Thinking about getting back into modelling

[Andy in West Oz]

Hi guys, been a while since I was on here. Would love to sit down and actually do my stockpile of aircraft soon but I've been out of modelling for a good ten years. Probably more like 15.

Has there been any developments or new technology that I should be aware of to make things easier? Just thought I'd ask to find out and figured it'd make an interesting discussion point.

Most of my completed kits are packed away now and have suffered from several house moves in the past five years. It's gotten to the stage where I'll most likely throw out most of them, keep the "milestones" and start again. Got Monogram P-40, B-26, B-25, B-24, B-29 and some jets just sitting around so...

Have noticed Monogram no longer exists?

Cheers

Andy

[TAdan]

Revell and Monogram merged a while back, and released kits under the Revell/Monogram label for several years. Recently they changed the name to just Revell.

So if you are looking for new releases of the "classic" Monogram kits, Revell should have them. Not to mention I am sure there are plenty left on shelves.

Alot of the entry level kits are still the same ones that were originally released in the 60's with new box art and new decals. (I love to build them, they are cheap and simple)

Technology wise...I think its about the same as fifteen years ago, hehe.

I'd recomend checking out:

www.finescale.com

www.swannysmodels.com

www.aircraftresourcecenter.com

Good luck!

[Chad Veich]

Also visit www.hyperscale.com, a tremendous resource of information including lots of "how to" articles. I build R/C rather than plastic but Hyperscale is a good source of info no matter what type of building you do. Good luck with your endeavors.

[DanteC]

Definately don't throw anything out....Some of those kits command some pretty good scratch now (especially the B-24, if it's a J) and there are alot of people out there looking for spares. You could ditch your oldies on hyperscale if you wanted, and possibly get some unbuilt kits out of them. Hasegawa and Tamiya have some great new tooled kits out, covering all subjects, but the old Monogram kits are still great. The P-40 is still considered my many to be the best early P-40 available. The P-51 builds up very nice, and is accurate as well. The B-17, B-24, and B-29 are the only game in town when it comes to 1/48 scale. Most of the old Monogram kits are either still in production, or are easily available at hobby shops, hyperscale, or eBay. There is also an endless amount of aftermarket decals and details available for just about every kit produced when are ready to tackle them.

Dante

[Andy in West Oz]

Thanks for the feedback guys. My brother-in-law is a train nut (I don't hold it against him too much, LOL!) and he ships a lot of stuff into Oz and has some good deals going with a big hobby shop in Melbourne, where he lives. I'll probably get re-equipped through him although I still have all of my brushes, knives etc packed away. Airbrush is the way to go though.

I'm afraid most of my built kits have suffered in one way or the other during the moves, no matter how well I packed them. Annoys me no end when I see gun barrels etc missing. Makes me wonder if the new ones I build will go the same way but I plan to put them on bases/basic dioramas.

I never used an airbrush but the most advanced I got was thinning and punching a hole through the rudder of my Monogram P-40B (fuse still in halves 10+ years later and I need to make it look like fabric cos I think they had fabric covered rudders) to simulate some minor battle damage to be used in a diorama of the aircraft having just returned from an op. I did minor detailing of the cockpit using thin wire, masking tape for seatbelts, scrap sprue and Squadron Signal's P-40 in Action book! Even dry brushed silver on the floor and seat edges to simulate wear! That's as far as I got.

Perhaps I should start on something that's just a build that incorporates some aftermarket parts and decals before tackling the P-40 again?!

Thanks again for you help, guys, sorry for the thinking out loud above!

Andy