Resolutions and hairspray

I admit it: I used to use hairspray. Back when I was as handsome as Tom Cruise and the ladies would swoon when I'd walk into a room carry the latest Monogram release under my muscular arms. Those were the days!

I have a different relationship with hairspray these days. I don't need it for my hair as much as I do for my models. Unless you've been living under a rock or been overly preoccupied with The Simpsons, you're at least vaguely familiar with the use of hairspray in scale modeling. In case you're not, it's a technique that allows you to create extremely realistic paint wear and chipping. Here's an example, a 1/48 Hs-129 by Bob Windus seen at last year's IPMS Nats.

 The general process looks something like this.

1. Apply color #1.
2. Apply hairspray.
3. Apply color #2.
4. Use a pointed tool or brush to removed color #2, allowing color #1 to show underneath.

Mig Jimenez has a very nice tutorial on his blog, and if you can find your way to Google and can type on a keyboard, a quick search will turn up dozens of other articles and SBS's where the technique is shown. There are even some very helpful videos on YouTube. The ultimate FAQ, in my humble opinion, is found on this thread on the Mig Productions forum.

I'm talking about the hairspray technique because, as you may recall, one of my New Years resolutions for you (and me) was to experiment. I've wanted to try this technique for a long time but have been afraid of failing -- because, you know, if you screw up a model your life has no value, right? So I found an inexpensive Hobby Boss 1/72 MiG-3 (which is quite a gem, by the way), purchased a bottle of AK Interactive's Worn Effects Acrylic Fluid (i.e., hairspray), and said a prayer to every god I could think of, including Tengri, the primary deity of the the Xiongnu, Hunnic, Bulgar, and Xianbei peoples.

I won't go into great detail about the process I used on the MiG, other than to say I used Tamiya paints exclusively, with a typical application of Future before and after applying the decals...and before the application of the chipping fluid and white paint. I'm pleased with the results, but I'll offer the three reactions I had to my efforts.

First, the paint didn't come off as easily as I had expected, even though I started working it within 10 minutes of applying the chipping fluid. Maybe it's my choice of Tamiya, which is a surprisingly durable paint. Next time I'll try Polly-S.

Second, it's very easy to chip or rub through the paint right down to the bare plastic. I did so on one or two areas, though it's not obvious given the color of the airframe. This may be the result of my using Tamiya, but in general I'd suggest proceeding carefully.

Third, the results are somewhat random. I guess this is a good thing, but as an "artist," I like having much more control of the final effects that I have envisioned. Some spots on the MiG are over-worn and others under-worn, at least to my eye.

Overall I'm very happy with the model. I think it turned out quite well for my first attempt at a new technique, and I'm eager to try it again. I hope you're experiementing as we move further into 2014. I'd love to hear what you're doing!

This model is crap!

This is my story about how I learned to love rivet counters. It's a path of anger, annoyance, irritation, acceptance, appreciation, and affection.

Our hobby is just like any other hobby and special interest. We attract all kinds of people. There are casual participants. There are enthusiasts. There are zealots. And everything in between. I know this isn't a surprise to hear, but it's important to acknowledge it as we walk our sprue-strewn path toward scale modeling enlightenment and unconditional love of elitists and rivet counters.

Last year there was a thread on ARC where modelers discussed the merits of IPMS membership, and one of the criticisms often leveled at the organization is the elitism that some modelers have encountered. I've seen it myself, but my sense of humor pulls me through those moments even when I want to punch an elitist in the throat.

For example, I was at a contest many years ago mulling around the contest room with a friend and soon found myself chatting within a circle of modelers he knew. One of them was a well-known and respected expert whom I'd never met. At one point he pulled me over to the table behind us, pointed to a model, and proceeded to tell me what was wrong with it. Mind you, I'd never met this guy before and there was nothing in the group's conversation that should've triggered him to take me away from it. I was taken aback. I was speechless. I would have been less surprised had he shown me a tattoo of a tricycle on his inner thigh. What if it had been my model? What if it had been the first model that a 14 year-old boy had ever built? This guy, as knowledgeable as he was, had absolutely no tact. He could've been the poster boy for the elitism that many people complain about.

More recently, in the last few months in fact, I've noticed a number of contentious threads across many forums where casual modelers and rivet counters are debating the accuracy and subsequent value of new kits. You have the rivet counters pointing out every major and minor error, and you have casual modelers expressing their annoyance and proclaiming, "It looks like a Periland-Hawthwait Gumbat Mk. IV." Here are a few:

The DML M103, on Armorama.
The Trumpeter T-38, on ARC.
The Great Wall Hobby (re-tooled) F-15B/D on ARC.

In my experience most modelers are good guys who enjoy building models for relaxation or to indulge their interest in Cold War jets, German armor, World War Two destroyers, 28mm trolls, or whatever. But elitists exist everywhere no matter how you indulge your weird interests. Do you like wine? You'll find oenophiles who won't buy anything but French wine. Are you a chocolate connoisseur? My best friend will laugh at you if you talk about Godiva ("candy," as he calls it) in his presence. Are you a car guy? Don't drive an automatic as I do, because sports car elitists will laugh at you on track day.

So what do we do with these people? Nothing. You can't change people, so to preserve your sanity you must find a way to accept their contributions to the hobby.

I've learned to love elitists, and you should, too. Let's face it; the "experts" in the scale modeling hobby are not paid historians. They're not professional engineers. They are usually self-taught historians and enthusiasts who are simply eager to share what they've learned. They spend a good amount of time studying new kits, comparing them to photographs or scale drawings, and generally offering educated analyses of the discrepancies they've found. I think that's pretty generous on their part, and I'm glad they're willing to do it.

Your challenge is to read their reviews and take what you need from them. The wings on the Cyber Hobby Sea Venom are too long? You have to consider whether you can live with that inaccuracy if you want a Sea Venom in your collection. The wheels on the Academy Merkava aren't aligned properly? You have to consider if that's a deal-breaker for you. If the errors don't bother you it shouldn't be too difficult to simply click the Back button on your browser and find something else to read. We don't have to chastise rivet counters for offering a (fair) critique of a model. Sure, some are self-important blowhards like the guy I encountered, but so what? Don't let them ruin your enjoyment of the hobby. Or a glass of wine from a Missouri winery.

Embrace the suck!

A frog into a prince

It's 2014 and we're enjoying some of the highest quality kits we've ever seen in the hobby, and while some of us have been quietly selling some of the older, "obsolete" kits in our stashes, a few dedicated modelers have been building them and creating masterpieces in the process.

If you want my respect, build an old model and do it extremely well. That's what Erik Houghton did over on 72nd Scale Aircraft with a really old Frog 1/72 Javelin FAW.9R. He's rescribed the model, added a great deal of detail, and applied a top flight finish to it. If I didn't know better I'd think that Trumpeter had done gone and released a new-tool Javelin while I was off watching the Winter Olympics!

Take a look at Erik's build. You'll be inspired, and you'll find a few tips (such as his manufacture of the wing vortice generators) that you can apply to your models, whether they were manufactured 40 years ago or four months ago.

Look at this stash

I recently stumbled upon this article on Buzzfeed, about the US Army's Museum Support Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The center is the Army's repository for historical artifacts and more than 16,000 works of art reflecting military history.

What an incredibly interesting collection, though as the article says, most of us will not see it unless enough money can be raised to build a suitable museum.

Let's hope fundraising continues so that the artifacts and artwork can be enjoyed by the public. You can donate via the National Museum of the United States Army website.

Missing my favorite contest

As I write this at 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning Blizzardcon 2014 is underway in Columbus, Ohio, one of the best IPMS contests in the country. Hundreds of contest entries, great vendors, and top-flight organizers. I used to attend on a regular basis, making the flight from Newark, New Jersey to Columbus, but due to family obligations I haven't been able to attend in the last few years.

I'll write more about contests as we proceed further into the contest season in the next month or two, but I'm a big believer that every modeler should support local contests. I'll lay out a number of reasons why you should do so, but today, as I curl up and cry underneath two feet of snow, I'm reminded why I most miss attending Blizzardcon...the people. Some of my best friends in the hobby, and in my life, attend the contest, so yet another year is passing without my spending time with them.

It would be great to enter the contest and ogle at the other entries on the table; it would be nice to score a Hasegawa 1/48 F-15E as my friend Jason did an hour ago, and it would be awesome to bring home Best of Show (unlikely, but I can dream). But what I miss most is getting up at 6 a.m. to meet Mark, Graham, his wife Christie, Kurt, Dick, the other Mark, Jason, and others at a local breakfast joint. I'll miss shooting the bull throughout the day. I'll miss the emotional downer of packing up at the end of the day. And I'll miss the post-contest dinner where we talk about our favorite models in the contest and ponder what we might build for next year. Those are the reasons I attend contests.

Maybe next year.

A few tips

Over the weekend Aircraft Resource Center user DutyCat wrote about his experiences building the Hasegawa 1/72 F-14 on this thread, and I echoed his thoughts on one item in particular. He pointed out that, after a coat or two of paint, the axles on landing gear often won't fit into the hole in the wheels. I've encountered the same difficulty over the years, also upon trying to insert landing gear into the fuselage/wings as well. It's very frustrating to be so close to completing a model only to find out parts won't fit. I contributed my "cure" for this problem on DutyCat's thread, but I thought I'd share it here with a couple more random modeling tips I've picked up along the way. 

Attachment points

I struggle with alignment, a lot. Getting parts to fit and adhere correctly is crucial in building a model (especially if you seek the great fame, wealth, and glory that accompanies a win at an IPMS contest), so lately I've been masking areas that will serve as mating surfaces for two parts. For example, on the B-26 I just finished I used thin strips of Tamiya tape to mask the narrow areas where the bulkheads joined the fuselage. This, I hope, provides a strong bond of those parts.

To DutyCat's observation on ARC, I've been using Micro Mask to ensure that the holes and mating surfaces for landing gear and wheels remain clean of paint, which eases assembly and ultimately provides a strong bond. Is all of this tedious? Yes, but anything that helps me during assembly is a good thing.

Paint chips

I love weathering. It's my favorite part of the model building process, and for me it begins with painting and ends with paint chips. I used to use silver paint to represent paint chips, but I've found that it's not condusive to creating "chips" small enough and jagged enough to look realistic. I've seen well-painted models with paint chips that resemble silver amoeba rather than irregular and jagged damage.

A better medium for me has been artist pencils. Using an inexpensive pencil sharpner, I can get them sharp enough to create very fine "chips," lightly tapping the pencil on the model to create the smallest chips. The trick then becomes creating chips that appear realistic, which is difficult and time consuming. I spent approximately two hours on the paint chips on my B-26.

Color

I'm a proponent of scale effect. I won't bore you with a technical explanation, but if you're new to the hobby the concept simply suggests that colors become less intense in smaller scales. For me it means that I never use paint directly out of the bottle. Every color I apply to a model is muted or altered in some way, and it's especially true of the so-called primary colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), and white and black. I always reduce the intensity of these colors by adding another color to them.

For example, my B-26 features black and white D-Day invasion stripes. Rather than apply those colors directly from the bottle, I added a little tan to the white paint and white and tan to the black paint to weather them and avoid the stark contrast that a bright white and dark black would impart. The same holds true for the yellow on the tips of the propeller blades, which was toned down using tan and white.

I hope you can use these ideas for your models. I'll share some additional tips in the future.

We are a lazy bunch

The line between modeler and collector is getting fuzzy, and it's because we are lazy.

There, I've said it. Hate me for saying it, but someone has to stand up and express the concern that we're slowly losing whatever sense of craftsmanship we might have.

What separates us modelers from model collectors -- the guys who buy pre-assembled, pre-painted diecast models -- is that we are engineers, craftsmen, artists. At least we aspire to be. You see, anyone with the money can buy a diecast model and put it on a shelf. Modelers are better than that. We create representations of aircraft, armor, ships, and vehicles with our hands. The models that sit in our display cases showcase our skill, talent, and experience. That's a privilege that people who engage in other hobbies enjoy.

I worry that every year we hand off that responsibility to the aftermarket industry. (To be clear, I don't fault the industry. They're simply giving us what we ask for.) I present the following evidence to the court:

• Resin cockpits
• Pre-painted photoetch
• Canopy masks
• Camouflage masks
• Off-the-shelf weathering washes
• Paint chip decals
• Printed flightline surfaces

If you use any of these products, you are lazy. When I use them (and I admit I do) I lose a little bit of self-respect. I firmly believe that with practice and time I -- and you -- can master the effects that all of these items provide. The sense of pride we'd would feel would be much greater than simply using a collection of pre-made bits and pieces in an effort to build something "better."

Here's a recent example. Some modelers are asking the decal manufacturers to produce decals for the RAM panels on the new 1/72 F-35 kits. Really? I admit, masking them will be tedious, but won't that result in something better? And isn't tedious what this hobby is all about? How many times has someone looked at your models and said, "Oh, I could never be that patient." But we are. At least we used to be.

I know, you could argue that model kits themselves are cheating when we could build models from scratch. That's true. I could also manufacture my own paints and glues. But we have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise we'll find ourselves admiring 200 tables of diecast models at the 2025 IPMS National Convention.

Here's my advice. Don't be afraid to rely on your skills to do what seems difficult. You'll find a greater sense of satisfaction.