Just got a couple of MotoGP 1/12 Tamiaya bikes for $20 at a resale shop. These things are over $35+ at a hobby shop. Score. Easy to build. Bitch to paint.
Just got a couple of MotoGP 1/12 Tamiaya bikes for $20 at a resale shop. These things are over $35+ at a hobby shop. Score. Easy to build. Bitch to paint.
I'm about to start a 69 Z-28 with my son. I usually build aircraft though. I'm currently stalled an a 1/32 scale F-18 Hornet that I've added several hundred scratch built parts to. Basically rebuilt the entire ejection seat, cockpit, avionics bays and wheel wells. Model building and OCD go hand in hand.
Most of what I've built lately have been "10 footers" (i.e. quick and dirty) aircraft I've built with my son to hang from the ceiling in his room. I haven't built a car since I was about 12, so we'll see how the Camaro turns out. Trying to build fast enough to keep a 10 year old interested is quite a challenge.
I've got a Lindbergh kit for one of these, waiting for the time and mood:
Mine won't turn out as nice.
kazoospec wrote: Most of what I've built lately have been "10 footers" (i.e. quick and dirty) aircraft I've built with my son to hang from the ceiling in his room. I haven't built a car since I was about 12, so we'll see how the Camaro turns out. Trying to build fast enough to keep a 10 year old interested is quite a challenge.
That is exactly my experience as of now. 10-yr-old son...likes planes. We built a Spitfire MKV, a Zero and are new doing a Me-109G--all in 1/48. We're not filling/sanding yet...and no airbrushing. Have a Hasagawa P-38 that he got for Christmas on deck. I think we'll make a more sincere effort starting on that one.
I'm finding 1/72 scale kits are great for ceiling hangers, and you can realistically knock one out in an afternoon if the paint scheme is simple. What's more, they are cheap and we've got some 1/72 soldiers we can repurpose as pilots. So far we've done an F-21/Kfir, SBD, F6F, F-104 and P-51D. Got about 3-4 hours invested in each and they each look decent hanging from the ceiling. Up close, not so much. Next plane on deck is a 2 seat F-100.
My wife bought me a Revell VW bus model for Christmas. http://www.revell.com/model-kits/cars/85-4292.html. Thing is I've never ever built a model before and it's labeled as a level 3. Would I be better off starting with a level 1 snap together model and then doing a level 2 before I try the level 3? I'm just looking for a hobby of some sort and thought this sounded interesting. I appreciate any feedback.
No offense, but can someone explain to me owning a model kit and NEVER building it because you wish to preserve it? Preserve it for what? It's a kit. It's meant to be built. I just don't get it. 
vwcorvette wrote: No offense, but can someone explain to me owning a model kit and NEVER building it because you wish to preserve it? Preserve it for what? It's a kit. It's meant to be built. I just don't get it.
Back in the mid-1970's my buddy would build cars as he continued to buy new ones and get cars for birthday gifts. He ended up with a closet full as he couldn't get ahead of he builds.
In 1978 he turned 16 years old and bought a truck and never looked back to models. Today he has an eBay fortune in wrapped new AMT models.
Mrsoul - dive in. Snap together kits won't really help that much unless you need practice painting. Get yourself some glue and some paint and get busy. If the VW bus is something special you want to do well, get a simpler kit to start out with. My guess is its rated a 3 because of the amount of "glass" in a VW bus. Getting the windows in is one of the trickier parts of building car models.
VWcorvette - I've got about 30 plane models, not necessarily because I collect them, but because I bought ahead of what I was able to build, then took several years off when the kids were born. I guess some people "collect" unopened kits. I just bought them faster than I could build them. Also, sort of like Hot Wheels, sometimes kits are only made/available for limited amounts of time, so you pretty much buy them when the become available or run the risk you won't be able to get them later.
mrsoul55 wrote: My wife bought me a Revell VW bus model for Christmas. http://www.revell.com/model-kits/cars/85-4292.html. Thing is I've never ever built a model before and it's labeled as a level 3. Would I be better off starting with a level 1 snap together model and then doing a level 2 before I try the level 3? I'm just looking for a hobby of some sort and thought this sounded interesting. I appreciate any feedback.
I never found snap togethers to be much fun, but on the other hand, it's easy to make a huge mess of a model when gluing in windows. That bus may not be the easiest first kit.
It's also worth pointing out to people who are new at this that primer makes a huge difference when painting models. You can also strip off an entire paint job with Easy Off and not ruin the plastic.
I have several model kits that are going to be slotcars some day.....
I keep "rescuing" them from the local thrift shop and usually pay less than $5 per kit. Sometimes they have been opened. Sometimes they have been painted. Often they are missing parts... But as long as the body shell is there I can turn it into a race car.... Somehow this sounds familiar... I don't know why...
Scott
I got this kit for my 8 year old, hopefully we can start on it after all of the Holiday stuff is over.
I have an older Airbrush that belonged to my Dad, does anyone know where I could get a basic "how to" for using it?
I have a shelf full of kits that I'm going to build "one of these days." There are a couple 1:12 motorcycle kits that are super detailed - the wheels even have individual spokes that have to be laced on the rims. I opened one of them once, looked at it for a while, and then put it back on the shelf. I may have to let those kits wait until I'm retired. 
BoxheadTim wrote:ST_ZX2 wrote:Oh my poor wallet. Great selection of Tamiya kits, I suddenly have a yen to build the Lotus 7 as a way back into the hobby.BoxheadTim wrote: Great, I've just spent the last 15 minutes browsing the car kits on ehobbies and found at least four or five that I'd like to put together. I used to build kits quite extensively as a kid but somehow stopped when I started fiddling with real cars instead. Anybody got a good source for car model kits?http://modelempireusa.com/catalogpdf.htm
I built one of the Tamiya 7 models. They're gorgeous. Mine came with a second set of professionally painted body panels but one of the fenders got cracked in shipping, so fake CF it is. I find painting 1:1 models aggravating enough.
It was enough to put me over the edge towards building my own. And I used the model as reference.
Janel and I put together a different kind of model in the days after Christmas. It was the first time she'd built anything out of Lego! My job was to have the parts ready for the next step when she needed them. It was a lot of fun to do together.
Keith, is that a 1/24 scale Lotus 7 kit or a bigger one? Looks awfully detailed for 1/24 but then again I haven't looked at kits for while.
You have no idea how much detail you can pack into 1/24 scale.
In reply to Keith:
When I first glanced at the bottom two pictures of the Lotus I wondered why pictures of a real car were in this thread. Wow, that is the best looking "model" I ever recall seeing. Are all Tamiya kits that detailed?
In reply to Appleseed:
There is that, but a little poking around on the Interwebz suggests that it's probably the 1/12 kit.
Both appear to be discontinued 
.
I used to build a TON of models in my 10-15 years (late '70s), and I was even pretty good at it. I built cars, trucks, a LOT of military hardware, and a fair number of aircraft, both military and civil. Didn't really build many ships. My friend's father built and raced dirt track Sportsman cars, and we scratch-built our own tube frames with working suspension (fabricated our own shocks with ballpoint pen springs), then chopped bodies and used sheet plastic to finish them off. We got pretty good at that since we had full scale chassis to study.
Last solid scale model I built was a Piper Cub when I was about 24, more than 20 years ago. It's sitting on my mantle, but all the others are gone now.
I would LOVE to build some more, but just do not have the free time. Whn I retire I will probably do some. I'd love to do a fair size model of the Manic Miata, complete with its current mods, patina, rollbar/harnesses, and ripped bolsters on the racing seats.
I was never a big Revell or Monogram fan. I started out building AMT cars (or at least cutting them up for Modified/Sportsman parts), but once I discovered Tamiya, I never went back.
I have a closet full of Hasegawa Galant VR-4s (Of course)
Someday I will build a Trumpeter 1:32 Fairchild-Republic A-10A and paint it to match a Myrtle Beach AFB 354TFW/355TFS 77-0196 (Mine)
I've wanted this kit forever:
Unfortunately it's already bid up to over $300 with 4 days left.
My Lotus is one of the 1:12 kits. #10202 to be precise. NLA, but the sister kit 10201 is still around. It's the same car but with clamshells.
http://www.etamiya.com/shop/tamiya-10201-caterham-super-seven-p-5174.html
Thanks to this thread, I bought a kit of a Vanagon Westfalia today. I like building cars I own :) Although the Ferrari 250 GTO I did years ago is more aspirational.
When I see kits marked down to a few bucks, I grab 'em no matter what.
Thanks to that, I now have a Corvette ZR1 powered/suspended '50 Ford pickup, a Corvette ZR1 powered/suspended '33 Ford pickup and a Corvette ZR1 powered/suspended '57 El Camino.
(Yes, El Camino. It started out as a Nomad.)
Unfortunately, I never get around to actually finishing them.
Keith wrote: My Lotus is one of the 1:12 kits. #10202 to be precise. NLA, but the sister kit 10201 is still around. It's the same car but with clamshells. http://www.etamiya.com/shop/tamiya-10201-caterham-super-seven-p-5174.html
There goes more house money . That's actually my favourite style Caterham/7...
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