Hi guys,

I am a armour modeller that wants to widen his modelling to aircraft.
What are the most commen biginner mistakes and what should I look out for when beginning with aircraft modelling.

I have Revell's 1/32 Hawker Hunter waiting as a first atempt.

Thanks for any help you can give this noob

Jan-Willem

seams. you can't hide them with mud and equipment.

clean surfaces. you can't hide marks with texturing, mud and equipment.

weathering. Aircraft are generally kept cleaner and better maintained than the average armour. ( i.e. free of mud) esp a hunter,
generally peacetime, so plenty of time for servicing and cleaner. Not totally clean, sure you want some interest, but not um covered in mud

Did I mention seams?

Oh and make sure trailing edges are sharp.

Just had a quick look at your gallery, that ARV is stunning, noob you are not!

Hunter is a lovely choice, keep us posted.

I'd pretty much echo what jaypee has already said.

The 1/32 Revell Hunter is an ambitious attempt for a "Noob" Camogirl and I both had difficulty with joining the wings and the intakes to the fuselage when trying to build Camogirl's Hunter. We gave up in the end and condemned it back into the stash for a later date. The only advice for building the Hunter I would give is take your time.

So I think jaypee is trying to say...no mud.
I got tired of armor too and stepped into trucks and planes...mostly trucks. I have afew of the revell 1/32 kits that I want to build. Alot of the ones I had as a kid too.
The problem is there isn't much resin or PE out there for these. I have the RF-4b and F-4e phantom kits and the instrument clusters are nothing but decals...and so-so ones at that. I got a Legend resin E-model complete cockpit...this will make a huge difference for sure.
I'm also researching my 1/32 revell Bf 109g and find it's too short in fuse length...it can be fixed, but you might want to research your particular aircraft 1st, then compare to the model.
Don't let this discourage you from the revell stuff...it's not trumpeter or dml for sure, but it is cheap and with enough references, you can scratch or find what you'd need to make the kit really nice.
Most{if not all} of the 1/32 revell planes I have are raised panel lines....and to tell the truth, I don't feel like scribing all the lines in or reriveting everything...I just want to have fun.
LIke Allen said, try it slow and easy, and have fun.

So clean up is important, check
as for the noob part, that refers to the aircraft

as for weathering, I assumed that aircraft would be maintaind a whole lot better than a afv.
I was intending to do a bit of paint chipping as I want to do a Iraqi one from the yom kippur war.

A nother question.
That the cockpit should be painted before instalation is a given, but what parts does one paint beforehand? (hard to reach pleases I get) But things like the landing gear bay's do you paint those before or after? or is it a case of if one can you paint after assemble

to hear that some have had problems with the assemble does worry me a bit, did I bit off more than I can chew with this?

Thanks,

Jan-Willem

Paint chipping would only be in minimal places on modern aircraft eg. edges of the cockpit sils, generally anywhere within the cockpit that would get rubbed away (rudder pedals, edges of panels) as for WWII planes you can go for a bit more in places like areas the ground crew and pilots would walk on to get in the cockpit, wing leading edges, prop blades, etc. Basically check your references.


Personally I do basic painting of things like the gear bay and any open panels, etc during assembly. once built i then mask off those areas and paint the main colours of the aircraft. once dry I de-mask and weather those areas at the same time I do my panel lines washes.


don't let it worry you to be honest when Camogirl tried building this kit we were teaching modelling to Air Cadets as as such quite often it would either get broken by one of them and need re-gluing or we could devote enough time to the build. As I've already said take your time and it should come out well (judging by your armour builds)

Don't forget to post some progress photos

The Revell Hunter is a beauty but, as others have pointed out, there are a few traps for the unwary. If you want a pain-free build to practise things like seams and cockpits, you could do a lot worse than lay out a few quid on a 1/72 Spitfire or similar. It's a traditional starter route for anyone getting into aircraft modelling and you won't lose much money if you make a bish of it. If you want something a bit bigger and a bit better appointed, Hasegawa or Tamiya both do 1/48 single-engined aircraft that practically fall together and are full of lovely detail (especially if you're happy to accept a few compromises over accuracy).

Apart from that, two more things to look out for. One: the undercarriage. It's surprisingly difficult to get it properly aligned and it can often be a weak point structurally. You may think that persuading sixteen road wheels to sit straight is tricky but three sitting points on an aircraft can be worse - especially if there are double wheels and only one will touch the ground. An associated problem is balance, which is generally an absolute bugger for anything with tricycle undercarriage.

Two: matching the wings. Unless a kit has the correct dihedral / anhedral built in, or has a spar, it's crucial that you take time to align the wings (and tailplanes) so that the tips are the same distance above the ground. I find that building a jig out of Lego helps enormously.

Thanks for the tip of the lego jig. I'll watch out with the alignment of the wings.

A big thatnk you to all of you for the hints and tips. When I start building I'll take it slow and steady and I'll definately post them here so I can ask for more help

Cheers,

Jan-Willem