SPA Modeler

Sorry for the lack of updates Gents, I've been rather under the weather since the 12th and not up to much.

One of the advantages of having a week off work is that I've made some progress...

Here's the kit cockpit for what it's worth.





And here's where it is now...

And

To be honest I've not been overly impressed with this kit - It's a bit of a dog. The fit has been truly awful. This is the size of the wing root gaps...



Thanks for looking in.

Cheers!

portman wrote:

I like the cockpit Stuart! Those yellow / black stripes on the handles, painted with a cocktail stick ? Curiosity, do you first paint the yellow and then add black "stripes" or the opposite? I guess the paint layer is pretty thick so either way probably goes ?

I love the self made belt, especially its very "relaxed" position!

- Kari

Thanks Kari! (I've done better but it was as much as I could muster the interest for with this kit).

Well lads my experiment of going to a shop, buying a kit and then building it is at an end...



It's a shame really I think if I'd have chosen any other kit it'd be a different story (why didn't I go for the new tool Revel Beaufighter! ) but this one was a bastard from start to finish. The interior detail sucked, nothing fitted properly and the plastic was stupidly hard and brittle, to the extent that I really struggled to do any kind of decent seam clean up. but all that shouldn't have been a problem - hell it's not that I'm not used to building difficult or poor fitting kits!!! Over the past 10 years I've actually built very few modern well engineered kits, preferring old tool Airfix, Matchbox and anything else, so what is it?

...What this kit REALLY lacked I guess is what you call the the fun factor - it just wasn't a fun build, and it certainly wasn't relaxing I wonder in fact what makes one kit fun to build and another less so? Why was this kit sh!t and yet I'm REALLY enjoying the Tanmodel F-5 I'm building even though it has basically all the same issues (1mm gaps around the wing root and intakes )... It'd be the subject for a good debate that.

Anyway I'm not going to apologise for binning it, I've long since come to the conclusion that I just don't have the patience for kits I'm not enjoying. I don't know if it's just the life I lead, with a disabled son, highly strung wife, negative style job etc. or if it is just I'm a grumpy old git (or possibly both ) but I'm not going to waste my very limited and valuable (to me anyway) bench time when I'm not having fun or relaxing - because what's the point?

I've rather wave the white flag, bin it and move on.

Ok rant over... Actually as an aside I really loved the concept of actually buying a kit at the shop, and then just building it. I'm going to try it again, hopefully with more success!

Cheers Dudes!

KSaarni wrote:

portman wrote:

I like the cockpit Stuart! Those yellow / black stripes on the handles, painted with a cocktail stick ? Curiosity, do you first paint the yellow and then add black "stripes" or the opposite? I guess the paint layer is pretty thick so either way probably goes ?

I love the self made belt, especially its very "relaxed" position!

- Kari

Sorry Kari - I forgot to answer this

Yes the yellow was painted with a cocktail stick. I painted the seat black first and then added the yellow over it freehand. I've tried a few different methods over the years and this one seems to be the easiest (or possibly lazyist!) - I've no idea how people manage to mask and spray them.

Stuart, I’m sorry to read of the fate of this one.

Airfix has a new tool version of this kit in 1/48 recently issued. Or they will be releasing the earlier F.4 version this year (the one I really want!).

Or there is the ultimate Hunter kit out there- Revell 1/32. I built that one year ago, and it is one of the best fitting kits that I have ever built. I mean fantastic!

Oh dear, that is a bad omen for the Academy Hunter in my stash...

Life's to short for ugly women bad model kits. You did absolutely the right thing, Stuart. I recently sold most of the short-run and old tooling kits of my collection for exact that reason. So much good kits out there. Why bother with bad engineering?

Shucks, glue it up and:

1. use it for a paint mule
2. filling test bed
3. target with a bb gun (used to do this all the time)
4. try new stuff on it.

portman wrote:

Ouch.... What happened here concretely... Smashed by hand / foot / both feet / hammer ??



No but seriously... If a build does not feel good and you even try to make it feel good without result... then there is absolutely no point to waste time and energy to try to finish it... There are other ways to finish it, as you Stuart clearly did! :-)

Wish to see you Do-17 build start soon!

- Kari

mostrich wrote: (...) Why bother with bad engineering?

I build a lot of short run and “difficult” kits for just one reason: I really love the subject of the kit (such as Polikarpov’s, rocket powered aircraft, forward swept wings etc).

But I do agree with the fact that a build should be fun. For me, the subject is an important part in that. For others it might be painting or weathering or whatever. Just as long as you enjoy.