Well.. that was a week, huh? <for historic reference... when one day I look back on this post.. .this was the week I spent 33 hours in the dark with my family while the temperature dropped to 9 degrees F, and I had to melt snow in a catfish cooker to have water to flush my toilet so I didn't waste the drinking water... and thankfully didn't have to burn my furniture like some folks...>
Anyhow, as things get back to normal, I decided to join this group. I am getting back into model building after a very long break. This is probably a very common story here, but I did enjoy building scale models into my teens, but I never took it very seriously.
Now in my 50's with time on my hands, and infinitely more patience, I find myself exploring various hobbies that have always interested me.
I have been playing guitar for about 30 years off and on, and about 2 years ago, I got into building electric guitars. As most people, even if the don't want to admit it, have a "favorite", mine, as you may be able to tell by my moniker, are Fender guitars or parts guitars based on them. This is a lot of fun, but each individual project is very expensive after a while, you discover you can only put so many guitars in a room...
... this brought me back to something I used to enjoy from my teen years. I have always liked cars of the late 60's/early 70's... primarily Fords, and not always the Fords you would think of. My grandfather would almost always get me a large model kit of some sort for my birthday when I was a kid... Once I got a Mack Truck, another time a WWII bomber, and yet another time, the HMS Hood. I also would buy car kits with allowance sometimes. But, I was never big on the details. I never painted them, I never displayed them... I always like the work I put in, but always hated the result. It was "never what I saw on the box"
Having had some success building and FINISHING guitars, I recently started thinking about my old model kits, and how much fun I had doing them... and now knowing what I know about paint finishes and sanding, and again... patience, I decided to give this another chance.
I am in the beginning phase and certainly not buying expensive tools or rare kits or anything. However, I want to do it right... so, I come to you guys. I will be opening a couple threads in the next day or so. Mostly I will be wanting to know, if I am making an initial investment in painting equipment, my plan is to get an airbrush (would prefer a ready to go kit, even saw some on Amazon... would prefer some input from others... again, I'll start or look for a thread on this). Also, I'll probably spend way more time asking about accurate paint colors for the era and where to find or how to mix them. I have experience using Duplicolor lacquer in rattle cans (Perfect Match) as well as through a sprayer.
My current plan is to collect models in two batches... the ones I *really* want to build, and a whole bunch I don't feel too invested in... I am thinking if I can find partial kits or broken models or a bunch of garage sale finds, I can practice finishing techniques on them before moving on to the ones that have meaning to me... if that makes sense.
Anyway, thanks for reading this... I am a bit long winded, but I try to make up for it by being interesting. I hope I have been successful here. And, I'll talk to you all out there on the forums.
