by Mark Richards

Created on: March 25, 2007   Last Updated: April 12, 2007

When you begin building Military aircraft, usually you will start out with the easiest scale which is 1/72 scale.

These kits are relatively small and have few parts, so they are very easy to assemble. When I started MPC had what was called the Profile Series so you could build one of 3 different military aircraft right out of the box.

When you get older you move up to the next largest size kit, that being 1/48 scale; where as 1/72 scale kits had a pilot and chair and relatively no cockpit detail for fighter aircraft; 1/48 scale kits will have (depending on the kit manufacturer) a pilot a seat, a control panel one or two control sticks and molded cockpit interior.

Depending on the kit, the manufacturer and how old the kit may be there may also be instrument panel decals, these can be nice depending on how you assemble the kit.

When you build a fighter from World War 2 (this is the era I build 90% of my models) you have to make a conscious decision will you be building the model with the landing gear down, or up, if landing gear down will you have the cockpit open?

The reason you make this decision is simple, when you do all the detail work on painting the floorboard and adding details to the side cockpit controls if you put the pilot in the seat you have just lost 85-90% of the detail work because the pilot will block out the majority of the detail you have worked on.

You may have found the right color for the flight gear of the pilot for a Curtis P-40 belonging to the FLYING TIGERS who flew in China at the end of 1941, you may have also put in time on making sure that the floor board was scuffed Zinch Chromate with just a little aluminum paint and dirk brown scuffing showing; however the minute the pilot is put in the cockpit you lose that detail work, it is gone forever and if you have the cockpit closed forget seeing the control panel.

I always build at least two versions of a favorite aircraft one in flight with a pilot figure, and one with the landing gear down, so you can show off all the fine detail work.

When it comes to painting your aircraft you make a decision too, do you have it in pristine fresh colors or do you weather the plane so it looks like it has seen better days?

If you were to build a P-40 from the Flying Tigers in Burma December of 1941, you may want to have a partial paint scheme, now when lightening Olive Drab paint remember the less of the color you use to lighten the paint is more. Usually instead of white, I will use an intermediate gray of

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>