The Art of Building Plastic Model Airplanes - Part 1 of 3

A very informative clip

Choose From a Large Selection of Model Plane Kits

There are a lot of different model plane kits that are available to choose from. Every one of them will have different features and be a different size. Some people prefer to have the smaller ones while other people like to put together the larger ones.

People of any age can be excited about getting new model plane kits. There will be different skill levels for each one. People will be able to choose one that is at the level that they are at.

Most people are not going to start out by picking something from a difficult level. If they have help from someone who is experienced, it will not be a problem but a lot of people like to do these kinds of things by themselves. They want it to be something that they can do as a hobby.

Model Aircraft Kit Making - Simple Weathering Guide

A guest post by Frank LeGrand

For this guide I have taken the model Spitfire that I built when I was compiling my Model Kit Making Guide, and spent some time weathering where necessary to aim to make it look a bit more real.

As when making a model from the start research is one of the first things to do. I checked out the web to find some pictures of the most common places to find wear & tear on Spitfires.

Painting Your Model Aircraft Kit - Hints and Tips

A guest post by Frank LeGrand

PAINTING YOUR MODEL

This is one area of model making that has to be 'spot on'. Any imperfections when painting really show up and can be difficult to fix.

Paint

There are 2 main types of paint you will use when painting model kits:

1. The first is acrylic paint. This is a water based paint meaning you must wash your brushes in water, not white spirit. You will often find acrylic paint in 'starter kits' as it is the easiest to paint with and can be cleaned off when wet with water and a paper towel if a mistake is made (although you have to be quick).
2. The second is the oil based enamel paint. This is the most common type you will find in model stores, and has the broadest range of colours so that you can 'colour match' you model for authenticity. It can also be mixed as required to produce a one-off colour for special parts or areas that need a colour you cannot get off the shelf.

Why We Love Building Plastic Model Airplanes

Wood, paper, plastic... all of this can be used to build model airplanes. Paper airplanes are preferred mostly from kids because they are easy and in practice free to make. Older kids and adults often prefer to create or collect wooden model aircraft because wood allows you to start from scratch and build very precise models. But wooden airplanes are usually static.

People from all ages like plastic model airplanes because they can be both static scale or flying models, they are affordable, and there are thousands of kits for builders.

Quality Time? Try Building Plastic Model Airplanes

It's sometimes hard to have some good quality time with your kids, especially when it doesn't involve a game console. If that's the case with you, it might be time to introduce them to the joy of assembling and painting plastic model airplanes. Besides the all important quality time we all want to have with our kids, assembling model plane kits requires your child to develop skills which they'll use throughout their life. Skills such as;

• Planning and decision making (Do we follow the directions step by step or assemble and paint sections in our own order)
• Patience (waiting for glues to set and paints to dry)
• Hand/eye coordination (way beyond the button mashing hand eye coordination touted as a plus by video game companies)
• Perseverance (Working Through the frustration of assembling a particularly intricate portion of the model)

Plastic Model Aircraft - How to Choose a Suitable One

Model aircraft are used for many purposes. They are used as a marketing tool for airlines. You can notice huge models of world's popular airlines at many travel agencies. Aircraft models are also used for aerodynamic research and modeling. Collecting and building models is also a popular hobby among the people of all age groups. Aircraft models can be made from different materials like metal, wood, paper and plastic. Plastic model aircraft are generally more popular because they are affordable and are available in both static and flying models.

There are a number of plastic kits that are offered in the market. It is important that you choose a kit that is suitable for your purpose. You should also consider the level of your model building expertise before choosing a particular kit.

Static Plastic Model Aircraft:

Static models are also known as scale models. As its name suggests, static model aircraft are not capable of flying. You can either purchase an already built one or choose to build one by yourself. It is far more satisfying to build your own then purchasing one. You can find many Snap Fit Kits that are comparatively inexpensive and are very easy to use. These kits enable a person to assemble and build it in a very short period of time.

Other advanced kits come with hundreds of parts that require detailed assembly, construction, coloring and gluing. These kinds of kits are more popular among individuals who are expert at building and constructing customized model aircraft.

Static aircraft model kits come in various sizes or scales for an aircraft. Some of the most notable scales for an airplane include 1:72 and 1:48. You can also find more detailed models that are available in higher scales of 1:32 and 1:24. The scale refers to the relationship between the size of the scaled down version and the size of the actual aircraft. For example, the scale of 1:72 implies that 1 inch of the model aircraft represents 48 inches of the actual aircraft.

Flying Plastic Model Aircraft:

Flying aircraft can be divided in three groups, namely, free flight, control line and radio controlled. All of the three types of flying aircraft models are available in varying sizes and scales and are generally made of plastic material. They have battery or gas powered engine. You can find many handy kits to build these kinds of models.

Free flight Plastic model aircraft are easy to build and are considered as a good option for beginners. This kind of model is not capable of flying at a very good speed but is designed to be stable in a flight. They are not controlled by any external device either. They are durable and can last for a long time.

Control Line aircraft are also known as U-control model aircraft. This kind of model flies by means of thin wires that are connected to a control handle. The wires are 20 to 30 feet long. The control line aircraft flies like a kite but in a circular path. Control line models generally have high power to weight ratios as compared to the RC models.

The Radio control model is a very popular type of flying aircraft. The movement of these model planes is controlled with the help of joysticks on the transmitter. They are not only popular among enthusiast hobbyists but are also used by military and scientific organizations for experiments, modeling and testing.