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Back from the dark distant past


Skymonster

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Evening all...  Over the last few months I've regularly eyed the stash of boxes cluttering the small room in the house, and thought - I really must get back into that modelling malarkey some day soon.  Then nothing much happens, except I look at Britmodeller and see all the marvellous work being done by others.  Today I finally reached the point where I was motivated to register (no idea why today in particular) only to find that my chosen username was already assigned and my email address was used by an existing member.  Using the "forgot password" function pointed to the two being tied to the same account, so I must have registered here at some point in the dim and distant past - possibly one evening when modelling and drinking a few beers coincided.  However, I'm fairly sure I never posted way back when, so I think a little intro is due right now.

 

Those boxes are at least ten, if not twenty or more years old - Hasegawas and Monograms, a few Airfixs and Tamiyas.  Pretty much all are aircraft.  Many are 1:48, a few are 1:72s - but there's also a 1:350 Enterprise (carrier, not spaceship of course), partly built with a scratch hangar deck but not much else.  Sadly the airbrush is long gone, but there's still a collection of ratty looking tins of enamel - probably only worthy of the bin by now.  Reading about the changes that have taken place during my decade or more of absence has been something of a revelation, slightly daunting, but also quite exciting.  When I worra lad etched was far from widely available - I think the Hasegawa F-14As were some of the first 1:48 kits to include a small fret in the box, and didn't the RAF Anniversary F-4s include metal wheels too?  Paint was Humbrol and XtraColour, or Tamiya acrylics.  In the after market there was a limited amount of resin around, and losts of vac-forms - where are they now?  And where has all this Eastern European stuff come from?  Yes, yes, I know, stupid question, Eastern Europe of course.  But when I was last into this hobby it was UK, USA, Japan - and not much else.  And Beaties still had shops all over the country.

 

Anyway, the thing that finally gave me a kick up the a** and pushed me back into the fold was discovering there's a 1:48 22" Space 1999 Eagle available... See, although I'm mainly into aircraft I'm a kid of that era, and although the episodes now seems rather unsophisticated to me I just have to have that iconic transporter on the shelf.  I also had a chat with the editor of Airfix Model World magazine yesterday - he occupies the office just down the corridor from mine - and I obviously have to invest in another airbrush and compressor, but otherwise he thinks I should be fairly good to go as long as I don't try all the new stuff at once.  Seems like I've got lots to relearn or recall, and a fair bit of  new stuff to find out about.  I'm not going to be leaping into posting to the WIP section right now because I've not actually started anything yet, but I plan on it not being years before I do so.

 

Ah well, that's me - life-long aircraft fan, past (and future) modeller in the evenings and at weekends, aviation magazine editor by day.  Thanks for all the information and inspiration I've already got from lurking over the last couple of months.  I hope this is going to be a fun ride - that's what I'm planning on it being anyway.

 

Andy

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Well Hello andy welcome to BM and welcome back to modelling. Fellow newbie to Bm. Been modeling since 1979 but took a hiatus from 2005-2014. If you havent been told yet magically we all seem to get drawn back in to the hobby. Others wll tell you that to. Now all i can say is build to please yourself not anyone else. If the final product is something you can put onto a shelf and look at without cringing its a good model. Dont try and learn to many new things all at once. Maybe set a goal of one new thing/technique per build. Other than that im jealous i'd love to get a hold of some old monogram kits there only available on a certain website anymore.

 

Dennis 

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Thank you Dennis, wise and encouraging words.  The piece about building for oneself is particularly poignant, as I have been into aviation photography for a long time and right now that is becoming a bit of a dogs breakfast as far as comment, criticism and personal agendas are concerned.  So as with the photography, I plan to do much as you suggest, and hopefully that way I will enjoy myself.  Envy of the amazing skills of my peer group will, however, almost inevitably intervene from time to time.  As to what exactly is in the stash - maybe cataloguing it might not be a bad idea, but that would just get in the way of actually doing some modelling so I think not.

 

All the best,

Andy

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Andy, good to have you about sir, welcome back(ish)  :) 

 

That old Humbrol paint, be prepared to find excellent very good paint in them thar tins

 

I had some in a drawer in my (ex) modelling room for well over thirty years and most of them were as good as the day I bought them in Beatties or Alton Models

 

(Not an EX modelling room any more hurrah)

 

My biggest rerets?

 

I hadn't laid in a decent stock of the old Humbrol 33

 

Modern Humbrol enamel matt paint is junk in comparison

 

In my opinion of course, the old formulation was superb

 

Anyway don't forget the airbrush doesn't need to turn up yet, we managed nicely with brushes for yonks

 

See you around, its good 'ere

 

bill

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:welcome:  Andy. 

It was great to read your introduction. So much of that sounds very familiar.

 

I hardly made a model from 1979 to the year 2003. Just some of the (IMAI?) Gerry Anderson TV series tie ins that came out in the 90's. I had a go at (Comet?) multimedia Thunderbirds one and two. That was it (apart from an Airfix Stirling for my grandad) for around 24 years. 

 

I returned to the hobby after a bereavement. I needed something to occupy my mind and saw an Airfix Mosquito for sale cheap at a model railway oriented hobby shop. £3.00 exchanged hands :D.

 

Like you, I had my old, by now rusty tins of Airfix, Humbrol, Revell and Gloy enamels.

 

I spent two evenings opening them, cleaning, stirring, turning upside down, spilling it on my arm and the carpet, trying not to do that again and doing more stirring. I even cleaned my old brushes.

 

It was more or less all useable.

 

I was told at the hobby shop in 2003 that my 'hobby was dead'. That shop is closed now, and as you've found, the hobby is very much more alive than then!

 

As Bill says :ditto: I regret that I didn't have more Humbrol 33 black. It's the model paint equivalent of a fine vintage wine, sadly missed :crying:.

 

I hope you'll share some of your vintage stash building with us, or just give us a peek somewhere over in the chat area :).

 

Hope you'll share the Eagle Transporter too, great nostalgia.

 

Best regards

TonyT

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21 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

" If you havent been told yet magically we all seem to get drawn back in to the hobby. "

 

Dennis 

To quote the famous song by The Eagles: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

 

 

Chris

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