The corsair is finished
I remember the day well when I built a 1:72 model of an A-10 Thunderbolt. I don’t know how old I was, but it must have been some time in my mid-teens. That particular plane was the model that I put in the most effort yet. And it looked pretty good! I had painted the whole fuselage and even added a lot of detail to the cockpit.
There was one problem though. The real A-10 has a very heavy machine gun in the front, whereas the model was all plastic. So, the weight and balance didn’t work out, and the model would always fall back, if you wouldn’t put in some sort of weight in the front. I had failed to do so, of course, but already had the fuselage glued shut. I could still spread it apart a little bit at the seams though, so, in an ingenious flash of brilliance, I decided to just pour in some glue in there as extra weight. Well, the inevitable happened and all the glue poured into the cockpit, where it dissolved the canopy and turned it into a white, opaque dome. I was so frustrated that I had ruined days of work within a couple of minutes that I pretty much gave up on my “model career” after that.
And that is why my brother still builds all kinds of models and I play guitar instead.
My model experiences were very similar. I had an F-14 that I put a lot of work in to, and when I was gluing the final fuselage assembly together, I discovered that one of the seams didn’t line up correctly. I used rubber bands and glue to hold the seams together. After I did that, I discovered a part that was supposed to go in the spot that I “fixed.” My model was ruined!
I ruined the next model after that when I tried to paint it. All the paint bubbled up on the plastic. I never built another model after that.
I’ve been building models since I was four (FIFTY YEARS! Wow!) I built at least 150 before I started to paint them. (Mainly because I never had a lot of money and was more interested in building than painting.) Learning to paint was a painstaking process because paints are expensive and, until I lived near a reasonably well-stocked hobby shop, I had to mix my own colors from whatever I could find in the pre-Model Master Testor’s line or hardware store paint cans.
Nowadays, *time* (or rather, lack thereof) is the main factor that determines whether I get anything built. (And, unfortunately, my time is at something of a premium these days.) But I treat every kit as a learning experience and thoroughly enjoy the hobby, occasional mistakes and all.
Once again, your strip really made my day, because I perfectly recognized myself:
I am something of a Spitfire buff: Got some 14 models of this most beautiful aircraft built – all of them in cardboard – and about 20 more waiting to be built plus some planned conversions. of existing kits. Thus, many greetings to Chuck from a fellow madman! My friend, you are not alone.
@ reynard: I use building models as a kind of self therapy: Helps me to come down after a strenuous working day.
Did the same sort of thing, but it was a while ago — I poured glue into the nose of the Monogram’s TBF, so the torpedo would drop nose-down…looked like the torpedo had been shipped by UPS after a while.
I built plastic models from around age 6 until I was in my mid-30’s. That’s when i got assigned to Germany (USAF weather guy). The shippers wouldn’t take my nice paint collection, and I was tired of packaging up models every three years (and fixing all the parts broken in shipment). So, I donated all of my building gear to the young son of a CMSGT I worked with, and gave away all my models. Now, I just build R/C models, most non-scale. I miss doing the plastics, but I do enjoy building and flying R/C (as long as the FAA lets me 🙁 ).
CD
BTW: I build models AND I play the classical guitar. It goes together very well.
Making ww2 models is my favorite hobby
I have a 1:48 scale Nimsha (sp?) brand Me 262 that I haven’t even taken off of the sprues yet. I picked it up when I was stationed in Iwakuni, Japan. The box is faded and even has evidence of a mouse that has chewed on one edge of the box.
The box has done its job, though. Everything in the box is still pristine. I’ve had this model since 1999, so I think I may be better off selling it. I just have it in storage now.