Tales from my modeling antiquity
Commentaires
Spanjaardit is certainly not the level that you have now used to, but great to also post pictures from less glorious times 😉 i would love to see more of those in SCM so people would be motivated by seeing evolution instead of just amazing models. i wish i would have documented my older builds back in the day.
gorbyIt's definitely better than my first returnee build - I was in more of a hurry and completed it in under two weeks (and I thought that was a long time 😄 ). I echo Sanjaard's comments about seeing peoples early models as it's interesting to know how far they have come.
How long ago was this build Alec?
bughunterThat is good to see and read about! That is a nice result in Braille scale and especially under that circumstances!
@gorby See Project, started 2007
But Alec I had not expected that you are _that_ old! You completed this model nine years after the birth of Christ? I never imagined that plastic kits and acrylic paints existed back then! A friend of mine always says he was there when the Royal Air Force was founded, but it's good to know someone who's been around even longer. SCNR 🙂
SpanjaardI think I this morning the comments of ther pictures were old, but now they look microscopic.... is it just me? all other albums seem to be ok
Alec K AuteurI am glad you are entertained gents, and all it takes is one little typo... 😄 I will be adding more of these archeological finds as I get around to it (going even deeper back in time, but not as back as Jesus).
Spanjaard: I embed my text with the pics so maybe that's why they get smaller.
SitsOnly just found this! Thanks for sharing - it's very relatable as I am going through what you talk about in this project. And I've just wrestled through an LA-5FN as my second "comeback" kit. Clearly your LA-7 is waaay better than I'm producing and probably than I ever will. But that's fine, and I really appreciate your candour.
SkyhikerTop job Alec. I love the drama of the back story. The struggle makes it even more precious. Congratulations for pulling it through and continuing on with modeling.
Alec K AuteurThanks guys. Sits I think a lot of modelers go through this very same life journey. I used to have the same "I will never be this good" reflections you mentioned above, but sticking with it and honing your skills does generally produce improvements. As long as it's not at the expense of it ceasing being an enjoyable hobby, it's all good 👍
SitsThanks Alek. There was a moment late in my LA-5 when I almost chucked it in the bin and sold my stash. But feel better now.
Album info
This is an old build from when I returned to the hobby after fourteen year hiatus. A lot has changed in the hobby during that time, and although I kept up with it, my hands-on skills were rusty. Back when I last actively built models, I knew nothing of PE, resin, washes or pigments. Eduard's La-7 kit was, for the time, state of the art. It came with PE bits and mask. Oh MY!! To keep with appearances, I acquired more PE as well as a vacu canopy. I could not find the chosen marking scheme and so bought the Hobby Boss kit just for that.
Reality of not having modeled for a looong time soon came home to roost. It was during assembly that I became painfully aware that the perfect close-up vision and manual dexterity of my youth were things of the past. I have broken, mangled, and dropped too many parts to mention. The protrusions in particular fell prey to my clumsiness (I broke and rebuilt the antenna stand three times). Many of the photoetched parts were not used simply because they were too small for me to work with. While gluing the Eduard's propeller together (the propeller blades were molded separately), I managed to glue them flat! The Hobby Boss kit saved me as I used its propeller instead.
Painting was another saga. Enamels were on the wane at the time so I opted to try acrylics. I briefly experimented with Gunze Aqueous but had a pretty bad experience, no doubt due to my ignorance. I settled on the Testors Model Master Acryl range, in large part because it was readily available. The painting was probably the most frustrating part of the entire project. I did not have my color selections written down, and with the gaps between sessions managed to switch to a different shade of gray during the AMT-12 application (instead of the Gunze H331 I used the H317). As a result, I had to repaint half of the model. On a separate occasion, I managed to spill some of the AMT-7 blue color over the wing, necessitating further repainting. Working with new paints, combined with my rusty airbrushing skills and realization that my eyes and hands were no longer twenty, I was ready to send the model on a kamikaze mission out the window on more than one occasion.
The build dragged over 2.5 years as I still did not have much free time for the hobby back then. But, looking at that model today, I am surprised how well it held up. It turned out better than some of my subsequent builds.
