? Rigging was provided utilizing Chimp hair. The Chimps didn;t need it anymore as they had been consumed by the Cities' finest at a banquet the week before.

The Good Herr Doktor said it was and he should know.

N.

PS This innovative model was not a success, given its tendency to develop sprouts if left in a damp cabinet for too long.....

[stringbags4ever2]

To Prof. Stephen:

Can good results be achieved in rigging with stretched sprue, prepainted? That's what I'm thinking of using for my Fokker E-IV. 8)

No experience here Pete LH, but from what I've read, stretched sprue can be easily tightened up with a little heat. That would seem to suggest not painting first. Also, no liquid styrene glue, as the thin material might completely dissolve.

[PeterL]

Pete, pre-painting is not a good idea and you're far better off choosing sprue which is the right colour to start with. Silver grey is the obvious choice but experiment first, there may be a surprise or two lurking in your scrap box. Clear sprue might be one as it only shows where the light hits and looks much finer than it actually is. And a single strand of "T" or "I" section clear sprue can look like double rigging.

[NeilE]

Hi All;

Like Stephen I like the monofilament pull-through method. My main problem with this is filling the little holes afterwards, I tend to leave them too long and the CA sets too hard making filing hard work.

For the Pfalz I recently finished (yes!) I used a blackened fine guage electric guitar bottom E string. I chose this to avoid the little problem I outlined above. The guitar string looks good but is time consuming to fit in place. I use white glue to hold them into place as it dries 'invisible' and shrinks over time.

I have never been a fan of stretch sprue as I am a hopeless sprue stretcher (are any manufacturer's sprues better than others) - mine always breaks.

Generally I like too the structural integrity that monofilament brings.

Still YMMV.

All the Best

Neil

[stringbags4ever2]

Thank-you, gentlemen. You all have set my mind at ease. I have a good supply of both clear and silver-grey sprue to use. Tally-ho!!

[StephenLawson]

The answer to the Pop Quiz:What WWI Static Plastic model was the first to include rigging material? What year was it manufactured?

Revell's Kit H-256:198 Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker's Spad XIII 1/27 scale lt. Olive in colour and manufactured first in 1957.

Struts are the bane and pain. The battle-cry of the neophyte modeler -"I can't do that, it has all those struts!" Several methods are used with struts. I will either replace kit items with modified brass sections or put brass rod in all the ends of the kit struts. This reinforces your work but also gives your struts an adjustable (by bending) pivot that works to your advantage, especially when your kit has dihedral ,forward or reverse stagger.

Once the basics are done well, then the details can make the difference. The mirror trick is the modeler's method of checking themself. Holding a finished model up to a mirror simply forces you to take a critical look at your work. Seeing it from a different perspective looking for flaws that you can correct. It ain't over til you say it is.

Pop Quiz: What is the single MOST important aspect of a diorama? (Two Words mention previously in class.)

[StephenLawson]

Answer to the Pop Quiz: What is the single MOST important aspect of a diorama? (Two Words mention previously in class.)
'Relative Scale'

Dioramas give the modeler a chance to put their build in an interesting format that will invite the viewer to stop and look,much like a painting.

How to build Dioramas by Shep Payne was my first real stretch to build a better model. Its still available and should be in everymodelers library reference. The well known aviation artist Jim Dietz says, '... the process of creating a realistic painting is like describing how a magic trick is done. Once the process is understood the viewer is apt to say,"Oh is that all there is to it?"... "They are to fulfill my own desires."

Some one once said that '...aircraft dioramas are limited to maintenance or standing. The dioramas that have worked well for me are;In Flight, Taxi, Factory Assembly, Field Assembly , Type Test, Acceptance, Tests, Crashes & Salvage.

Now photograph your own work. Up til now you have looked at WW1 photos and have noted what they show. Now get down low with a Macro Lens and shoot at f32 stop. Take some of your own photos. Experiment with filtered and unfiltered light, black and white film vs coloured, multiple machines or include figures. There's nothing wrong with a little organization but most important thing that you can do is enjoy yourself. The photos you keep will be a long term reminder of not only your elevated skill level but will serve as a visual record of your accomplishments long after the model has been donated to a hobby shop or museum

[StephenLawson]

In the end. You get what you put into a kit. Your time spent preping, building, refining, painting and all that we have spoken about here will raise the bar on your talents. Model On!!!!!

Stephen L

I know you meant 1/28th scale. You must have been reading my posts on another thread.

Do I get extra credit?