After spending nearly 40 years in my career (lawyer), I have
retired to Arizona. We lived in Maine,
but elected to spend our “Golden Years” away from the horrible New England
winters. We traded for toasty Sonoran
Desert summers.
I now have time to get back to making scale models. Over the years, I kept my “stash”, but have
not added to it for a few decades, until now.
Several things surprised me.
First, the very high quality of the work being done now by modelers is
amazing. Second, the fact that the kits
of 1990 are still out there in new boxes with new decals. Third, the “after market” has grown so
much. Fourth, the fading out of enamels
in favor of acrylic paints. Fifth, the
Internet makes research a snap. I have bunch of Detail & Scale and In Action
books (no longer $3.95), but now I don’t need them.
My stash included an Otaki P-40E, which was pretty much
state of the art when last I built a model.
Now, it is pretty dated. But so
am I, I suppose. There is not much to
say about it. The decals came out of my
collection. I added an Ultracast seat
with molded-in seat belts but nothing else.
It is painted with Model Master Acrylic paints. I masked the canopy with Bare Metal foil, but
it left a residue I had to remove with paint thinner and a Q-Tip. I found that by priming the model with
Vallejo Grey Surface Primer (an acrylic/polyurethane product), I was able to
use Tamiya masking tape with no issues of the paint pulling up. That used to be an issue years ago with
Polly-S sprayed on plastic.
The model represents a Kittyhawk Mk IA of the Royal
Australian Air Force, 77 Squadron, Goodenough Island, New Guinea, in 1942. It was the aircraft of Squadron Leader
Richard Cresswell. Since I was a kid,
the P-40 has fascinated me. It was a
real workhorse in the Pacific and the Western Desert.
My goal will be to add regularly to this
blog. I am experimenting with new (to
me) paints and other products, and this will serve as a journal for myself if
nothing else. I hope someone else finds
it useful. 
No comments:
Post a Comment