Search the Community

Hello modeller friends, FLY Models caused quite a stir when they released their 1/32 Hurricane in April 2016. By a general consensus on the modelling forums, it's the best Hurricane on the market: accurate shape, good dimensions, adequate surface detail and unbeatable bang for the buck, etc… One question remains: HOW DOES IT BUILD? Strangely there are but a very few WIP's (one on this very forum) on the internet for such a popular model. Furthermore they all stopped still after a few instalments. What happened? Is there a monster glitch out there waiting for the unwary modeller? I decided to find out and share my experience with you. Before starting up, let me tell you that I've never been interested in the Hurricane as a plane and that I've never built a Hurricane in all my modelling years. That is before a friend showed me the FLY kit he just bought . I was unexplainably drawn to the box and before long I was cutting up the sprues, dry-fitting the parts … and buying the kit back from my friend. So let the build begins. First, the box with the 'meh' painting... … and the all-important documentation, excellent references I got from another friend. Most of it sadly OOP: Next episode: Dry-fitting the parts Until then, Cheers, Quang

Hi All A fellow modeller (Paolo6691) asked me if I could give some tips on how to make seat belt buckles, like those I did for my Gnat and Fokker Dr. I builds. I gave him some tips but I thought I should post them here. Maybe these tips are useful for other modellers. I don't use any special tools, just a pair of straight-nose tweezers for bending the wire and a nº 11 x-acto blade to cut it. I've been using wires from a multi-threaded electrical cable, which are reasonably thin and not too rigid nor too flaccid. I hold the wire between my index finger and thumb, as straight as possible, and start bending it from one extreme. I use the width of the tweezer's tips as a measuring reference: for 1/72 this width is enough for the sides of the buckles. The sides are created by successive bends. I haven't practised much, I just make a new buckle if one doesn't turn out properly. The tools can be seen in this post of my Gnat thread. To make the explanation easier to understand, I've just taken a few pictures of the different steps for making a rectangular buckle. 1. Here's the straight wire and tweezers, preparing for the first bend: 2.The tips hold the extreme of the wire: 3. The first bend is done: 4. The tweezers hold the wire right next to the bend, in order to make the second bend: 5. The second bend is done, this is how the wire is at the moment: 6. The third and last bend is now done: 7. The x-acto blade is used to cut the wire and we have a new buckle Please note that the wire was previously painted with silver paint, because it is a copper wire. I didn't apply primer first, so the paint chipped while I was bending the wire. I would advise you to use primer, if you wish to paint the wires before bending them. If you have a steady hand, you could also paint the wires after glueing them to the tape belts. I hope this was helpful. Cheers Jaime

Hi All This is the latest in an ongoing series of noob questions: I've just read about oil dot weathering, it looks a relatively simple and effective technique for subtle weathering and I'm keen to give it a go on my next model (a Tsetse fly Mossie). Before I go shopping- what oils do people recommend buying, and what colours should I get? I see burnt umber mentioned a lot on t'internet... I'm in the UK, so that will influence my shopping choices. Also, are there any obvious pitfalls I should avoid before I have a crack at it? E.g. I like to paint with acrylic paints, not sure if that makes a difference? TIA Adrian

Hello, I'm a lapsed plastic model kit builder. Previously I concentrated on aircraft, mainly WW2 fighters, Cold War jets and a couple of years a go, a Huey (which I lost patience with!!). Having thought about getting back into kits, I wanted a new challenge and had thought about ships. I decided to bite the bullet after visiting the fantastic Vasa Museum in Stockholm recently. The well stocked gift shop had both the Airfix and Revell kits for sale, although at rather inflated Swedish prices! I decided to do a bit of research on getting back home and plumped for the Revell kit. Apparently this was produced in conjunction with museum so has a greater degree of accuracy? Anyway, the Revell kit has been purchased, tools and paints bought and I'm ready to go! Hope to have some initial WIP up on here in the next few days. I am nervous about the build and would appreciate any tips from the experienced members on here. My particular worry is getting the appearance of wood to come through - any tips for this? I wasn't going weather the ship as it sank as a new, so this is really a concept anyway! However, it was built in dock over a period of two years so it seems reasonable to assume that weathering of a sort took place - what are the thoughts on this? Better crack on. I must say that this site has been a real inspiration. The quality of work and input from others is exceptional. Happy to be back building!! Paddy

Tips and Tricks Always keep everything that came in the box of the model. Even the modelling box itself. As you see in the third picture you can cut to size a anti-tank trap. You can do several other things with that unused plastic around the edges or use parts that were unused in the last model. You'll understand left over parts if you buy a Dragon model. I know for a fact that you'll always have left over parts from them. One last thing, you create the anti-tank trap by cutting to size as I had already said and then cutting them up a little more for an added effect than you glue two of them together, then make sure it had time to dry then add the third leg and when you do place it on a towel. The towel is to keep the anti-tank trap in place while it dries. This is a little tip I sort ah stole from a modeling book my dad had. It explains how to create sandbags or at least gives you a good idea how to start making one. Create your own way of making them from this format!

Hello there! This is my first post after my introduction post, and also my first scale model that I'll be building. So I grabbed the spitfire starter set for £6.99 from WHSmith. I was planning to build it over the christmas holidays, but I couldn't resist myself from trying out the painting and stuff. I've just done a few things, but I'm done for now until christmas (hopefully ) so that I can do my university work. So, find attached some snaps of the progress so far . Pictures: First look at the box: First look at the pieces on the sprue(I was quite excited at this point): Figuring out what goes where... Decal sheet : http://i.imgur.com/RdQUxf2.jpg My makeshift workstation with work underway (all my tools are back in Dubai): So thus far I've managed to finish painting the seat. Sorry for poor picture quality, my DSLR is back in Dubai as well haha: http://i.imgur.com/YSyoUoz.jpg http://i.imgur.com/nZu6mA4.jpg That's it for now folks. Lacking my tools and having to concentrate on coursework, I will have to put this project aside until christmas. But my plans for christmas are to finish this spitfire, then get started on a Revell A319 and Airfix 737. The A319 in British Airways livery and the Airfix 737 in Air New Zealand Livery. So that's it for now until mid December! Cheers everyone!

I am currently building this model, that I have had stashed away for a couple of years, any tips

I needed to strip the old paint of a badly wore out diecast toy, not a problem, I have done it before and never had a problem. Last time I did it, I used to use Brake fluid, but, they have changed the formula to a more "green friendly" substance and the stuff will no longer touch paint. So, decided to go to extreme, Nitromors, I immersed the item in the green gunge for about 2 hours and when I pulled it out, the paint was hardly touched. I did a Google search on the stuff and found out from one of our sister forums that the company changed the formulae in 2010 and removed some harmful substances in the mix and replaced them with "friendlier alternatives". Nitromors still does strip some “household paints, but instead of taking 10 mins, the time has been upped to 30 mins, even then, not all removed. So, another site recommended Caustic Soda, available from DIY stores(but banned in USA and many other places) Its classed as Mangers Drain Cleaner or Paint stripper………..this has been removed from the shelves as DIY stores deem it too dangerous to sell, BUT, they do sell their own drain cleaner and Paint stripper and on the side of the tub/bottle….this product contains no Caustic Soda……….Health and Safety Issue………….so, next stop, Oven Cleaner, it used to work, guess what? It no longer does. Put an item for stripping in the mix 1 hour ago and the paintwork, has just started to go gooey, paint beneath, still rock hard…………..Hmmmmmmmm, so……..I came home, Ebayed Caustic Soda and I managed to find some, but wondering, when it arrives whether all harmful chemicals have been removed. Nail Varnish remover, Cellulose thinners, enamel thinners, white spirit, tried em all, none work or did the expected job I also tried to get hold of some Tippex thinners……..apparently this is also a harmful chemical and since 2006 has been a banned item worldwide, some say, Tippex is now waterbased, but if you can still get hold of original Tippex and it gets thick, use Nail Varnish Remover, not too much or it melts the container. Well, with the EEC rules and Health and Safety various hobbies are now becoming dangerous and a liability to modellers Health? Its forcing Modellers to look for alternatives and taking risks on even more dangerous chemicals to arrive at the same results as before these “friendly “ alternatives took there place. Watch out because soon, I bet you will not be able to remove chrome from plastic when an alternative solution replaces what you do now. If memory serves me well, I think that they have already had a go at enamel paint………..