Why I Hate Building Airplanes! (Tamiya Focke Wulf 190A8 1/48)
Ready for some aircraft builder tongue and cheek?
Hey everyone.
First off, I want to say how many of you aircraft modelers I admire and respect. You're crazy. You have way too much time on your hands. You seem to like really difficult, frustrating and repetitive tasks. But seriously, there are some ridiculously well done modelers on this aircraft forum, and I am not one of them...at least in aircraft.
You see, I'm an armor guy for 40 years and although I did a few planes when I was a kid, (A-10 warthog and ME109), I was not really any good back then, nor were the models. My mum liked'em, but she had to because I was her little boy. She's dead now, so I have to find someone else to like my stuff. So here I am, ready for you to like me...and my stuff. But seriously, I've always loved aircraft and still do today and although I have tanks running through my blood, I aspire to someday fly. I have flown a plane actually. I hated it. Surprised I didn't crash. The instructor said the same thing.
I love building models. I always have. Now, that being said, I have to be totally honest...I flippin' HATE the aircraft building and painting process. Hate hate hate. Double hate. Loathe entirely. Sorry.
You guys are nuts or maybe have some defective disorder. Maybe that's why I don't usually do aircraft. WHY? Oh man, let me count the ways. First, the darn cockpit. I mean seriously, so much work and detail and frustration and for many builds, it's not even visible! WHAT? AND you have to do it first, paint it, weather it, then seal the thing inside and then cover it up with fifty pieces of tape. Speaking of which...the TAPE! The masking. OMG. Kill me now. I put less clothing on to go out in -10 C. I had less plaster around my leg when I broke it. Then, if that wasn't enough, you can't really "finish" the model as a complete build and admire it naked like you do armor. That's the best part! And it's just not really possible. What's wrong with you guys? You're missing the naked parts!
So here I am with a half cocked model "kinda done" and meanwhile, I have the fuselage covered in tape. The landing gears flopping over on the desk. The cockpit which I can't even see anymore. The bombs. The things that hold the bombs. The things that hold the things that hold the bombs. "No, no, you can't put those on until it's all painted piece by piece and weathered and then you can put it on." PLEASE.
Don't even get me started on the decals. I mean seriously, how many little dots and bits can you put on a plane? I feel like I'm back in college and I just got back from a rave. I'm still seeing "Nicht Verstatten" in my mind after all the decals I put on the wings today.
So, WTH did I build this Tamiya 1/48 Focke "ME" Wulf 190 A8 you ask? Great question! Well let me tell ya mate, it's because my wife bought it for me thinking I needed to try something different. Yah, the irony? As I was building it over the past two days and painting it and swearing and cursing, and spitting and writhing, she kept saying, "I don't think you should build planes anymore." Yah.
I came close to smashing it a few times I gotta tell ya. I wanted to take one of my King Tigers and just run it over. Yah, but I didn't. I wanted to get on the "aircraft forum" and nothing was gonna stop me. Well, not really, but I kept at it.
So, you wanna see it? My plane I mean. Pervy. How bout a tank first...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/197809239@N02/53449487239/in/dateposted-public/
OK, that's not a tank per se, it's sturmgeschütz iii G, but we'll cover that another time.
OK seriously. My Tamiya Focke Wulf 190 A8, which I built completely OTB as I had no interest in spending any real time on it. Wink. I'll show you a few shots first and let you squirm a little as you notice I deviated from any historical markings and painted it how I like it. I know, I know. You'll survive. After you collect yourself I'll show you a few more pics and let you tear me open.
Yah yah, I know. The markings are wrong. Not accurate. Made up. Well, I had my reasons. You know, you can't use decals after you spill coffee on them. True story. At least not the one's you wanted to use. Plus, the Tamiya markings on this kit were not so great. Thick. And no matter how much I tried, I got silvering. So, I had to improvise. Truthfully? I like doing my own thing every now and then with models anyway. For 40 years I've done historically accurate depictions of subjects and models just like the cover art tells us to. You know what? BORING! I hate doing things like every other modeler can do. At least sometimes. Just remember boys, in the end it's YOUR MODEL and moreover, it's PLASTIC! Love ya.
The build was just OK. No, that's a lie. Tamiya is usually my go to for stress free builds. But this one is a little dated obviously. Soft plastic. Old school Tamiya instructions. But, it was simple and since I am trying to find my wings, it was overall a good starting place. I really wanted to just get to the painting. I've always loved the 190 as the camo patterns are really unique and interesting. Yes, I mottled. Yes, I kinda did it my own way with the coloring. BUT, I like it. My mom would have liked it. So, you know...like it.
I used the BW technique for the undercoating. More like "mottling". Yes, I mottle too. I think it's a great way to build a base of shadows and contrast and then begin to add color, tone and saturation. I use this technique a lot in my armor building as well. I'm not showing these to boast, I'm showing to let you know we armor guys do some of the same stuff you flyboys do. I know many of you do both. But...I don't think this is the time or place. Anyway, here's a few examples:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/197809239@N02/53371493541/in/dateposted-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/197809239@N02/53383197869/in/dateposted-public/
I think the undercoating of BW makes the weathering process so much easier and if you "glaze paint" like I do, it makes it really fun to slowly build the color and tone. However, it comes with a serious price and I paid it on this build. If you recall how I stated how I HATE building airplanes. Well, here's why. I am use to mottling and then glazing all at once on one subject, but with the plane, I had to mottle like 10-20 different individual pieces and well, I didn't do that at first. I did the main fuselage and overall paint scheme and totally forgot to mottle every little add on piece and because I used a glaze for my colors and with many colors mixed in, I had to go back, mottle, mottle again and then glaze again and color match without remembering all the ratios I used to achieve the color. I know, i***t. Bad modeler. Bad mottler! But, I blame beer. It happens.
However, I still managed to make it work I think...
As you can see I used a lot of post shading as well as the pre shading. One of the reasons I do this is I don't particularly like using washes all that much. Sure, I use them and I used an overall wash and filter on this plane. BUT, many times I run into issues with decals coming off even after serious clear coating. This was no exception. I clear coated before decals. I clear coated after. I used future. I used satin. I used flat. I did everything right and sure enough, even with a light enamel wash, I had several decals break and have issues.
"Focke Me" these decals are bad!
You notice the crosses on the wings? Yah, I know, supposed to be all white. Well, they were. They stunk...bad..and trust me, I want to use so many other adjectives, but the forum rules won't let me. Focke! They silvered. Bad. Worse than bad. I worked them for hours and prepped perfectly. Still silvered. Focke-ing Tamiya decals! So bad I had to do something. I however had no more crosses in this scale for a plane. Lots for tanks, none for planes. So, I had to use a black cross from my AHH 1/16 Tiger tank. Yah seriously. That black cross pathetically put over the white was my only way to save the model. Ironically, these decals stunk too. In fact, the right one broke into like 20 pieces in less than 5 seconds in water. So, I had to piece them together. All of you veterans know just how hard and frustrating piecing together a broken decal can be. It's not perfect, BUT it had to be done. Plus, I like to pretend maybe the maintenance crew was drunk or something when they painted them. Works for me.
You can still see silvering here and there on the decals. Yah it stinks. BUT, I built this one for me and I'm ok with it. My mom would be ok with it. So, yah. Stop being so negative.
OK, last few shots and then I'll wrap it up...
Look, I know I said I hated building planes, and I do. BUT, I really like this plane and even though it's far from perfect, it's stirred something in me to try new things. Like maybe drinking beer in the morning instead of the early afternoon. Like, maybe I'll be nicer to telemarketers. Or maybe I'll try not getting mad at inanimate objects. That would make my wife happy.
I finally made it to the aircraft forums. The BIG BOYS. We poor armor folks only have a mere pittance of views you guys do. It's ok. We know we can still run you over anytime you land in our space.
I hope you enjoyed the tongue and cheek commentary. And if you didn't, well...you know, just read the title.
Cheers,
Graeme
P.S. I just ordered the Eduard ZERO A6M3 profipack. Yah, I'm now a mental defective just like you.
P.P.S. I also just ordered the Tamiya Corsair. The wings are just sooo cool. Don't tell my wife.
