So what do you do when you are too old and decrepit to do much wrenching on cars and motorcycles? In fact, I am perhaps, even too old and weak to ride the Suzuki I recently brought back to life after a "sleep" of more than two decades (see "Back From the Dead, August 5, 2021").
Well, the answer to the second sentence may be obvious...sell the Suzy and buy a smaller, lighter machine with comparable performance. Of which there are many, all two strokers built before the tightening of pollution laws in the 1970s). It is easy to envision a Yamaha RD350 variant, or even a Suzuki T250 or X6 sitting where the GS is today. In total insanity a Suzuki RG250 is a gorgsous and not totally impractical replacement...though it will be like selling one of my sons to see the 750 go.
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| Yes, it's the model I built and not the real bike Would you have known if I didn't tell you? |
But I have returned to an activity of my childhood (don't we all, at some point?)...putting together plastic model kits of various interesting vehicles. This actually started as what I thought was going to be a prelude to returning to the model railroad and continuing to debug the electrics (always a weakness with me) and finishing another town (see the two posts on the Sierra Northern from May and July of 2020...but has now turned out to have taken on a life of its own.
As a youngster I of course built a number of cars and planes (no boats I recall other than one aircraft carrier) from plastic kits made by Revell or Monogram mainly, with the cars coming from AMC. Many of the builds were military items from WWII...at one time I had a fairly complete little "army" of figures, trucks, tanks, and artillary. Enough to construct a second unit with tacked on bits of tape upon which I had drawn swastikas to represent "the enemy." A friend and I would then hold mock battles between these armies.
But my current attempts started to see if I could reinvigorate my skills to work in small scale. I had actually become intimidated by my N scale railroad, as every time I touched a car to return it to the tracks my hands shook so badly it was frustrating and took three or four times the effort it did when I was younger and could even see the damn things! I was afraid what my neurologist said was normal tremors and not a sign of developing Parkinsons would prevent doing anything further on the layout.
And if you can no longer do any of the activities which have given spice and meaning to your life it is hard to see the point of contiuing with that life.
The first kit I attempted actually came about due to a book I had just finished. Reading is, of course, a passive activity, and though I am a pretty avid reader it is hard to envision my life without active "handiwork." So when I finished a Kindle bargain book I had bought on the development of the P51 WWII fighter ("Wings of War: The World War II Fighter Plane That Saved the Alies and the Believers Who Made it Fly") I decided to build this historic plane. actually this would be my second "modern era" kit, as I had first completed a large scale Saturn V moon rocket meant to represent Apollo 13, IMO the most important Apollo of them all, even eclipsing the landing of Apollo 11 and the moon circumnavigation of Apollo 8.
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| All stages come apart Note the workmen on the base and the Two Stage Lunar Module The labels indicate the crew and serial numbers of the components Custom painted to match photo of real ship |
Why? Because the amaxzing ability to improvise and solve the issues of that crippled craft was a testament to the skill and procedural thoroughness developed and refined by NASA, which is now the template for solving complex problems and failures of technology. Though the scenario that occurred on that journey was never planned for in the NASA guidebooks for the flight, the devlopment and rehearsals of the problems that were executed and documented in the flight plans underlay and supported thoroughly the solutions to those problems that saved three lives and justified the intense and costly work that went into that planning.
The world of plastic models has become much more refined over the decades. In particular, as I read about available P-51 models, the D (later) version of the plane made by Tamiya in Japan was a standout, offering high detail and multiple variants of the bubble canopy variant of this landmark plane in a scale (1/32) big enough for me to have some confidence in being able to handle.
The sheer number of parts in the kit were intimidating...probably north of two hundred. Even using a magnifying headset painting some of these required bracing my unsteady hand, taking a deep breath...and holding it while using a brush that was little more than a single hair. And I think Tamiya must be imitating the Gillette razor theory, where the cost of the paints (think razor blades) almost equalled the cost of the kit, though thankfully my friend Lee gave me his supply that was left over from a project to provide a headstart.
I also wanted to try and replicate a plane that might have seen action on D Day...but I could not find decals of the black and white "invasion stripes" used to ID Allied aircraft for the event. So after decades of gathering dust I dragged out my Wren airbrush and first painted the entire areas to be striped pure white. I then laid masking tape (more Tamiya speciality stuff) over what would become white stripes, and overlaid the area with black. While not perfect, neither were the last minute applications made on the real planes. So for my first deep dive back into this world I was more than happy with the outcome, even cutting and pasting together decals from various sets to avoid inaccurately displaying a "real" participant in the battle (some observers and modelers are real nit pickers for authenticity).
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| The detail of this beast is incredible All control surfaces move All engine cowling is removable and attaches with tiny magnets The canopy slides open You can open the machine gun bins to see the guns and ammo A complete set of wheels and gear doors are included to change the display to "on the field" The cockpit has full instrumentation and controls The plaque behind the plane is a B model given to me by a friend whose uncle worked on them |
With a good dusting off of long dormant skills provided by this excellent kit and outstanding plane I got enthused about re-reading one of the best war novels I have come across, a well researched one centered on the Battle of Britain. "Piece of Cake" then led to me trying my hand on the most iconic British fighter of the war, the SuperMarine Spitfire.
My decision to keep these models in the same scale led to the conclusion that the only models available in 1:32 were later variants than the version involved in those early battles. But since they are all visually quite similar in the wing design the charactreized the model, I naturally chose to stick to the Tamiya line.
The biggest challenge of this model turned out to be the painting, in particular the camoflage that it seems all British fighters used, though with differeing color schemes and patterns. The first headscratcher was, of course, how to mask the plane.
Making off the fuselage in order to paint the bottom of the model was not an issue, as the entire area was painted to represent the normally soft blue/grey tint of English skies. Of course, yet more expensive Tamiya paint was involved.
The real challenge was the camo, which covers the entire rest of the plane. I finally based my attempt on the technique I used for the "invasion stripes" on the P-51...do the entire area in the lighter color, mask off what areas were to remian that shade, and then spray the darker color over the entire area.
The big issue was how to create masks for the varied sections of camoflage. Though I quickly abandoned the try at exactly duplicating the pattern of the plane which graced the Tamiya box, I did develop a very workable approach which I could easily apply to any future builds.
I laid regular old blue Scotch masking tape in overlapping strips on a sheet of glass. Then I drew outlines freehand of various areas to receive the darker color, and cut these out with an X-Acto knife, then laying the resulting pattern on the plane. The result is shown in this photo.
The final step was then oversparying the entire surface with the darker of the two colors. When the tape is peeled off the areas that was under it would remain the lighter color, and the finished product is shown in the second photo.
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| Pattern in tape laid on lighter color application |
Though the result came out even better than the 51 as my old skills were dusted off and new ones were developed, I was aware that while the Spitfire got the glamour and accolades for what became known as "The Battle of Britain" the real success of that effort was acheived by a somewhat more "Plain Jane" workhorse of the RAF: namely the Hawker Hurricane.
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| FInished Camo Pattern |
The Hurricane would be a leap of faith, as the model is not made by Tamiya, but a company I had not heard of, Trumpeter...out of China.
As it turned out the model was quite acceptable, though not quite up to Tamiya's refined details. The main issue in terms of building challenges was the comparatively crude and oversized attachment point of parts to their supporting sprues. The model was a clear attempt to challenge Tamiya, but it really doesn't. On the other hand, it did cost less than a comparable Tamiya version would have, and still encompasses enough detail and parts assemblies to be far more than an easy "shake the box and drop out a model" type of kit.
So far I have completed two other WWII aircraft. The P40 (later M version) was a plane whose attention attracted me as a kid, when seeing pictures of the famous shark mouth "Flying Tigers" planes. The other was a dive into US Navy planes. I was attracted by the Tamiya Corsair, both the model and the real plane, with its characteristic gull wings, but I was not at that time ready to pay over $100 for a kit. So instead I bought another Trumpeter kit, of a plane I was not familiar with, the F4F-4 Grumman Wildcat.
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| Hawker Hurricane Note the lack of color on the canopy Trumpeter did not supply a painting mask nor did I look for an aftermarket one |
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| Curtis P-40M |
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| Grumman F4F-4 Really nice Trumpeter Kit Open box bargain that came with a canopy painting mask the seller threw in Yes, the wings do fold and the gun bay covers are removable |
RIght now I am working on two more...the Tamiya USN Corsair of WWII, which is an amazing and highly detailed kit, and a model of the two stoke, three cylinder Suzuki 380, which is as close to the various real bikes like it I've owned that I could get in a model, by Hasegawa. See "Ashes in the Handlebars" if you're curious about the bikes in my life, or "The X6" or, as mentioned in the start of this article, "Back From the Dead."
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| My hand shows the small size of this beastie |
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| The finished model Sitting on top of it's box The driver shown is Clark Now Protected in my display case |
