Hello All,
After a trip to the Boeing Museum of Flight outside of Seattle a few weeks ago (what a place!), I got bit by the modeling bug hard. I've spent some time collecting resources (and hiding purchases from the wife) and am finally ready to tackle my first "real" model since making haphazard glue balls as a kid. With two small boys at home, I think I finally have developed enough patience for this hobby.
I come from a long line of submariners and after a tip from the local LHS, picked up a Revell 1/144 U-212A model, which they mentioned is a good place to get back into the hobby. I cracked it open last night, and even after reading a bunch online and watching some videos, I have some (probably pretty dumb) questions for you venerable experts.
Now these may be dumb questions (according to my wife, that'd be right in line with my every day behavior), but I'm working my way through the instructions to get a better understanding of what I should assemble then paint, and what I should paint then assemble. Also, this is my first time working through instructions and I was hoping I could get a translator until I can figure them out for myself.
The manual in question is here: http://manuals.hobbico.com/rvl/80-5019.pdf
Now looking at step 2 and 3. They show assembling the screw apparatus, and then mounting the inner edge inside of the hull before glueing it together. Also notice they suggest painting the screw itself brass and the boss cap white, while the hull itself gets the German navy treatment. So given that I'm putting the propeller assembly in the hull, then ideally doing a paint pass on the assembled hull, do you recommend painting the screw and boss cap first, then masking it when painting the hull? Or doing it the other way around, paint the hull, then do the detail work on the propeller and boss cap?
In step 2, they mark it as a glue step, but then the picture shows no glue. What the hell? Is it saying not to glue part 4 to 5, but to glue part 3 to 5?
Also, when I look at online glueing tutorials, they seem to spread the stuff around quite a bit, which makes sense for things like plane wings. However on the sub, in step 3 I'm glueing the edges of the two halves of the hull. Does it make more sense to use thin glue and the capillary effect here?
This stuff is probably pretty basic for you guys. I don't want to waste anyone's time. It's probably best to just jump in and mess things up, but I'm a wee bit obsessive. I know there's a lot here, any help would be appreciated.