New to Modelling and a challenge for the experienced members!

[Guest]

Hi all, as part of a job change I find the work-life balance has moved back firmly in my favour and decided that spending time down the pub all manner of hours probably wasn't that productive and decided to pick up modelling again, I used to do it as a kid and enjoyed it, but didn't have the patience I have now.

So, I picked up two starter kits from Airfix, one a Spitfire and one the HMS Victory. I've always been pants at doing camo paint, so thought I'd skip that for the mo and come back to it, I also wanted to get a huge HMS Victory, but thought it prudent to start small (and cheap) and work my way up as I get more experienced.

This is the picture on the web site:

WOW! Looks great! The starter set has everything I need, paint, a brush, glue and the kit - perfect! Here's my attempt at the above:

This doesn't look the same! The paint is rubbish, it doesn't stick to the plastic no matter how much it's washed, so you need to apply a really thick coat, so thick you lose the detailing. The sails required three coats and still don't look great. Frankly, I gave up on this, but not on modelling.

Surely this can be solved with primer I thought, so off to the model shop for a primer, I got a white one for the sails and grey for the body as I could use this for the Spitfire, and here's the results:

OK, better now, the paint is sticking to something which is good, I'm now able to put some detailing down with the brown beams and white sails, but still not there. The black supplied isn't sticking to the grey primer and what's worse the yellow of the body which is painted over the excuse for black isn't sticking to the paint either. So, enamels I thought - I used to use these as a kid, let's do it properly!

So, off to the shop, buy the same 4 paints, but in Humbrol enamels and we get this:

Again, another step in improvement. The paint is much better and allows for a far thinner coat, I've used 4 coats on the sails which is looking better and I like the gloss look. However the yellow sections of the body is looking much better but is still an issue, the supplied brush is just far too broad to get any accuracy.

So, off to the shop, buy much much smaller brushes, black primer for the hull and thinners to get the damned enamel out of the brush as cleaning was taking too long! I haven't finished this build yet as paint's at home drying, but this again is another step in improvement. The black primer means the yellow is going straight onto the primer base and the smaller brushes are allowing for more detail so another step in improvement. However, this model is *VERY* small and the detail required is extremely hard to accomplish. Looking at the picture on Airfix's website I am questioning whether that finish is even possible.

So, scale model forum, I have a question and a challenge!

Question; seeing the modest improvements being made so far, do you have any suggestions? It's the yellow on black of the hull that is the biggest challenge, I am considering painting a base yellow coat and using a black wash instead to see if that will solve my problem, not sure. What can I do to make this look closer to the marketing pictures?!

And now, the challenge! This model is £8 and only requires 4 paints which I bet you already have in your collections, it only takes 45 minutes to build (excluding drying time, but with three sprues I've found painting one section and moving onto the next means it dries in time, just) - how close can *YOU* get to the picture by the Airfix marketing department??!

[stona]

Hi Mike and welcome.

Primer is a good idea. Under yellow (or something like yellow) I would only ever use a white primer. Dark colours will always cover lighter but not vice-versa, so I'd definitely get the yellow down first.

I've not built a ship of any description since I was about 10 years old which was not exactly the day before yesterday, however I find myself strangely tempted to take you up. The idea, as I understand it, is to get as close to the Airfix image as possible, but I can use my own materials, paints etc.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Hi Steve, yeah that's the challenge! I am thinking if experienced people with all required modelling tools take up the challenge and share their experiences and pictures of what they did for the fiddly bits etc, I'll only learn through the knowledge sharing of people's experiences!

The kit in question is the A55104: http://www.airfix.com/hms-victory-starter-set.html

Cheap as chips! I also found this YouTube clip which summed up my first experience, but I persevered and managed to get better results:

Who else is up for the challenge?!

[eddiesolo]

It maybe me...but I get the impression that he hates the kit in the vid...

I may have a pop at this one, will start by ditching the paints as these really are terrible.

Si

[BarryW]

That was on one the very first ever kits produced by Airfix....1950's era. I am not sure why the Aussie in the video is so upset with it, the kit is what you can expect from that era. Not worth bothering with those 'starter paints' either...

Make no mistake, modern 'new tool' Airfix kits are up with the best. The new 1/24 Hawker Typhoon is simply outstanding.......

[Alan 45]

I built this kit along time ago , yellow is always a difficult paint to use and for some reason they always put it on the victory but I asked one of the tour guides on the victory why it didn't have the yellow stripes down the sides and he simply said that it didn't have them at the battle of trafalgar

This is all a learning curve for you so just do what you can and then move on , the more builds you do you will get better on and you will see this with every build

I've been back into the hobby for three years and I'm still waiting for that perfect one

[john i am]

Hi Mike and welcome in a moment of madness I brought this kit a while ago as it was on offer and I can't walk away from a bargin. And about four years ago a complete stranger gave me a titanic model. I have not touched either of them. I think the video you posted tells you all you need to know. As a returning modeller i feel you could have made a better choice for a 1st build maybe a 1/72 plane or a tank you could have used one colour on either olive drab.to be honest I think you should ditch this and return to it another time . As for your challenge I feel I'm not ready for this beast yet so at the moment it will remain in my stash until I feel I can beat it into something presentable I will watch the more experienced modellers attempts of beating this kit into submission .good luck with any future builds and I'm very sure you will find them to be a lot easier and not so frustrating regards John

[stona]

I've ordered one. I must have lost my senses! When it arrives I'll start a thread. I will not attempt to make it look like anything other than the Airfix promotional shot that is not particularly like the real ship, so any18th/19th century naval experts had better look away

I've been straining the memory cells and I have a feeling I built 'Royal Sovereign' all those years ago. If the 'Victory' is a contemporary of that kit it must be nearly as old as me

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Hi guys, thanks for your feedback. So I think I'll give this one more go, the sails and deck look "OK", it's really the awkward sides, so new plan!

Get a 5th version of the model, get a black enamel wash (I know in theory I could do this with the paint I already have and the thinner, but what's the harm in more stuff?!) and some 6mm masking tape and a lighter enamel brown as I really don't like the "Service Brown" it's recommending, looks too dark compared to the Airfix picture which is quite aesthetically pleasing in the lighter brown. Then:

1. Prime the hull in white

2. Paint top half in yellow & bottom half in lighter brown wait to dry.

3. Mask the lines that will make black borders and paint lines in enamel black (not sure how feasible masking will be as it's frigging tiny, but if it helps, it helps!).

4. Use the enamel wash on the areas between the cannon and hull, use enamel wash on the awkward fancy stuff on the bow, wait to dry.

5. Paint the canon ends in black using smallest brush possible, wait to dry

6. Compare my effort to Steve's and wish I had a spray gun!

Great to see you've taken up the challenge Steve, be great to get tips for if I ever decide to go a 6th! Here's hoping more take up the challenge, be a good laugh I reckon :-)

In response to John, I think it was a perfect model to start with, it's small and quick to build so I can make mistakes and get an idea very quickly of any potential issues. A build with more sprues would take longer and might result in issues not being apparent until the end, a simpler model wouldn't be as challenging, especially if there's large surface areas, I'm trying to skill up on the fiddly bits and then tackle something of larger substance with a bit more ammo in my painting armoury :-)

Actually, come to think of it, I'll finish the build I've got going tonight first before embarking on yet another build!

[john i am]

Good luck with your endeavour and with Steve taking up your challenge you now have someone on board to show you the way.I will be watching both threads with great interest and look forward to your progress as i to one day will be giving this a bash looking forward to the finish regards John

[Guest]

Ok, so here is attempt 4:

The detail brushes are making things a lot easier, but still a bit pants as it was really small. Managed to get a transfer to work, which helps. Unfortunately I didn't notice the flash on the top of the bow which scewed the joining front sails so it's all bent out of shape. Still, that's something to learn for build 5

I now have lighter brown enamel, masking tape, black wash, yet another HMS Victory starter kit, oh and the cheapo Humbrol airbrush kit...!!

Onto build 5, wish me luck!!!

[Guest]

One thing I would like to point out the sails would be canvas so would not be shiney at all. It's been years since I built one of these kits but the sails would have been stained over years at sea what I used to do was shake up my bottle ofwhite spirt that I clean my brushes in pour a bit over some tissue and rub that onto the sails then let it dry. I may do that upto three times until I think they look grubby enough, as a side benefit of this the sails would also go very matt.

[flyjoe180]

Hi Michael, welcome to the forum.

1. Airfix starter kits come with acrylic paints which are pants. Throw them out, never look at them again. Get some other brushes of varying sizes. There are threads on brushes and equipmnt on the forum, simply use the search function at the top.

2. The kit is, as has been said, old by model standards. 1950s old. It could be built and finished to the standard shown in the marketing photo but without lots of extra work it will not be a show stopper. These old kits can be made into finished models that challenge even the latest and greatest. But you need a lot of time, patience, resources and some experience to transform them.

3. The paint instructions may be simplified as this is a starter kit. Use reference pictures and then get the paints you actually need to achieve a detailedfinish. As I said the supplied paints are pants, and the starter kits have instructions which are 'dumbed down' compared to the full kit.

4. For a starter kit, this is a definite challenge. Airfix produce many top class moulds now days. But they do persist in selling crap moulds as starter kits. There must be thousands of potential modellers who have tried to get going on one of these and been totally disillusioned by it all. The SPitfire should be good though, I think they boxed their new-tool Mark 1? But beware of the paint instructions on that one too. Nothing beats reference to real life subjects, and the internet is a gold mine of resources along with old fashioned books and magazines.

Best of luck. I won't be joining you lot in this madness, I still have a stash of similar vintage aeroplanes to get through. Plus I wouldn't want Airfix to think this was a best seller and to keep producing it as a starter kit.

[Guest]

Hi guys, appreciate the feedback, all helpful!

I had a look at a couple of other ship-based starter kits look how simple this one is!

Other ships with fiddly bits were done via decals! So point definitely taken by John and others that I have probably picked the most fiddly bastard as the one to start with! However, I am quite enjoying the challenge, even if I do find myself with a lot of ships looking varying degrees of crapness!

I've started on build 5 now, yellow base coat and a lighter brown, which seems a bit too light but the deck is far more aesthetically pleasing and contrasting nicely. I had a play with masking tape on one of the earlier failed models and this is extremely tricky, but is workable, though I am not thinking brushes, I'm thinking airbrush.

OH MY GOD if I knew how much fun airbrushing was I'd have picked this up years ago!!!

I don't think I'll be able to replicate marketing picture with build 5, but I reckon I'll be able to make it look far more presentable and move onto something else and come back to build 6 when I've got a few more painting hours under my belt!

Thanks again for everyone's tips and feedback, very much looking forward to seeing your attempts!

[Gern]

I don't know why Airfix are still selling this. If they're trying to persuade people to take up modelling by calling this a 'starter set' - and therefore hopefully buy more kits in the future - this will have exactly the opposite effect! You have to have some serious talent to produce anything decent from it.

Your attempts so far have improved each time and I'm certain you will eventually end up with something worth showing - by which time you will no longer be a beginner of course!

Gern