Plastic models
Colour and tools
The first time you buy a model maybe
you choose a start box and think you can start at once when you come home.
Don’t use cheap enclosed things of not so good quality. If you want to build
more than one model you have to buy good tools.
Look what colour you need. Even if
you buy a start box with the colours and a paintbrush enclosed you must look so
the paintings is correct. Sometimes you have to buy more colours than
containing. I have once brought a car model which should been painted in green,
it was a green colour included but with the wrong number.
If you buy a model from Airfix you should have colour from Humbrol,
if you buy a Tamiya model you should have Tamiya colour and so on. You can read this on the box or in
the build description.
It’s easiest for you as a beginner
to use that colour you are told to use, because you know the colour and the
plastic like each other and you just have to look at the numbers on the
description. You can buy all colours you need in the store there you have
bought your model.
You have colour converting tables to
colour converting from one colour manufacture to another. You can find some
colour converting tables by clicking on the link to the left.
Sometimes the model description
tells you to use for example Paint Markers. For example Tamiya
have the most used colours as paint markers, because it should be easy to paint
some parts. Some like the Paint Markers, others do not. If you have a very
small paintbrush you can paint without use the Paint Markers. If you use the
Paint Markers for the first time, please try them so you know how to do before
using them on your model.
If you want your model to look real,
do as the description say and use the colour they told you. It means you can
have a lot of colours at home. If you use another colour than they have told
you it makes a whole lot of different, even if the colours seems to be close to
each other. Of course you can make your model more personal with use another
skin colour than they description told you, and you can paint a car just like a
real car you’ve seen. If you want the model to look more personal you can
choose other colours than described, for example can a car or a plane be
painted different in real life and you may want to paint it that way.
Some plastic models is pre-painted, but you can paint them in the colours you
like. If you have model paintings at home, use that. Try painting on a little
surface you don’t use, and wait for the painting to dry. If you can’t remove
the colour, the colour don’t make you dirty when you touch it and the plastic
do not react strange you can use the colour.
The colours from Humbrol
you can use to the most different kinds of plastic models and you can (in
To paint your model you need
paintbrushes in a few different sizes. Don’t use a paintbrush you get with a
start box, buy paintbrushes in the hobby store instead.
You need a very small paintbrush to paint very
small details, a paintbrush to paint big surfaces with and a paintbrush
somewhere between.
Some models you may want to spray
paint, for example the outside of a car. It’s hard to spray paint a model and
you must practice a lot. Don’t spray paint if you don’t know how to do.
Glue in a tube you use to glue
together big surfaces. Glue on a bottle with a little metal tube on the top you
use to glue together small surfaces. On the model box you can sometimes see
“use glue of that sort for the best result”, but it’s most advertising.
You can use the same glue to all your models. If you want, you can try it on a
part you don’t use to the real model.
You must have some tools:
Don’t buy everything at once! After
a while you know what tools you need best.
Getting started
Now when you have coming home with a
lot of things from the store, you should start with finding a place there you
can sit building your models. Don’t forget you must have good light. You can
use a good desktop lamp. If you haven’t a table there you always can sit
working with your models, you have to find a tray with high edges. Take a tray
you don’t need to something else. On that tray you can have your models when
you build them.
Soon you get many colours. Find your
own system so you easily can find exactly that colour you need. Sort them by
colour.
Put all tools in a box, for example
an empty ice cream box, so you have them all in the same place.
Now you can start building. Open the
box and read the description not just once. Look in the box and check so you
think everything is there. If some parts is missing, it’s a special paper with
instructions how to get that part.
Don’t cut parts together yet! Start
painting small parts without cutting them together.
Read the description and start
painting small parts. Don’t forget to mix the colour before use.
Paint each piece two or more times.
Let the painting dry before you paint it again. On the colour you find how long
time it takes for the colour to dry. Always wait to paint a second time for the
best result, remember if you touch the painted part and it feels dry, maybe it
isn’t.
If you put tape (that white tape you
can buy in the drugstore) on parts you don’t want to colour, for example
windows or part you want to have in another colour, you don’t get colour in
unexpected places. Be careful the tape sitting correctly on the plastic so the
colour can’t get down under the tape.
Don’t paint the surface on the parts
you have to glue together! If you do so, maybe you get trouble to glue the
parts together. Paint too little, not too much and try to avoid paint there you
put glue later. You can always paint it afterwards and correct your misses. If
you have painted a surface you want to glue together with another part, file or
take a knife and put the colour off. Doesn’t file too much, just do it a little
so it’s easier to glue together.
Look always carefully on the
description and cut off only that part you have to glue together. Don’t use
your fingers to cut off the part, use only a nipper! File off all abounding
plastic before you glue together.
Look at the description again. Do
exactly as it says! Build together without glue, study the description and look
how the parts should be glued together.
Sometimes the parts can fit badly.
If you feel they fit too badly, you can fill with putty or take away some
plastic. Don’t putty or take away plastic if you don’t know how to do! It’s
easy to take away, but hard make right if you have taken away too much.
Glue together two parts at a time
and press them together with your fingers or the plastic tweezers until it fits
together without pressing. Use rubber bands to fit together big parts, as body
parts and parts to wings. Sometimes the wings can be separating from each other
on a special place. Put a clothes peg there, “standing right out” from the
wing.
When the model is glued together,
look at it carefully. File away all glue you can see. Look at the description
and paint all parts you haven’t painted before. For example you don’t paint a
plane on the outside before it’s glued together. Paint always the primary
colour first, and then the rest. If your model should have different kind of
colours, start with the lightest one. To have straight lines, draw them with a
pen and put tape (that white tape you can buy in the drugstore) beside the
line. If you don’t should have straight lines, you must paint them without any
help.
Now when all is painted and the
model look finished, you have to put on the decals.
Look on the description where you
should have the decals. Cut off just one at a time. Often it is water decal you
have to put on your model. Fill a bowl with water, look the temperature is
somewhere between cold and hot. Put the decal into the water and wait maybe ten
seconds before you take it off the water and put it on the model. You can put
it into the right place with a match. The match can you also use if you have to
put the decal near some other part or decal and want a special space between or
just look it is straight. When the decal is wet, you can move it into the right
space. If you wait too long and the decal is not wet anymore, you can’t move
it. If you recognize the decal sitting on the wrong place you can have some
water on the decal put it into the right place; but if some hours have pass
it’s too late to do anything about a decal sitting in the wrong place.
When you are satisfied with a decals
place, it can be some water on it. Dry the water away with some kitchen paper.
It’s easy to move the decal, so take it easy and look so the decal sitting
there you want when you have taken away the water. Don’t touch the decal!
Do you have many decals who should
be very close to each other or sitting one upon another? Place one decal and
let dry before you place the next one.
When the decals are dry, you can
move the model. Don’t touch the decals more than you have to.
You can’t see how fast a model is
build together, but you can see how well it’s build together! Use a lot of time
to the model and don’t hurry. Your first models may be not so well. Buy cheap
models with a few decals and take it as training. Don’t be sad if a window is
being full of glue or you make another mistake. You have learned something, and
remember it so you don’t make same mistake again.
Some manufactures have a bad fit on
their models. If you always put together the model without glue and is careful
when you glue them together you don’t get any surprises.
To build a scene
When you gets better you may want to
show your models in any way. To avoid too much dust on your models, you have to
put them into a display cabinet.
You can also make a scene into a box
with a glass window at the front, or a scene you put into your display cabinet.
A scene can be everything from a car
on a parking space to a big scene with a lot of people and things. You decide.
Try to get everything from the same time as your model. Look on pictures in
books and papers, or go outside looking at the nature.
You can buy a lot of things to your
scene or make it by yourself. Some things you have to build yourself because
you can’t get it in your hobby store. If you want for example a hangar to your
plane you have to build it by yourself, you can do it in wood or hard paper.
Remember the hangar must be as big as the plane, even if you don’t want to put
the plane in the hangar. Is the hangar too small, it can look strange.
If you build an open scene without
glass around it, you buy a piece of wood in the right size to build your scene
on. If you have a too big piece of plywood, it can curve. Make some holes, and
both glue and screw some wooden strip down under.
Use putty to make the surface
smooth, so you can’t see for example the screws. Paint it with a light colour
and let dry. Use sandpaper and paint again.
Now you can use your model colour to
paint grass, asphalt and so on. Build up your scene. Mark there you want to
have houses, cars and so on.
Use putty to make your landscape
more realistic. You can use gips too. Just take a net and make that shape you
want, fill it with gips and let dry. Do as the directions on the gips package
says. When the gips are dry you can glue it into the piece of wood and paint
it.
Do big things first, and always
start with a light colour. It’s much easier to make a light colour darker than
make a dark colour lighter. Think on the perspective, things in the background
is smaller than things in the foreground. Glue houses, cars and other big
stuff. Save small parts to the end.
A scene into a box is one piece of
wood to the bottom, three sides and a roof. Do everything in plywood (or hard
paper, if you like to work in that material). The fourth side is a piece of
glass. Gauge the size and go to someone who is selling windows and let him make
the piece of glass for you.
Do the scene as described and put
together the sides and the roof when everything else is done. Paint the roof
inside so it looks like the sky if your scene is outside. Paint also the three
sides with houses or nature.
A few advices
which model you should start with
At last: Don’t be afraid of making
some experiment! Make a mistake, and do it all over! Don’t be afraid to make a
mistake. Begin with some easy models you can build together and learn of you
mistakes. When you become more capable, you can assembly more difficult (and
more expensive) models.
How do you know you don’t buy a
model that is too difficult for you?
On the box you can read how
difficult the model is to assembly, mostly it is a scale from 1-4 or 1-5.
Different manufactures can have different scales. 1 is very easy models with a
few parts, 4 or 5 is models hard to assemble with a lot of parts. You have also
models for children you can snap together without using paint or glue, for
example models from Burago and Maisto.
Mostly you have a description of the
difficultly level on the box. Sometimes you only have the age the model is
adjust to, +8, +10 or +12 is the most frequent used ages.
Always ask in the store if you can
open the box and look, if you are unsure. A model with a lot of small parts is
always harder to build than a model with a few big parts.