- 5,122
- Panama City, FL
Looking for tips and gotchas on resin kits. I have a couple of subjects that were not to be found in styrene, God's own perfect modeling material, so I have to wrap my head aound some new techniques, I guess. Any suggestions, places to go, whatever, would be greatly appreciated.
My dad was an electronic technician on an aircraft called the AJ-1 Savage in the early 50's, and ever since, he's tried to find a model of one. Just last month I found a resin kit from collectaire.com and he didn't even blink, just ordered it. Well, it showed up last week, and OMG what a difference from a high-volume styrene kit!!! I have no idea how the stuff we got in the box turns into this, but I've got to try.
The box has about 80 or so pieces, maybe even a hundred, all unlabeled and many of which are so badly cast as to be what I would call useless, but I hear that's the norm for resin. (Air bubbles in the surface, twisted shape, horrible edges, etc.) The "instructions" are three exploded views (cockpit, underside, and overhead) with encouragement to find good reference material. OTOH, the kit is complete, with metal engines and gear struts and enough alternate parts to make one of three versions of the aircraft.
For practice in handling and finishing resin, I found a curbside kit of a Ferrari 333SP race car several years ago, which I've not built yet. It's got almost no assembly, parts are well molded, so I'm going to use it for finishing practice, i.e. cleaning and painting. The body of this kit is a single casting, with wing, roll hoop, and wheels as the only separate parts. Definitely my idea of a good first resin kit.
I'm pleased that I found him a model of his plane, but not very confident that we can do it justice. It looks like a several-months or even years project, it's that overwhelming. One step at a time, I guess.
The historical significance of the plane is usually lost on people, mainly because they've never heard of it. (Thus the difficulty of finding a model kit.) It was introduced after WWII, served during Korea but saw no combat that I'm aware of. Dad's squadron was stationed in North Africa, and when aboard ship, patrolling the Mediterranean (on the U.S.S Coral Sea.) A later version of the plane was a recon platfrom, and many were converted to tankers. It's the first carrier-based bomber capable of delivering the atomic bomb. Before missile subs existed, the only way the Navy could participate in the strategic environment was to carry a bomber on a ship. Only one Savage still exists, and it's at the Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola NAS, just a couple hours from here. Turns out it's one from Dad's squadron, and he's lobbying (half-heartedly) to have it painted in the blue of his day, rather than the later grey it appears in now.
My dad was an electronic technician on an aircraft called the AJ-1 Savage in the early 50's, and ever since, he's tried to find a model of one. Just last month I found a resin kit from collectaire.com and he didn't even blink, just ordered it. Well, it showed up last week, and OMG what a difference from a high-volume styrene kit!!! I have no idea how the stuff we got in the box turns into this, but I've got to try.
The box has about 80 or so pieces, maybe even a hundred, all unlabeled and many of which are so badly cast as to be what I would call useless, but I hear that's the norm for resin. (Air bubbles in the surface, twisted shape, horrible edges, etc.) The "instructions" are three exploded views (cockpit, underside, and overhead) with encouragement to find good reference material. OTOH, the kit is complete, with metal engines and gear struts and enough alternate parts to make one of three versions of the aircraft.
For practice in handling and finishing resin, I found a curbside kit of a Ferrari 333SP race car several years ago, which I've not built yet. It's got almost no assembly, parts are well molded, so I'm going to use it for finishing practice, i.e. cleaning and painting. The body of this kit is a single casting, with wing, roll hoop, and wheels as the only separate parts. Definitely my idea of a good first resin kit.
I'm pleased that I found him a model of his plane, but not very confident that we can do it justice. It looks like a several-months or even years project, it's that overwhelming. One step at a time, I guess.
The historical significance of the plane is usually lost on people, mainly because they've never heard of it. (Thus the difficulty of finding a model kit.) It was introduced after WWII, served during Korea but saw no combat that I'm aware of. Dad's squadron was stationed in North Africa, and when aboard ship, patrolling the Mediterranean (on the U.S.S Coral Sea.) A later version of the plane was a recon platfrom, and many were converted to tankers. It's the first carrier-based bomber capable of delivering the atomic bomb. Before missile subs existed, the only way the Navy could participate in the strategic environment was to carry a bomber on a ship. Only one Savage still exists, and it's at the Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola NAS, just a couple hours from here. Turns out it's one from Dad's squadron, and he's lobbying (half-heartedly) to have it painted in the blue of his day, rather than the later grey it appears in now.
