Category: Back in the day

Hi, all! Welcome to the latest edition of “There’s another paint fail…”

I’ve documented my recent searches for a good model paint.

In my model building years, I started (as did most modelers in the 1970’s) with either Testors PLA Enamels or the Pactra equivalent. I stuck with Testors, since it was what I could find at most of the local places that sold models and supplies for them.

When I discovered modeling magazines and dedicated hobby shops in the late 1970’s, I also discovered the Pactra Authentic International Colors. I used them in 1981 to paint an Otaki F6F Hellcat, and I was smitten. I found that when thinned with Aerogloss Dope Thinner, the paint laid down very thin, dried very quickly, and gave an almost eggshell finish. Of course, that meant that the paint was on its way out—indeed, Pactra had discontinued the line. No matter, a change was coming…

When I went off to college and resumed my model building activities during my second semester, I decided to give my dorm neighbors a break and switch to something more friendly. At the time, there was only one acrylic paint for models, that being the OG of modeling acrylics, Polly-S. I continued to use Polly-S (with one exception) until that line, too, began to be phased out. Polly-S was a strange paint—it was a latex paint that could be brushed without leaving brush marks, but it was tricky to airbrush. You could thin it with water or alcohol, but it took some trial and error to see which one and how much would do the job. It seemed to me that no two bottles were the same, so I got used to making changes on the fly. In hindsight, it was merely okay, nothing stellar, but I had decided to be kind to my neighbors, so I was stuck with that decision…

For those of you who just “gotsta know”, the exception was in 1983, when I built the then-new Monogram 1/48th scale F-105G. Since the Polly-S representations of the SEA colors weren’t available to me at the time, and because I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, I used the new Testors Model Master paints. I used them also on a Monogram 1/48th scale F-100D and a kitbashed ESCI/Monogram A-7D. They worked really well, but they came with all of the issues of a solvent-based paint—namely, how do you dispose of the thinners used to clean out the airbrush (I used an empty thinner can) and what to do with the thinned paint (not a good idea to return it to the bottle, as it would cause the paint to jell more times than not)…

In the meantime, two new acrylics came into view—Tamiya Acrylics and the then-Gunze-Sangyo (now GSI/Creos) Aqueous Color Range. The paints were similar in chemical composition, and early on I could get them to work quite well. But back in the day, there were frequent changes in the paint chemistry for the Tamiya paints, and accordingly I had to learn how to use it all over again with each change. In the case of the GSI Aqueous paint, I liked the way it sprayed, but it seemed to take a lot of paint to cover, and that a jar didn’t seem to go far.

I took a side trip into the 1992-era Floquil Enamels for about six months, then Floquil/Polly-S graced the world with a new acrylic paint: PollyScale. I loved this stuff, and couldn’t (still can’t) understand the negativity surrounding the paint. It thinned with distilled water (it said so on the jar AND in the literature available for the paint), sprayed nicely, and dried to a tight layer of color. It feathered out well, too, and I could mask it with no peeling/lifting issues whatsoever. I have a feeling that those who had problems with the paint were busy playing home chemist and using some strange concoction to thin the paint, which caused all the problems mentioned. Hint: Windshield washer fluid is good for removing dirt and bugs from glass. I doubt it was designed to thin paint. As I said in previous paint discussions, use the thinner recommended by the manufacturer—in this case, that thinner was distilled water, period. I was reminded of this sometime later, when I would add Future to the paint and thin with either alcohol or the Testors Acryl Thinner—the paint would give me fits. Once I went back to plain old distilled water added to just the paint, those issues went away.

Of course, in time RPM International (the parent company to Testors, Floquil/Polly-S, Bondo, Zinsser, and a handful of other companies) killed off both the Floquil enamels and PollyScale lines (and the Aeromaster Warbird Colors and Acrylic Warbirt Colors, which were checmically identical and manufactured by Floquil/Polly-S).

In response, Testors introduced a new acrylic line that was supposed to combine the best features of PollyScale and the Pactra Acrylic line (that was also fairly nice paint—I only used it once or twice, and I don’t recall any issues). This new line was called the Testor Model Master Acrylic line, and it was the Shop Vac of suck. The pigment settled hard at the bottom of the jar, so it took a powered stirrer and a good deal of shaking to mix the paint. It would clog the airbrush at the drop of a hat, it didn’t cover well, and when you could get it to spray, it would dry with a rough, chalky finish.

Another pair of new acrylics that popped onto the scene briefly were the Niche Paints (they had two lines, one featured WWII Luftwaffe colors and the other was a line of modern Soviet colors) and the Monogram ProModeler paints.

The Niche paints were rumored to be custom shades of regular eggshell finish interior house paints. I’ve only used it a few times, but I can almost buy the rumor. It wasn’t around long…

The ProModeler paints came along in 1999-2000, and were touted as the first hobby paints to be certified Non-Toxic by some US government entity. I used it once. The paint took forever to dry—if it dried at all. Again, they didn’t last long…

Anyway, I had to find another go-to paint line in the early 2000’s. Since PollyScale went away, I have tried the following:

• Testors Acryl
• Vallejo Model Air
• Lifecolor
• Hataka Orange Line
• Mission Models Paint
• AK Real Color
• ICM Acrylics

In addition, I have renewed my acquaintance with the chemically similar GSI/Creos Aqueous and Tamiya Acrylic line.

So, what did I experience?

Testors Acryl

When I first used it, I wasn’t too thrilled—PollyScale, back in the day, was a superb acrylic paint that could be thinned with distilled water, airbrushed well, hand brushed well, and had good adhesion. As I started to switch from PollyScale to Acryl (the writing was on the wall—RPM was discontinuing PollyScale), I learned to work with it, as I have done with every single brand of model paint I’ve used since way back in the early 1970’s. After a while, I reached a point where I was comfortable in how the paint behaved. It became my go-to paint brand for several years, until RPM once again decided to cut back on their product line and killed the Acryl line off.

Verdict: It is a shame that RPM killed it off, since it was head-and-shoulders better than the previous Model Master Acrylics. The color fidelity was good, and the paint performance was good and predictable.

Vallejo Model Air

With the demise of the Acryl line, my next stop was Vallejo. The learning curve was steeper, since it really didn’t like to spray to my liking. Once I learned to use their thinner, things went better. I wasn’t thrilled about using a paint that required a primer—and I did use it without primer many times—but my bigger gripes were with color accuracy and shelf life.

Vallejo’s idea of color accuracy is to get it somewhere within city limits; i.e. FS36622 gray will be gray. Whether it comes close to FS36622 or not is a matter of personal choice, but usually it did not. Which is okay, I can mix colors. But when I use a small amount from a bottle and close the bottle tightly, I don’t expect the remaining paint to turn to thick goo in a month. Also, they almost always required a primer, and the “hotter”, the better, which sort of defeats the purpose of using an acrylic paint, no?

Verdict: Not a full fail, and their Metal Color paints are still my go-to for bare metal finishes. And I’ll still use it for hand brushing. But for airbrushing camouflage schemes, nope, this ain’t it. And their shelf life is still hit/miss.

Lifecolor

I used Lifecolor for the orange patches on the Sea King I built several years ago, and I was impressed. It laid down smoothly, with no orange peel or other issues. I was so impressed that I bought their ship colors and their version of Air Superiority Blue for when I get around to building my original-issue Revell 1/72nd scale F-15 as one of the prototypes. It does require you to use their thinner, but I’m good with that. See my take on PollyScale above…

Verdict: I like this based on one use. We’ll see how other colors behave, but I’m optimistic.

Hataka

My experience with the Hataka acrylics was not good. They clogged the airbrush, no matter what I did. I used their thinner alone. I added some flow aid and retarder to the mix. It would still clog the airbrush. I wound up using the colors I had to paint terrain, where I could use a brush.

Verdict: Fail.

Mission Models Paint (MMP)

This stuff was being pimped as the greatest paint ever* (*IF you use their primer, their reducer, their poly-mix, and strictly follow their application procedure to the letter). I painted two 1/72nd scale F-16s with it, following their instructions to a ‘T’. And when I went to apply the decals, as soon as I put a wet decal on the surface of the model, the paint began to run like watercolors.

I ran some further tests on styrene card. No matter what I did, the result was the same—a fragile paint that would run when a little water was placed on top of the paint.

Verdict: Fail. Big fail, given the advertising hype. And yes, I know people who have been able to make it work. The bigger point here is that I shouldn’t have to go through a Graduate-Level course on how to use their paint and get it to yield a permanent, durable finish…

AK Real Colors (AKRC)

I was reluctant to use this product for two reasons—one, nobody could tell me whether it was miscible with AK’s acrylic thinner as well as their “High Compatibility Thinner”; and two, AK has, in the past, stepped on their ding-dongs with golf shoes in their advertisement department—promoting the Holocaust and other forms of forced slavery to sell books and then, when getting called on it, brushing it off as it was not a big deal.

But when I needed paint for my Hasegawa 1/72nd scale A-10A, I decided to give it a try. I had, by this time, been thinning Tamiya acrylics with lacquer thinner, so the first issue was mooted. I still wasn’t thrilled with their advertising gaffes, but I figured I was buying the paint from someone who had already paid AKI.

From a performance standpoint, thinned with either Tamiya lacquer thinner or Mr. Color Leveling Thinner, the paint sprayed very nicely, laid down smoothly, and dried quickly.

From a color accuracy standpoint, there were issues. Their idea of what 34102 and 34092 looked like weren’t in line with what was indicated in the FS595a fan deck I keep handy. It wasn’t close to something I had painted earlier with the PollyScale acrylics. The 34012 was too brown and not olive enough, the 34092 was almost turquoise rather than a deep green with a blueish cast. The 36081 gray was also too light—even if you subscribe to the scale color theory (which I do), it was still far too light.

Verdict: Fail. Not a hard fail, because they performed well. But they failed where it matters most—the paint should be close to what the label says. Talking with friends, this is a hit/miss thing with AK. Some colors are spot on, others are not correct.

ICM Acrylics

I’m building the “Ghost of Kyiv” release of ICM’s 1/72nd scale MiG-29 Fulcrum C. It was given to me as a gift along with the ICM paint set specifically intended for this kit. The kit gives you the gray “pixel” camouflage as decals, but I scanned the sheet and created masks on my Cameo 4.

As I began to paint the airplane, I noted that the paint said when airbrushing, thin “with water or thinner”, the thinner being unspecified. I’ve read a few accounts of folks using X-20A. I also noted that it said to use a primer. So, I primed the model with a coat of Tamiya X-18 Semigloss Black and allowed it to dry for a few days.

I began with the lightest of the gray colors. I used distilled water to thin the paint, and it seemed to go down fairly nicely. I did note that the surface was a bit chalky, but nothing that couldn’t be buffed out when the paint was dry with a microfiber towel.

I let that color dry for a few nights. I then airbrushed the next darker shade of gray on the underside. This time, I used Tamiya X-20A thinner. Again, it laid down okay, but with a chalky finish. Again, it was allowed to dry overnight.

When I resumed painting, I noted some dust that wouldn’t simply wipe off, so I dampened a Q-Tip with a wee bit of distilled water—the swab was barely moist. As I tried to wash the dust off, I noted that the paint was dissolving—almost like a watercolor. As I continued, the paint wiped off the model. I did the same thing in several other locations on the model to make sure it wasn’t a localized issue. Nope, the paint—whether it had been thinned with water or X-20A—dissolved and wiped off of the surface.

The final confirmation was when it took a little over 10 minutes’ scrubbing with a toothbrush under the faucet. The paint simply wiped off.

Verdict: I hate to say this, because I think ICM is hitting it out of the park with their kit releases over the past few years, but the paint gets a Hard Fail. I will do some more tests with the paint I have left to see if it wasn’t a “me problem”, so stay tuned. But for the MiG, the paint got stripped and the model will be painted with Tamiya Acrylics, thinned with lacquer thinner. That combination has not let me down for as long as I’ve been using it.

Which brings us to the GSI Aqueous and Tamiya Acrylics.

As mentioned earlier, I used both when they first arrived in the scene. As other paints were available that worked better for me, I didn’t use them that much. But was the other acrylic lines died off, I took another look.

The initial impetus to revisit them was a pair of 1/72nd scale Phantoms in British colors I built, Academy’s F-4J as a 74 Sqn F-4J(UK) and the Fujimi FG.1. British Standard colors are hard to come by in acrylic paints, and I had already stockpiled some of the required colors, so I gave them another go. This time, I used X-20A thinner (this predated my use of Mr. Leveling Thinner buy a few months), and found they worked much better than my previous efforts. The only issue I had was with the decal application on the FG.1, which did weird things to the paint. I blame this not on the paint, but the decal adhesive, as the same paint/clear coat combination worked with no issues on the F-4J(UK). I imagine the paint would work even better with the use of that magic elixir known as Mr. Leveling Thinner, MLT, or simply “Unicorn Tears”…

And so my search ended at the Tamiya Acrylics. I guess I learned that the paint could be thinned with lacquer thinner in the late 1990’s. At the time, I was trying to remain as “hot solvent free” as I could (the exception was using Testors Metalizer Sealer as a clear coat before decals and weathering, as it was nearly bulletproof), so I steered clear. However, as the acrylic lines continued to shrink, I saw what some of my AMPS club buddies were achieving with this combination. So, I bit the bullet and tried it. As far as the fumes were concerned, I crack a window and wear a respirator. I use alcohol to clean the airbrush. So far, the results have been good—and they are repeatable. I’ve painted an Airfix 1/72nd scale Bristol Blenheim I and the Hasegawa 1/72nd scale A-10A (after I abandoned the AK Real Colors paints) with them. I painted all three of the Vermont ANG F-16’s using this mix. I had no surprises down the road when the decals went on.

I’m convinced, and it will take something Earth-shaking to change that opinion.

For those who want to know about the Andrea, Ammo by Mig, Citadel, Games Workshop, or the AK Interactive acrylics, I can only speak on the Citadel paints—I use them for detail painting only. Like the Vallejo Model Air and Model Color, they brush on well and I have no complaints. I had pondered using the AKI 3^rd Gen acrylics, but the other factor on paints, for me, is local availability. If I run out of a color, I’d like to be reasonably sure that I can buy a new jar/bottle locally and not have to put together a larger order with one of the online shops (I almost used the phrase “Mail Order”–kids, ask your parents). And in my area, I can get Tamiya Acrylics at several shops. So why would I want to venture too far away from that?

And yes, I said I also liked the Lifecolor paints. But I believe their use will be in limited, specific scenarios such as the Air Superiority Blue for the early F-15A, or the ship colors (unless I mix those, too, from Tamiya colors) because these too will need to be ordered online.

A final word on the GSI/Creos Aqueous line. I’d use them more IF I could find the H3XX and H4XX colors anywhere—these are the colors matched to AN/ANA, FS, RAL, and BSC paint specifications. I’ve scoured the various online shops, and all of them show stock on colors up to the H9X numbers. I contacted GSI/Creos, they say the colors in question are still being made (good thing, since most Hasegawa and Fujimi kits use their color call-outs). Knowing that, I would figure that Hobby Link Japan would have them, but recent searches have come up empty. If anyone can tell me what’s up here, I would appreciate it. And yes, I know I can use the Mr. Color lacquers (or the Tamiya Lacquer Paints, for that matter)—but their smell is much sharper, and lingers much longer, than that of either the Aqueous or Tamiya Acrylics thinned with MLT or lacquer thinner does.

As for the new breed of acrylic lacquers (MRP, SMS, etc.), I have not tried them for the reasons listed above. Some friends have used them, and they think they’re the best thing since bottled beer, sliced bread, apple pie, and Mom. Getting them can be an issue, which defeats the “locally stocked” availability question.

Postscript. A few weeks ago, Ammo by Mig announced a new acrylic line called “ATOM”. They are supposed to combine the best features of an acrylic paint with the best features of a lacquer. Several online shops are showing them as preorders. Just for giggles, I may have to try the line to see whether its performance is that much better than my current Tamiya/MLT mix. I don’t envision any of the local shops rushing out to start stocking ATOM, so it will have to be that much better than my current go-to to make me switch.

This opens another can of worms, one that some friends and I discussed several years ago, when MMP became available and folks were flocking to it. At the time, it seemed there was a new paint line announced every month, and modelers were flocking to them the way the 5-year olds playing soccer all follow the ball rather than playing their position. They never stick with one product long enough to become competent with it, before they run to the next shiny new paint line. I suppose you could say that I did the same thing during my recent search for a replacement for PollyScale and Acryl. I don’t think I fall into the same category, since my go-to lines were going away and I was trying to find a line that worked for me.

The other player at work are the manufacturers themselves. They change the formulations of their paint so often that a user doesn’t really have time to become properly attuned to them before they are gone, replaced by this year’s new darling.

And this is yet another reason I came to the conclusion I did—Tamiya Acrylics have been around since 1983 or 1984, and I don’t seem them going anywhere any time soon…

I have friends who still wish they could go buy some good, old, Dio-Sol/Xylene-laden Floquil paint. Sorry, gang, those days are long gone. With the recent demise of the Model Master paint, the same laments can be seen far and wide on the various modeling boards. Yeah, you can pine for them all you like, but they ain’t comin’ back…

There you go, my take on the State of Hobby Paints.

As always, thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.

Howdy, all!

“That’s an interesting title”, you say. “What does it mean? Is it a countdown to something?”

Allow me to explain…

Many years ago, a friend and I were discussing models. It was in the early 2000’s, right when the Monogram ProModeler 1/48th scale F-86D arrived at hobby shops. At the time, it was a much welcomed release, since nobody to that point had released an accurate, state of the art kit of the Dog Sabre. Of course, it didn’t take long for the online community to bring up several items to note. If memory serves, they were (in no particular order):

• It was based on an early Block number airframe (Block 5, IIRC) at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force that had been used for flight testing, therefore had the early tail without the drag chute compartment and an additional rudder trim tab;
• It had the early instrument panel layout;
• And, after a bit of math, it was determined that the wing sweep was too steep by 3.2°.

Of course, Revell AG later released the later configuration of the fuselage with the drag chute, but kept the instrument panel and wing from the earlier ProModeler issue of the kit. But for all the carrying on, the issues were minor.

One thing I said then (and still say it now) is that 99.9% of the people who even see the completed model on my display shelf wouldn’t know the difference between an early and late Dog Sabre instrument panel—even if they were die-hard fans of the F-86. I told one of the guys making a lot of noise over it that I was sure that Eduard or Airwaves (remember Airwaves?) would more than likely make a photoetch set with the proper layout that could easily fix that problem.  And, lacking that, a reference photo, a bit of Evergreen sheet, a set of punches or drills, and about an hour’s work could fix the problem.

As for the wing, Jennings says it in his article—unless you had the Revell Dog Sabre placed next to a Hasegawa or Academy Sabre with a gridded shelf under them and could view them from directly above, it wouldn’t be noticeable. And, for those intrepid types who couldn’t live with the 3.2° error, they could always do the work and fix it.

I added that unless I put them in the case at the shop (I was still in Florida at the time, and several of my models were in the cases at Warrick Custom Hobbies) or took them to a show, most of my models never got seen by anyone else for more than a few hours—and on a display shelf, nobody ever got close enough to inspect the model to make sure it was “nuts-bolts-rivets” accurate anyway.  Plus, if you build models so you can do the contest thing, AMPS or IPMS contest judges are instructed not to evaluate accuracy, anyway. So unless you get so hot and bothered over a half-inch long bit of plastic…

That prompted us to do some math to figure out just how much time our models were being looked at by other people.

The logic worked out something like this:

We estimated an average 10-year life span for a completed model. It seemed like a good starting place.

10 years X 365 days/year X 24 hours/day equals 87,600 hours.

Next, we estimated a few more things.

• You build a model, and take it to the club meeting. The average club meeting clocks in at 2 hours.
• You take it to a contest. The average one day contest is about six or eight hours. To be fair, we’ll call it eight.
• You might take it to the local hobby shop (if such a thing still exists in your area) to show it off for an hour.

So, total that up. We’re at 11 hours. Add on an hour or two for when friends come to visit—you *do* have friends, don’t you? Anyway…

Let’s just say 15 hours. Do some cipherin’…naught from naught…carry the two…and we have 0.017%. If we round it, 15 hours is 0.02 percent of 87,600. Other people look at your model for a total of 0.02% of the model’s life span, using 10 years as the average life span. If the model “lives” longer, the percentage gets even lower.

Maybe you take it to a local, “regional”, and “national” show, the latter being a three-day affair. That comes to 30 hours at shows, plus the other time. Let’s just triple the initial estimate from 15 to 45 hours. What the hell, let’s say 50 hours. That computes to a whopping 0.06% of it’s life span.

Want to stretch it to 100 hours? Okay…that works out to 0.11%. Still less than 1%.

You can split hairs all you want, but on average a completed model that goes from workbench to your personal display shelf will only be looked at by other people for a very small sliver of the total lifespan. Otherwise, your peepers are the only ones to view your work.

So again, *who* do you build your models for?
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
Work on the A-10A’s continues slowly. The pylon depressions on the 1/48th scale model are filled and ready to have the ResKit pylons (for the Hobby Boss kit, explaining why the depression on the Tamiya wing had to be filled), and some color has been applied to the 1/72nd scale model. I want to try and complete the 1/72nd scale model in the next few weeks.
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
In the meantime, I’ve bought some stuff.

I’ve wanted to get a set of quick disconnects for the airbrushes for a few years, and figured I might as well buy a MAC valve, too. I still need to play with the valve and test things out, but the big benefit is being able to switch airbrushes quickly.

I also bought some wax pencils. Back a long time ago, a modeling friend used them to position small parts. I had forgotten about them until a FineScale Modeler video reminded me how handy they were. And they’re dirt cheap—I bought 10 and some sorting trays on Amazon for less than $8 American…
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
Along with the tools, of course I bought some kits.

Back in 1996, I used the KMC resin conversion kit to build an FM-2 Wildcat from the Tamiya kit. The model turned out pretty nice, but it always nagged me that the conversion was about as superficial as it could get. All KMC really gave you was a copy of the kit cowl, a casting of an extended kit rudder, and some very sketchy instructions (later versions of the conversion also offered an engine). So imagine my glee when Eduard introduced their FM-2 kit at the IPMS/USA National Convention. I was so happy, I bought two. I’m tempted to push the A-10’s to the side…

At about the same time, my order from Ukraine arrived. Once again, I have to commend Plastic Models Store in Kyiv for their superb service. If you want kits made in Ukraine, give them a whirl.
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
I was discussing the A-10 project with someone at work. He wasn’t too versed on the whys and wherefores of the ThunderHog. I gave him a few places to read up on it, and told him if he really wanted some fun, he should look at all the various postwar agreements made between and among the various branches of the U.S. military. As I refreshed my own memory, I thought it might be a good idea to write it all down in capsule form and post it here as a companion to my piece on “The McNamara Effect” that I wrote a few years ago. Stay tuned, sports fans…

That’s all I have for this installment.  Thanks for reading. Be good to one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

Howdy, all!

Do you remember the projects you completed where you thought you had “turned a corner”—that is, you finally put a group of skills together into one project and brought it to completion?

Given that this blog is centered on scale models, I can think of a few projects that fill the bill.  I consider these the first real fruits of my labors after discovering  Scale Modeler (and later, FineScale Modeler) magazine, Solvaset, and Squadron Green Putty, and after acquiring an airbrush.

1979-ish, Monogram 1/48^th scale Hawker Typhoon.  It was the first model where filled seams and painted with an airbrush.  It turned out fairly well, all things considered.  I think I was still using Propel cans, and the limitations with them didn’t help the project.  I seem to recall that shortly afterwards, I got a compressor for the airbrush.  For the life of me, I have no recollection of what became of the finished model.

Around the same time, I built a Guillows’ 1/16^th scale stick-and-tissue Spitfire model, just to show Dad that I could…

1980, Revell 1/32^nd scale F4U-1 Corsair.  I was inspired by Sheperd Paine’s “Pilots, Man Your Planes” article in one of the “Special” issues of Challenge Publications’ Scale Modeler.  He had done his usual superdetail job on the model.  I tried to duplicate some of what he did to his model.  I used masking tape to make seatbelts, I made the landing gear springs from wire, and I cut and dropped the flaps.  I left the wings unfolded, and didn’t do a whole lot to the rest of the model.  Like the Typhoon, I was still using the little square bottles of Testors Flat Enamels, so the colors were a little bit weird.  I also went my own way with the markings—I built the model as Tommy Blackburn’s “Big Hog”.  I painted the letters freehand, and rather than seek alternate markings with the red surround (not that I could have afforded such a luxury), I used a 3/0 brush and Testors Flat Red to “convert” the kit insignia to the pre-September 1943 version.  Again, I was rather pleased with the end result.  The model went to a friend and I never saw it again.  I have a strange feeling that it became an air rifle target…

1981, Otaki 1/48^th scale F6F-3 Hellcat.  This one put everything I had learned to that point  together.  The model was built, the seams were filled, and the scheme was airbrushed.  I applied the decals with Solvaset, and I did a little “toning down” and “weathering” with some washes.  I added some paint chips, and I was really happy when I finished the model.

1984, Nichimo 1/48^th scale Ki.43 “Oscar”.  This was a further extension to the process started with the Hellcat.  In this case, I did more paint chipping using an alternate method—I used a silver Tamiya paint marker on certain areas of the airplane before I added the camouflage colors.  I had switched to Polly-S acrylics, and I “chipped” them with a tight roll of masking tape right after the paint had started to dry.  I added more chips to the markings once the decals were on using the paint marker again.

1985, Monogram 1/48^th scale P-51B converted to an Allison-engined P-51 with the Koster Aero Enterprises vacuum-formed conversion kit.  This was my first vacuum formed kit.  Also, using the knowledge I gained from reading Bob Steinbrunn’s cockpit detailing article in FineScale Modeler, I did a lot of scratch detailing in the cockpit.  I really started to learn how to use alternate materials—the injection molded cannon barrels from the Koster kit were rather softly detailed, so I removed the various details and replaced them—I used vinyl tape for the bands and fine wire for the recoil springs.

From this point on, I coasted on my abilities.  I was back in college, so my model building time was a bit limited.  It didn’t stop me from scratchbuilding a seat or adding plumbing to landing gear, but those were the exception rather than the rule.

After college, I started hanging out in the hobby shop.  And I started learning more.  One of the locals brought some models in that had a really convincing finish—the camouflage colors weren’t “solid”—the upper surface olive drab was actually many different shades of olive drab, and the panel lines were highlighted.  In a sense, it was probably what “The Spanish School” was originally devised to be.  This was in 1988, and it was about the time Verlinden was really making inroads into the American modeling scene, but the guy told me he had been doing it for years.  He said all you have to do is vary the colors and make the whole thing look good.

Undeterred, I took a Tamiya 1/48^th scale F2A Buffalo from the shelf and refinished it.  I removed the decals and smoothed the paint, much as I did on a Monogram B-17 in 1984.  This time, when I painted it, I thought about those other models I saw, and tried to emulate the procedure.  It worked.  The result was rather nice, if I do say so…

1989, Monogram 1/48^th scale B-29.  This was the first model I totally rescribed.  It was an eye-opener, for sure.  I used a lot of filler to cover my mistakes, of which there were many.  In the end, I was happy with the result.  The model was sent to the Valiant Air Command museum.  I have no idea if it still survives…

1990, Revell 1/72nd scale F-89.  My first really successful bare metal finish was achieved with Floquil silvers.  Since then, I have tried several methods.  My go-to these days are the Vallejo Metal Colors, but for a while I used a highly thinned mix of Isopropyl Alcohol, Future, and Tamiya X32 Titanium Silver over a gray primer base.  The impediment to continue using this method is the fact that SC Johnson discontinued Future, and I’m not convinced any of the alternatives folks are using would work.  With the Vallejo stuff available, there really is no need to look elsewhere.

1999/2000, Hobbycraft 1/48^th scale P-26A.  I had rigged models before, but none was really that good.  This time, fresh off a trip to the IPMS National Convention and armed with some nifty stainless steel orthodontic wire, I set out to change that.  The Hobbycraft Peashooter is a fabulous kit, and I did little additional work on the kit.  When it came time to rig it, I cut lengths of the aforementioned wire and glued it in place with small drops of white glue.  The model still sits in the display case, although it has developed a twist in the aft fuselage over the y
ears.  I should probably build another one of these gems soon…

The next big leap came only a few years ago, when I remembered that “This is just a plastic model, there isn’t a lot I could do to screw it up.”  The model was the 1/48^th scale Special Hobby Macchi C.200 that I’ve shared previously.  I took the time and effort to detail things a bit more.  I added the landing gear trunnions to make the main landing gear more authentic.  And I added more and more of those little details to the model.

What I learned on the Peashooter and Macchi was put to use on the Aeroclub 1/48^th scale Gloster Gamecock I finished last year.  It was a vacuum-formed kit of a biplane with a scratchbuilt cockpit, wing struts, a lot of little details, and it was rigged.  The rigging was different, though–I used Davis’ Invisible thread looped through tiny “rigging blocks” and “turnbuckles” made from stretched Evergreen styrene tubing, secured with CA.  It featured a metallic finish (aluminum dope), and most of the markings were painted on.

I used the latter skill to also paint the huge checkerboard patterns on a 1/72nd scale Fujimi Phantom FG.1,  I like the method so much that I bought a Cameo Silhouette with the intention of cutting masks for my paint schemes instead of using decals.  I’m not living under the illusion that I’ll never use decals, but knowing how to do this frees me of the limitations of decals, namely being able to do subjects that are never covered by any of the aftermarket decal sheets.

To add to the story, today I bought some UV cure resin and a UV light to make my own lenses.  With MV Products lenses being difficult to obtain, this will allow me to “roll my own” when I need them.  Another tool in the toolbox, another skill in the portfolio…

What is the moral to the story?  Keep exercising your skills, whatever your craft or hobby might be.  You might not realize it right away, but these skills build upon each other through the years, and one day you complete a model that puts it all in play.  And you’ll wonder—for a minute, maybe—how could you have done such work?  Then you recollect all the projects that came before and led up to this latest effort…

It goes back to what I said a while ago on these very pages—it only takes an investment of time and a little effort to do good work.  Keep on trying…
~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~
Something I’ve touched on before has risen again on the various forii.  I always get a kick out of the comments that come from the under-30’s in the hobby.  You know, the kids, the noobs, the folks who have only recently discovered the hobby.

I saw someone speak in glowing terms of the yet-to-be-released Magic Factory 1/48^th scale F4U-2 Corsair, and how it is “head and shoulders better than the ancient Tamiya kit!”

Ancient?  Tamiya’s kits arrived on the scene in 1996.  They fit like a glove and exhibit Tamiya’s standard of excellence.  I won’t rush out to buy the Magic Factory kits just yet…

Recall, too, that before the Tamiya kits made their debut, the options for a 1/48^th scale Corsair were the 1996 Hobbycraft kits (which, had Tamiya not produced their kit, could have been a contender had there not been some unfortunate issues with the fit), the 1980 Mania/Hasegawa F4U-4 (still the standard for the -4 after all these years), the 1977 AMT F4U-1, the 1976 release by Otaki (still a fine kit, as I demonstrated a few years ago), the 1973 Monogram F4U-4, and the 1956 Lindberg F4U-5.

After the Tamiya kits came the questionable Academy/ Minicraft “reworking” of the Hasegawa -4 (that somehow acquired a bloated fuselage), the absolutely awful Minicraft F4U-5/5N, and the superb Hasegawa F4U-5/-7, and AU-1 kits, followed by what I can only determine to be the hit-or-miss Hobby Boss kits.

My point?  Be careful when you call a kit “ancient”.  By the same standard, the Accurate Miniatures 1/48^th scale TBF/TBM and SBD kits are also “ancient”, but back in the day they were seen as absolute wonders.  Before they came along, you built the Monogram kits (or Nichimo knockoffs) and either did DIY detailing or, after they appeared, used the Medallion Models resin sets.

Bottom line: these kits might be ancient to you, young pups, but to those of us who made do with the early 1950’s kits for years, they were—and still are—wonderful kits.

That’s all I have for now.  Until next time, be good to one another.  As always, I bid you Peace.

Howdy, all…

I’ve been reading a lot of back issues of modeling magazines lately—way, way back issues, from the early 1980’s.  I was reading FineScale Modeler, to be precise (and if you are a fan of the magazine and haven’t yet bought their 25 years, 1982-2007  and 10 years, 2008-2018 DVD’s, what are you waiting for?), especially the early issues between the initial Test Issue in 1982 until around 1987 just to look back and remember how it used to be.  Incidentally, a lot of tools and products that modelers today seem to think are “new” actually date back to pre-FSM days.  (I’ll cover the early days of FSM in a later post—I’ve been trying to write it for several weeks now, but always find something lacking.)

When the magazine first came out, I was a 1/48 scale WWII airplane modeler.  If it did not fit that collection, I wasn’t interested.  A few years later, my tastes changed—well, they didn’t change, per se, I just grew my areas of interest.  In the Fall of 1986, I embarked on a 1/48^th F-111 using the Monogram rework of the Aurora F-111A kit.  I had recently discovered the Detail and Scale series, too, and after reading the reviews, looking at the photos, and comparing them to the actual plastic, I saw nothing but a major fight with the kit.  I was at a crossroads.  While at one of the Daytona hobby shops (most likely Sky, Ltd.—HobbyCraft Junction had closed, and Ace RC had only a small selection), I spied the Monogram 1/72 F-105G.  Having been a fan of the Thud since I saw a picture in the family’s Collier’s Encyclopedia (again, this was when most families actually owned an encyclopedia set), and having built the Monogram 1/48^th scale kit in 1983, I was intrigued.  I bought the kit, and quickly liked the idea of jets in 1/72 scale.  (I gave the ‘Vark to a college friend, who finished it respectably, showing that it *could* be done—and if you wanted a 1/48^th scale F-111, this was the only way at the time.)

I reasoned that a 1/48^th F-105 is almost the same length as a 1/48^th B-25, and I realized that doing jets in the smaller scale did two things: saved display space—well, it didn’t really “save” space, since there were now more kits to build, the smaller kits just allowed for more models to be shown in the same space—and opened up a vast variety of subjects to my collection.

Sticking with the 1/72 scale theme, I would buy and build the Monogram EF-111A in the Spring of 1987, a Hasegawa F9F-2 Panther in the Fall of 1987, and a Monogram F-4D in the Spring of 1988, rounding out my years at “The Harvard of the Sky”.  Later, after I graduated and joined the real world, I would build Fujimi’s AH-1J, and ESCI’s F-104C and Mirage F.1.  As I started building for other people, I would build several copies of the Heller C-118, Hasegawa’s F-14, S-3, and F-16A+; Monogram’s F-4J and F-105G; and Revell’s F-89D.  My journey to the “Dark Side” was complete—almost.  I still build WWII fighters in 1/48^th scale.

At about the same time, I also started to shrink my WWII bombers to 1/72 scale, and for the same reasons.  I would find the Italeri B-25’s, Airfix A-26 and B-26, Revell’s A-20, B-24, and PBY, and Hasegawa’s B-17’s while I was in college…

Of course, I had also begun dabbling in ships, cars, armor, and miniatures (“figures”) by then, too…

(I once had a fairly convoluted collection breakdown.  As I’ve progessed in years, I have started to re-think a lot of things, and am slowly going through a “fleet rationalization”.  But that’s another story for another time…)

Anyway, I need to steer us back on track…

In the early to mid-1980’s, Fujimi and Hasegawa were leading the pack in 1/72 scale with a new generation of kits.  Sure, the Italian firms of ESCI and Italeri had a few new goodies, and the Koreans were ramping up some kits of their own, but the folks from Shizuoka were standing head and shoulders above everyone else, including U.S. domestic stalwarts Revell and Monogram.

Fujimi, in particular, began releasing “families” of kits based on a common tool with inserts and optional parts to get as much mileage (read: as many variants of the type) from a mold as possible.  Among this new series of 1/72^nd scale kit families, we had:

• A-4 Skyhawk (from the A4D-1 on, including the TA-4’s and some of the export versions)
• A-6 Intruder (including the KA-6D)
• A-7 Corsair II (all single-seat variants from A-7A to A-7E)
• F-4 Phantom II (eventually the F-4B through the F-4S, including the RF-4B and C and the Spey-powered British Phantoms)
• F-86 Sabre (the F-86F family, including the F-40 and RF-86)
• F7U “Cutlass”
• Ju-87 Stuka (D, G, and R variants)
• D3A “Val”
• B6N “Jill”
• D4Y “Judy”
• B7A “Grace”
• Ki-36 “Ida”
• Ki-15 “Babs”
• F1M “Pete”
• A5M “Claude”
• CH-46 Sea Knight
• H-60 Blackhawk

Later in the 1980’s and into the 1990’s, Fujimi continued with a 1/72 F-14A, F-16 series, MiG-21 series, and F/A-18 series that were on the same level as the contemporary releases of the same subjects from Hasegawa.   In addition, they offered a 1/72^nd scale Ki-43 Oscar series, the J1N1 “Irving”, some late marque Spitfires (they only managed to do the XIVc and FR.19, according to Scalemates), and also got into 1/144 scale with a series of B-29 kits.  Later, they would add Japanese WWII fighters to the 1/144 collection, and after Nitto went bankrupt, they would add some of their military vehicles to the Fujimi catalog.

If you built modern subjects, when you add to these their earlier SH-3 Sea King, E-2 Hawkeye, Kaman Seaspite, Bell UH-1N, Westland Lynx, CH/HH-53, and AH-1J Sea/Sand Cobras, there was a lot to choose from.  And, when you coupled Fujimi’s jets and helicopters to the Hasegawa kits of the day (F-14, F-15, F-16, S-2, S-3, etc.), you could amass quite a collection of modern airplanes.

The WWII guys had a lot to choose from, too, especially stuff that had either not been made before as an injection molded kit, or the only kits available were older, less accurate and less detailed kits, some of which were in odd scales.

Now, I had already purchased and perused (and stashed) the older Fujimi 1/48^th scale Bf-110C/D, late Bf-109G/K,  the Aichi D3A “Val”, the 1/50^th Fw-190D-9; and had actually built their 1/50^th Spitfire Vb in 1983.  The fact that some of their kits were in “odd” scales (1/50 and 1/70) for their earlier kits didn’t really bother me at the time, and by the time I was getting into the smaller scale, the kits that interested me were in the more common scales.  Even the older kits were nicely done from a molding quality standpoint, only the accuracy and detailing needed better execution.  Still, most were the only games in town at the time—for example, the Dora was “it” in anything near 1/48^th scale unless you converted the Monogram kit with Bill Koster’s excellent vac-form conversion.  We had to wait until 1987 for Trimaster to put a state-of-the-art injection molded 1/48^th scale Fw-190D-9 kit on the shelves.

Even in 1/48^th scale, they had a few older kits of modern subjects, including an F-14A, an F-15, the Mitsubishi F-1 and T-2, and a 1/50^th F-5B that also masqueraded as a “White Mosquito” T-38.

But these new tool kits in 1/72 scale were something else.  Petite recessed detail, good fit, fairly decent details, and they were not astronomically priced.  I believe Testors had the U.S. market distributorship agreement back then, which kept the pricing fairly low.  Some of these would also appear in Testors boxes along the way.

And then, they were gone.  It seemed as though Fujimi kits on hobby shop shelves had evaporated overnight.  When you could find them, the prices had soared.  What happened?

Apparently–and I’m going by what I know about the plastic model industry from my days working at hobby shops here, since most Japanese model manufacturers keep a close lid on their internal goings-on–is that when Testors’ importer agreement with Fujimi ended, for whatever reason, no other importer picked them up OR Fujimi decided not to replace Testors as their importer into the U.S.  Or, perhaps things weren’t as rosy as we had hoped—after all, with all these superb kits coming out, it was a virtual license to print money, right?  We couldn’t keep their kits on the shelves for a while.  Did the Testors re-boxings divert money?  Were they not hot sellers elsewhere in the world?  And it wasn’t as if all Fujimi had going for them were these airplane kits—they made cars in 1/24 (Porsches, the Ford GT-40 series, racing Ferraris), waterline series ships in 1/700 scale, military vehicles in 1/72 and 1/76, and recently, they produced some 1/350 scale ship kits, too.

Whatever happened, Fujimi is still around.  Their website shows 232 airplane kits in the aircraft line—most of which are marked as “sold out”.   Recently, they offered kits of the F-22A and the F-35B (VTOL version).  As you run through the line, you’ll see just how extensive the Fujimi catalog is.  The fact that there is no U.S. importer means that instead of going to the local shop, you need to go online.  Hobbylink Japan, Hobbylinc, PlazaJapan, and HobbySearch all carry the line.

If you’ve never had the pleasure, get a modern (post-1982) Fujimi kit and build it.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy the ride.  As I promised last time, I’ll document the construction of one of Fujimi’s Sea Kings in the next post.  The Fujimi Sea King kit pre-dates the others by a few years (it appeared in 1980), but it was marketed as a “family”, including the SH-3D/G/H, JSDF HSS-2B, and RAF Sea King HAR.3).  It was a good indication of what was to come from Fujimi Mokei.

*    *    *    *    *    *   *   *   *   *

Here in the Greater Upper Midlands Co-Prosperity Sphere, things are going as well as can be expected.  Both model clubs (AMPS and IPMS) have gone to Zoom meetings, since both clubs normally meet in county libraries that have been closed since March.  Zoom meetings work fairly well for those who join them, but some of the folks just don’t have the technical know-how and equipment to participate.  Several people have offered alternative meeting locations, but they aren’t big enough to practice social distancing, so we’ll stick with Zoom for now.  It isn’t a perfect solution, but it works well enough.

Of the model show “casualties” of COVID-19, our June show had been postponed until August, but last week the committee decided to cancel it.  There were many reasons, all of them valid, but the cherry on the sundae was the Governor’s Executive Order than limited the number of people allowed in any government facility to no more than 50.  Since that would barely accommodate the show staff and vendors, we were left with no other choice.

Of course, IPMS/USA cancelled their 2020 National Convention in San Marcos, Texas as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 spiked in that state.  The San Marcos crew was awarded the 2023 convention after IPMS/USA renegotiated the deal with the venue there.  It was the right thing to do, especially when it has come to light that a convention hall close to the venue has been opened as an overflow hospital.

The only show that is still “Go!” (for now, at least) is the rescheduled (from May) and moved (from Harrisburg, PA to Danbury, CT) AMPS International Convention, although given the traveler quarantines in place in the Northeast, I expect it to be cancelled in the upcoming weeks.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

Speaking of AMPS, our Chapter’s long-term project for the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum was moved into place and completed in March.  The museum has an announcement, and the Facebook page we established has now been opened to the public.

We kept things under wraps during construction, but since it is now on full display, here’s a thumbnail:

The 8’X12’X5’ diorama represents Fire Support Base RIPCORD circa mid- to late June, 1970.  RIPCORD was a pivotal battle during Operation TEXAS STAR, yet another attempt to shut down the movement of men and material down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.  It was for all intents and purposes under siege from 1 July 1970 until it was “closed” and evacuated on 23 July.  It was the last battle led and fought primarily by U.S. troops.

If you want to know more, check out the RIPCORD Association website.

We built the diorama in 1/72 scale, with a good 95% of it being bespoke—only a relative few items (helicopters, howitzers) were built from kits.  It is located in the atrium between the South Carolina State Museum’s ticket desk and the Relic Room; to view it costs nothing.  It is supposed to remain in place for at least two years.  If you are an AMPS national member, Part One of a three-part article appeared in the latest issue of the AMPS magazine “Boresight”.

*    *    *    *    *    *   *

That’s all I have for now.  Thanks for reading.  Stay safe and stay well, and, as always, be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

“At Warrick Custom Hobbies in Fort Lauderdale, kids who peek in the window of a sidewalk display often will be surprised — the staff inside will turn on the train shown there to amuse them.  ‘We have a lot of regulars who like to come in and have a cup of coffee and chew the rag,’ Warrick manager Bob Fivey says. ‘That’s a very important part of a hobby — it wouldn’t be a hobby if you couldn’t share it with someone.’” — Ft. Lauderdale News and Sun Sentinel, 24 January 1987

Howdy, all, and Happy New Year!

The quote above was from a former manager of the hobby shop I would visit most often when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, the shop I would later work for.  I never worked for Bob Fivey–he had retired or moved on by the time I went to work for Peter Warrick (not the football player!)–but I did meet him several times over the years.

I couldn’t have put it any better than Bob did.  As I’ve said time and again, the hobby shop of my youth was more than a place to satisfy my modeling needs—it was a place to meet other hobbyists, talk about what we were working on, and to show off our latest works.  I extend those sentiments to model clubs, too, for the same reasons—they are outlets for the same social aspects of what is otherwise a lone-wolf hobby.

Unfortunately, those days are well behind us now, but I remember my first visits to the local shops in Ft. Lauderdale.  None of them were very large—then again, that was true for almost every hobby shop in the day.  What I do recall:

Warrick Custom Hobbies had an enclosure out front of the store in the middle of the covered sidewalk—that was where the train the story talks about was located.  Inside, it was cramped—and crammed.  If memory serves, the shop was maybe 15’X30’.  As you walked in the door, to the right was the cash register and counter space, and to the left the models were stacked like cordwood—the area was partly next to a stairway up to the mezzanine that served as the office space for the store, but on the wall next to the stairs, there was always product on sale on pegs.  I distinctly recall seeing some 1/48 scale New Hope Designs metal figures among the pegs, but since they were expensive and lacked detail, I never bought any.  Later, I recall my friend Rick calling them “No Hope Designs”, so I’m glad I passed on them…

As you ventured further into the store, the paint racks were next to the models.  Pactra, Testors, Polly-S, Floquil, Scalecoat, Humbrol, and the remnants of an IR paint rack—they were all there.  As you went further still towards the back of the store—past the book and magazine racks–you were firmly in the land of model railroading.  Trains and train accessories took up perhaps a good portion of the store.  As you reached the back of the store, there was the RC counter.  At times, the store actually filled part of the space in the next storefront to the right—the owner would sell car stereos, scooters, or other goods out of the front of the space next door, and the hobby shop would occupy the back half.  This was usually where the items such as doll houses were—in my years going to the store, I rarely ventured past the paint racks, but I do recall how packed that little store was!

My other part-time haunt (although less and less after I discovered Warrick) was Universal Hobbies in Plantation.  Much like Warrick, it was small and packed full of goods.  Universal had a showcase up front where they displayed people’s models, and I still remember seeing the Hawk U-2 in 1/48 scale, resplendent in the PAVE ONYX “Sabre” camouflage scheme, residing there.  Universal seemed to have less of a plastics selection than Warrick, and didn’t have as many paint lines.  But they were still a good stop every now and then, just to see what they might have.

One thing the two stores had in common (and I’ve waxed on about it before) is what I call “the hobby shop smell”.  Old school hobby shops had a peculiar smell, a mix of volatile organic chemicals—mostly paint thinner, glow fuel, dope, and Castor oil–and musty, moldy, mildewy wood and cardboard.  Once you smelled it, you never forgot it.

Over the years, Warrick would move “out West” from Davie Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale to Griffin Road in Davie, and later to University Drive in Plantation.  With each move, the stock would change a bit—it would grow to fit the new (larger) store space, and would change with customers’ (or owner’s) tastes.  Over the years, in addition to model railroading, plastic models, and radio control, the store sold doll houses, cameras, and collectible ceramic villages.  In their final location, they added paintball, too.  The one thing they couldn’t move was the “hobby shop smell”.  Each move would diminish the smell until it was no longer a feature of any visit to the shop.

Universal, too, would see change.  They would eventually add the adjacent store front to their space before changing hands and moving to Lauderdale-By-The-Sea in the mid-1990’s.

Both would open second stores in the 1980’s, Warrick in Coconut Creek and Universal in Coral Springs.  Neither was particularly long-lived—if memory serves, they opened in 1984 or thereabouts, and by 1987 or 1988 both were closed and everything reverted to the “Mother Ships”.

There were other, smaller shops in Broward County, and when I was in the neighborhood, of course, I would visit them.  East Acre Hobbies (Plantation), Gateway Hobbies (Ft. Lauderdale), and, when it opened, RC Hobbies (Tamarac) would be on the rotation.  There were numerous smaller (if you can believe it) stores, too, whose names are long forgotten.

Of course, once I graduated college and was back in the area on a full time basis, I would visit Orange Blossom Hobbies.  I shared my memories of “OB” a few years ago.

In those days, you could also buy models at Discount Stores and 5-and-10 stores (Woolco, Zayre, Ben Franklin, K-Mart, The Treasury), toy stores (Lionel Playworld, Toys R Us, Toy King in Daytona Beach), arts and crafts stores (Pearl Art and Craft, Zak’s, Michaels), convenience stores (7-11, U-Tote-Em, Little General), and a curious hobby store called The Hobby Box—these stores opened in Florida in the mid-1980’s and pretty much all of them same the Sunrise and Coral Springs locations were closed by 1989.  But none of those places offered the refuge a hobby shop did—they were retail establishments and nothing more.

While I was in Daytona Beach for college, I had a few favorites there, too.  HobbyCraft Junction was an odd little store with an eclectic mix of stuff.  No trains or radio control to speak of; mostly models and crafts.  Ace RC was the radio control headquarters for the area—if Lou didn’t have it, it wasn’t made or you didn’t need it.  Dunn Toy and Hobby was the second floor of Dunn Hardware during my years in Daytona, and they tried to have the latest and greatest in stock.  The last shop, Sky Ltd., opened in ’83 or ’84 and carried a nice assortment of kits.

They’re all gone now.  Whether one sees them as victims of the Internet or of changing tastes, it is a shame.

I face the same issues here in South Carolina.  When I moved here nearly twenty years ago, there were several shops and we used to frequent most of them.  Now, there are really only one or two shops I would consider patronizing out of the shops that are within driving distance.

A few months ago, a few modeling friends and I started to talk about the state of the local shops.  The HobbyTown that I used to work for has gone pretty much entirely to radio control cars and trucks—they share space with an indoor race track, so it follows they would do heavy business in that particular hobby.  However, they have all but ignored the scale modelers, model railroaders, and radio control flyers.  As the discussion progressed, the question was asked—“What would you do if you owned a hobby shop?”

My suggestions:

Start with the employees:

1. If you are the owner, your job is that business.  In other words, you need to be present at the store pretty much all the time.

• • When you aren’t at the store, you need to be doing something to promote the store, whether it means you go to Chamber of Commerce meetings, hobby club events, or trade shows.  You can’t sit at home and wait for the bucks to roll in through the door.

• • I suppose I learned from one of the best.  Pete started several businesses, and he was ALWAYS involved with them.  When he wasn’t at the hobby shop, he was at one of his other businesses, and, rest assured, he knew exactly what was going on at each of them.  He hired the right people, and he expected them to do their jobs.

2. Have a knowledgeable staff. When I went to work for Pete in the mid-1990’s, I was told I needed to know more than just plastic models (and more to the point, I needed to know more than just Monogram airplane kits).  My years of building scale models of all types, and a working knowledge of model railroading helped me get “in the door”.  The other guys in the shop, likewise, could converse in several different areas.

• • When I first went to work at HobbyTown, the owner liked the fact that I knew how to solder, understood batteries and electronics, and was mechanically inclined.  He figured that I could figure out radio control items that would come in for repair.  While I never really enjoyed RC repairs (especially nitro-fueled stuff), I did it because I could.  I’d much rather have been building a model instead of tearing down a near-totaled RC truck.
  • This brings up another point about tribal knowledge—make sure you have more than one person in the store that has similar knowledge.  Hearing, “Well, our only model guy is only here on Saturday” does the customer no good if they come in on Tuesday.
  • Finally, having a staff that knows multiple hobbies saves you from having to send business to your competition.  That’s akin to throwing money out the window.

3. Be friendly and greet everyone who walks into the store.

• • Acknowledge their presence and remind them that you are there to answer questions.

• • The staff should also be paying attention to the customers instead of chatting among themselves, other customers, or constantly scanning their smart phones. This is not to say the staff shouldn’t be involved, but they should have enough foresight to break off their conversation when another customer needs help.

• • A word on the “Hard-Sell”.  Personally, I don’t like it when a salesman follows me around like a puppy, trying to sell me everything that I touch.  Greet me at the door, ask me what I’m looking for, point me to those items, and let me browse.  If I have questions, I will find you.  I have bought more stuff at a hobby shop by simply wandering the aisles without a salesman in tow.  In fact, if I feel that I’m being given the hard-sell, more times than not I will walk out and buy nothing.

4. Be clean and well groomed. Nothing turns customers off more than a smelly and disheveled salesman.

• • Pete went so far as to have a personal appearance standard—he wouldn’t allow men to wear beards, and, truth be told, I think he really didn’t like facial hair at all.

5. Have a dress code.

• • Get shirts for your employees–there are several online shops that can work with you and produce custom shirts at great prices.  Make sure your employees keep them clean and wear them.

• • The standard uniform at Warrick was a store shirt (we had nice button-down oxfords embroidered with the store logo) and slacks (navy, black, or khaki) or clean blue jeans (with a preference for slacks).
  • At HobbyTown, we had polo shirts and were allowed to wear shorts on any day where the daily high temperature was forecast to be above 70 degrees.

6. Your staff needs to be punctual. A good rule of thumb is to arrive 20 minutes prior to opening or start of shift.  In those 20 minutes before opening, the staff needs to go through the store and clean/straighten the merchandise.  This is an ongoing process, and needs to be done several times a day, every day.

   Merchandise in general:

7. Stock as many paint, tool, and finishing product lines as you can, and make sure they remain full.

• • Nothing chases a potential customer away like half-filled paint, Evergreen, and K+S racks.  Likewise, keep the glues and chemicals—glues, dopes, oils, fuels, etc.—stocked.

8. If you cater to model railroaders, have staple items in stock—sectional track, spikes, road bed, ballast, rail joiners, etc. are things all model railroaders will need at one time or another.

• • Stick to the common scales/gauges—HO, N, and O—unless you have a large clientele who are active with G, Z, or S scale/gauge.

9. A landscaping selection is also helpful, and to more than just the railroader. Scale modelers use the same products when they landscape a display base.
10. The RC car and truck guys will want spare parts, wheels, tires, tools, and bodies, at the very least. Having the latest hop-up parts is a plus.
11. If you have a magazine and book rack, keep it organized.

• • Older issues get removed and returned for credit, not put on deep discount because someone “forgot” to fill out the form.
  • Make sure people understand to handle the books carefully—they aren’t cheap, and people generally don’t buy books with creased or torn pages and covers.

12. Other items should be dictated by the local market.

• • If you sell five paint-by-number sets in two days, perhaps you ought to stock more. If, however, you’re sitting on the same pair of gaming dice after a year, sell them at cost and find another line.

Now, for the scale modeling specific items:

12. Keep up with the new kits, at the very least.

• • You don’t need to buy a case of every new kit that comes out, but at least bring one or two into the store.

14. If you know you can move it, keep up with the aftermarket, too.

• • The same caveat listed in point #13 should dictate whether or not you do aftermarket as a regular stock item.

15. If you need to open new accounts with new distributors to get merchandise, DO IT.
16. Keep a good selection on hand of staple items

• • Sherman and Panther/Tiger tanks, P-51 Mustangs, Corvettes, etc.
  • Don’t forget to have some of the simpler kits for newbies (snap and easy assembly kits).
  • Unless it is a particularly odd item with limited appeal or a big bucks item that you’re not comfortable bringing into the store on speculation, refrain from telling your clientele that you are “happy to special order anything they want.” They can already do that from the comfort of their homes.
  • Oddball and high priced items should be paid special order items, but if you’ve paid attention, much of the store inventory should be easy to order when you follow point #21 below.

17. A good shop can always sell one or two of most anything.  We never gave a second thought to ordering a pair of the latest Tamiya, Academy, or Revell kits into the shop.  We would also get one each of the more expensive Trumpeter, Meng, and Eduard items in the store, unless customer demand dictated we order more.

    Dealing with your clientele:

18. Maintain ties with the local clubs, and cultivate relationships with your regular customers, whether they are club members or not. In order to figure out what to bring in, you need to hear from the people who are most likely to buy those products.

• • If they have a show, sponsor it.

19. Have a soda machine and a coffee pot. Let the customers hang out and, as Bob Fivey put it, “chew the rag”. However, remember point #3 listed above.
20. Offer classes and seminars.

• • In the scale model arena, airbrushing, working with photoetched brass or resin, basic scratch building, all are good subjects.
  • Better still, allow the clubs to have a day in the shop where THEY can offer the classes.  This becomes a win-win—the club or group can use the event as a recruiting session, and the increased traffic should result in increased sales IF you have paid attention to keeping the shelves full.

21. Get to know your customers—find out what they buy and why they buy it.

• • Let them know that their input is appreciated. Ask them if there is anything they’d like to see in the store.
  • Tell them (better yet, show them) how much you appreciate their business.

22. Offer a discount to your regulars. It need not be huge (usually 10%, but I’ve seen some stores offer 15%).

• • Within reason, this should negate the need to price match every item in the store.  Part of that comes with how you buy and price your merchandise, so you need to be vigilant.
  • Most people know that the online retailers also have wholesale operations, and we used to work the pricing so that someone could buy a kit in the store for about the same price as they could online.
  • The benefit of buying in the store is that the customer has the product in their hot little hands and doesn’t have to pay shipping or wait for the item.
  • If you don’t at least try to match online prices, guess what?  They’ll buy online.

23. If you say you will do something, DO IT!
24. People in the know have an additional suggestion.  They’ll say, “Want to make a small fortune in the hobby business?  Start with a large one…”

In other words, it ain’t easy to become a hobby tycoon.  But a conscientious person can make a go of a hobby shop IF they work hard and treat it like any other business venture.

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.