Stupid Idea ?

I've got one of Revell's WWII heavy cruisers in the "picture frame series", USS Helena, around 1/480.  Will end up doing the same with her as well.  Just a light hearted attempt to regain the past.

That sounds like fun to me. Nothing wrong with a throwback build now and then. I built an old Monogram Hurricane for my Great Nephew a month ago that way. I used liquid cement instead of tube glue, and I did fill and sand seams. But no after market items were added, and it was all brush painted. And the prop still spun and landing gear retracts. Pure old moldeling fun.

Enjoy your atomic cruiser! I hope you post some photos here!

Hey Stik !

 The only thing I have definitely done that is modern is this ; No more single edged razor blades for trimming ! I am definitely going to use My X-Acto number 11 blades here and a spruecutter !

Hey , Goldhammer ;

 I even went so far as to lightly sand the edges of the deckhouses that get glued for a tighter , more accurate fit .

Single edge blades, lol, I remember (and still have the fingernail to remind me) at about 7 years old, a pocket knife and slicing halfway up the nail on the left hand ring finger.

Mom put an end to my budding modeling career for a couple of years on that one.  Dad was more in the reality of the moment....."Well you'll be more careful with a knife next time, won't you son?"

Hmm, I used my Dad's Swiss Army Knife until he caught me. I still have it.

Tanks, Airbrushes weren't invented until the 1870's by Stanley, he of steam powered car fame, so I wouldn't expect that you had one as a kid.

Our John Tilley always put down the idea of A/Bs in ship modeling, although I disagree,

I never built the Long Beach but I did build the NS Savannah. Lucky it came in white plastic so it didn't need to be painted...

I occasionally build one of the old Pyro Table Top Series ships that I built way back then (early 1960s).  What they lack in detail and realism, they make up in fun.

Bill

You're all fine modelers with lots of patience, skill, and a keen mind for build order, scratching parts when needed (or for more accuracy), and artisitc talent expressed (at least on this forum) in the guise of painting/weathering know how.

I, on the other hand, just plod along, sometimes trashing work that I've botched beyond redemption and am happy when one of my finished models looks like a reasonable facsimile of what was on the box art.

I don't have a lot of skill now and had virtually none when I slapped together some kits when I was a pre-teen and up to about the age in the image I'm posting here. BTW, I have posted this image on FineScale before .. but I can't remember what the thread was all about. Probably "your first model" or something along those lines. Note the blurry images on the mantel of a hospital ship and the bow section of a Viking ship. I son't see any paint on the Viking ship probably because back in those days painting was not a necessity for me. I don't know how old I was in this picture (probably 13 to 14) but it was most likely at the end of my adolescent model building years.

At least I have something to compare what I do now with what I managed to mangle then.

hey G.H. ;

 I sliced right to the bone with my first X-Acto . Didn't see another till I was a year older .

Hi " G " ;

 Hey ! You know what , Along the years I not only have that one but one done by someone else that's bigger . Same with the Oriana . I did like the Revell Savannah and the Brazil . Both white and great looking with careful painting .

 Oh , You are so wrong . I was studying some of the Drawings from Leonardo ( one of my early contemporaries ) and he said it would never work . So I helped put planks on the Mayflower a couple of hundred years later . LOL.LOL.LOl. T.B.

TB, not stupid at all. In fact I was looking up my first build, a Testors Cessna Skymaster to try to recapture those old days. I used so much tube glue that I melted the wings LOL.

I have been eyeballing some of those old Revell and Monogram ship kits to toy around with lately.

Mike, don't worry about what you feel you're level of "skill" is, unless that's what's driving you to continue in the hobby. For years I had no idea what and airbrush was let alone how to use one. It's all about enjoying yourself.

GM,

My thumbs used to require stitches on a regular basis, until I learned to stablize the blade handle or cut away from me. My parents would dutifully take me down to the DR. every 6 months or so to have one of my digets sewn up and figured I'd learn eventually. Pain is a good teacher.

My Dad worked for a year in a Franklin Stove factory. There was an enormous punch press that cut the stove body in one big piece of steel plate before it was folded up on a brake and welded together.

It took five men to run the thing, handling the steel into the press and removing the part.

The tool had a row of ten buttons spaced about 9" apart, so everyone had to go to the panel after set-up and each press two buttons.

They got rewarded for productivity, so nine of the buttons were locked in the "on" position with sheet metal screws in the bezel. One guy, not dad, stood there and stabbed the tenth button while the other guys threw steel around.

Lots of missing digits there.

I did learn something in Boy Scouts- always cut away from yourself.

warshipguy

I occasionally build one of the old Pyro Table Top Series ships that I built way back then (early 1960s).  What they lack in detail and realism, they make up in fun.

Bill

Like these?

USS Iowa (Revell>ESCI>Casadio)

USS Essex (Pyro)

USS Yorktown (CV-10) (Pyro Essex kit)

USS Yorktown (CV-5) (Revell>ESCI>Casadio)

IN Shinano (Revell>ESCI>Casadio)

IJN Musashi (Pyro)

IJN Zuikaku (Pyro)

RN Vittorio Veneto (ESCI>Casadio)

DKM Scharnhorst (ESCI>Casadio)

HMS Essex (Eaglewall)

HMS Cossack and Hotspur (Eaglewall)

USS North Carolina (Pyro)

USS Washington (Pyro-same kit as the North Carolina)


I like them for quick builds.  I have a little stash of other 1/1200 kits, including some of the Airfix "Sink the Bismarck!" series, and Lindberg re-issues of the Pyro kits, some more Revell re-issues of the old ESCI>Casadio kits, etc.  They're fun!

Hi;

 I don't know how big your bases are but , They look good .Who would've thought those little scudders could look that good . Nice job . Oh , Yes they are fun too ! T.B.

Thanks!

Most of the bases are name plates I salvaged at work, as people would leave.  They were made out of thick styrene, and were about 7"x1.75" or so.  For the longer ships, like the Musashi or the Essex-class carriers, I cut bases from my usual stock of styrene sheet-yard signs from the hardware store.  Those, I cut about 11"x2", and I laminated two strips together for additional thickness.

The water I made from artist's acrylic gel.  It was an experiment, to get used to using it, since I want to use it to make bases for my 1/700 ships.  I sculpt the surface with a plastic knife, and then mixed acrylic white, ultramarine and green for the water colors.  I made the wakes a little too big, I think.

Hey ;

 They're warships aren't they ? That's called " All Ahead Flank" speed . My destroyer at that speed ( She was a Gearing Class ) would put out a Rooster tail at least twenty foot high ! T.B.

When I was a kid in the 1950's I didn't use a razor blade. I just twisted or rocked the part back and forth to break it free from the spur. Then came the glue in the tube. The models didn't look very good, but I had fun. Now it takes me months to build a model because I have become a lunatic concerning details. It's still fun.

modelcrazy

GM,

My thumbs used to require stitches on a regular basis, until I learned to stablize the blade handle or cut away from me. My parents would dutifully take me down to the DR. every 6 months or so to have one of my digets sewn up and figured I'd learn eventually. Pain is a good teacher.

 Lolol... What a great conversation! If I wasn't cutting my fingers, I was stabbing them with something! Shoot, I've been cut so much my fingers don't bleed any more! (I wish) lol...

 

Doug

 

 

JohnnyK;

 I think we all did that at some time in this hobby of ours .