I used to love doing model airplanes when I was a kid. Like most people, I grew out of the habit but lately I've been impressed by the sheer quality of some of the completed models in a modelling shop near me. Last weekend, I was so tempted, I bought one. Well there were two, actually. A Messerchmitt BF109G and a Bristol Beaufighter in a "Dogfight Doubles" box. I took a few days to complete them and though they are not as impressive as the ones in the shop, they don't look half bad so I'm thinking of getting some more. Anyone else into making these things?
Model Airplanes
- Thread starter PaulB
- Start date
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MajorMantra
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Edinburgh
I assume you're talking Airfix-style plastic things? I did them when I was small and then moved on to radio controlled models. Then I went to uni and took up cycling.
Matthew
Matthew
terry huckle
New Member
Look, I`m really not one of the spelling police, but please!!! it`s aeroplane, or if you must, aircraft, but never that vile Americanism.
MajorMantra
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Edinburgh
terry huckle said:
I suppose you go on holiday from an aeroport then?
(Or should that be aerodrome?)Airplane is one of the few Americanisms that I actually prefer. It just rolls of the tongue so easily.
Matthew
In no time at all you'll be making and flying something the size of this baby!!
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmKdA6L_MWk
Don't be doing this though!! Crashes just like a real one did!!!
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAWwe474YHk
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmKdA6L_MWk
Don't be doing this though!! Crashes just like a real one did!!!
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAWwe474YHk
Mortiroloboy
New Member
As a boy, I would spend ages making Tamiya military models, tanks half tracks, and the like, then model soldiers and build them into a diorama. (a depiction of a battle scene) They were quite impressive (even if I do say so myself) Eventually when I left home my mum took them to Auction at Wallis and Wallis the military equipment auctioneers.
Yellow Fang
Legendary Member
- Location
- Reading
I used to make them when I was a teenager. I still have five left: a Shorts Sunderland, a Bristol Fighter, a Supermarine S6b seaplane, a Fokker Triplane and a Fairey Firefly. I was tempted by a Fairey Fulmer recently.
terry huckle
New Member
Major Mantra
Aerodrome will do, but one prefers airfield.
I too made many model aircraft as a boy. I believe I stopped when I ran out of space in my room and resorted to suspending them from the ceiling. The last space remaining was right above the pillow of my bed, and I dangled a 1/144 th scale B58 Hustler (Aurora I believe) from that spot. I was actually lying in my bed staring at the ceiling and the model when the drawing pin attachment failed. It`s funny how things run in slow motion at times like that.
My last foray into the world of model aircraft was with digital photography...this is my Corgi 1/72 nd scale Mosquito after much photoshopping....it took me a long time to get the right blur on the airscrews.
Aerodrome will do, but one prefers airfield.
I too made many model aircraft as a boy. I believe I stopped when I ran out of space in my room and resorted to suspending them from the ceiling. The last space remaining was right above the pillow of my bed, and I dangled a 1/144 th scale B58 Hustler (Aurora I believe) from that spot. I was actually lying in my bed staring at the ceiling and the model when the drawing pin attachment failed. It`s funny how things run in slow motion at times like that.
My last foray into the world of model aircraft was with digital photography...this is my Corgi 1/72 nd scale Mosquito after much photoshopping....it took me a long time to get the right blur on the airscrews.
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
I remember painting the Afrika Corps - as an Airfix box of military figures...HO & OO guage? They were sandy coloured as it was assumed the Humbrol colours would be desert camouflage... Wellington, Lancaster (with the swivelling gun turrets everywhere) - the Panzer tank, the 'Specials' which meant you got more vehicles for your money! The bloody slidey-offy in water transfers that were hit and miss at times...One of the best was the Boulton & Paul Defiant - a nightfighter - all in black plastic IIRC
Great days.
The Ariel Arrow motorbike - with the supports for the twin exhaust pipes...and if you were flush, then moving on to Revell Mustang fighter bombers, Superfortress USAF bombers...
And then there was the balsa wood, tissue, dope and Jetex...
Great days.
The Ariel Arrow motorbike - with the supports for the twin exhaust pipes...and if you were flush, then moving on to Revell Mustang fighter bombers, Superfortress USAF bombers...
And then there was the balsa wood, tissue, dope and Jetex...
Mr Pig
New Member
- Location
- North Lanarkshire
PaulB said:
I also had a relapse about fifteen years ago and made a few kits for the first time since I was a kid. Grew out of it, again, though.
As a boy I made loads, not just planes but anything. I had a big model of a supercharged Bentley, trucks, boats, space ships. One of my favourites was a model of an Eagle Transporter for the TV show Space 1999. I thought they were really cool. I put it on a fishing line run over a pulley on my Mechanno motor to a counterweight so that I could make it take off and land! :0) I saw a big die-cast model Eagle in a shop a few weeks ago, it was too expensive to justify but I still wanted it.
I still love making stuff. I'm covered in sawdust as we speak as I was out in the shed sanding a guitar body. My son bought a cheap Telecaster copy and it's getting a full overall. I've already stripped and re-lacquered the neck, bought a new bone nut, to replace the crappy plastic one, and compensated brass saddles for the bridge. The sunburst body is getting redone in clear yellow lacquer and I still need new tuners, strings and pick-guard. It's more satisfying than plastic kits because it has a purpose when it's done. I also made a new power supply for my turntable a while back, still need to dress that up a bit, it's just in a bare aluminium case right now.
I still have lots of Airfix paints and an airbrush, which comes in handy for the stone chips on the car ;0)
gbb
Squire
- Location
- Peterborough
Aperitif said:I remember painting the Afrika Corps - as an Airfix box of military figures...HO & OO guage? They were sandy coloured as it was assumed the Humbrol colours would be desert camouflage... Wellington, Lancaster (with the swivelling gun turrets everywhere) - the Panzer tank, the 'Specials' which meant you got more vehicles for your money! The bloody slidey-offy in water transfers that were hit and miss at times...One of the best was the Boulton & Paul Defiant - a nightfighter - all in black plastic IIRC
Great days.
The Ariel Arrow motorbike - with the supports for the twin exhaust pipes...and if you were flush, then moving on to Revell Mustang fighter bombers, Superfortress USAF bombers...
And then there was the balsa wood, tissue, dope and Jetex...[/QUOTE]
I made that same (well almost) leap...
Airfix kits ?, were there any boys that did'nt used to make them ?. We used to spend ages building and painting them....only to immediately shoot em up with an air rifle. i could pick the pilot out at 10 to 20 yards (well most of the time
Then i moved onto balsa, tissue, dope gliders and freeflight engined models. Tried control lined models, but failed miserably. Think the engine i chose was underpowered and they just used to fall to the floor.
Cant remember the name of the engines, but the smell of the fuel...the roar of the engine as you started them up in the garden on a jig
My pride and joy was a 6ft wingspan glider. We used 20lb breaking strain fishing line to tow it up, and it regularly snapped even that. The pull on the line on a beautiful summers day as the thermals got it was incredible. It had a built in timer to flip the tail and bring it back to earth gently.
Should have had that on my last model. Spent two weeks feverishly and painstakingly hand cutting every spar and crossmember to a plan as big as...a very big plan, assembling it all on the kitchen table.....flew it for the first time and quickly realised i hadnt put some trim on the rudder....and it promptly flew off into the distance at about 500ft. i ran for miles that day, desperately trying to keep it in sight
In answer to the OP...no, i havnt built a single model since my son was about 10...he's now in his late 20s.
I still build models of all sorts. Its (it's?) a great way of clearing the mind after a shitty day. Not that I get much time these days.
Never really got into the flying plane lark. I don't have the manual dexterity to keep them in the air and they're a bit slow for my liking. Much prefer these:
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErIchfskRR0
+1
Never really got into the flying plane lark. I don't have the manual dexterity to keep them in the air and they're a bit slow for my liking. Much prefer these:
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErIchfskRR0
Mr Pig said:
+1
Fnaar
Smutmaster General
- Location
- Thumberland
I never had the patience to do them properly... used to glue them together before painting them, and get glue all over the windscreen. Then we used to throw them around the garden. I once got a big concorde for my birthday, and put a lot of effort into doing it right. But my brother sat on it. 
