The "Don'ts" of Modeling

     Although I really haven't been modeling that long, I have learned many things.  When you learn about modeling by your own experiences, what you learn isn't always "what to do", but rather "what NOT to do."  Below are some of the things I've learned not to do.  

Scattered pieces:  I learned while building a C-130.  I left the windows lying around, half painted, by all of my other stuff.  Modeling is a messy hobby though, and sooner or later I spilled some paint thinner on it.  This totally messed up the windows.  Whatever you do, don't put paint thinner on windows, and always put pieces in a safe place like a plastic bag, this protects them from any stupid things you may do (except for sitting on them of course)

New airbrush anxiety:  If you have just bought an airbrush, whatever you do DON'T run anything through it until you have read the instructions on mixing ratios, de-assembly and assembly.  When I got my first model, I kind of skipped over most of the instructions.  I didn't mix the paint right and when I finally painted VOILA!   There's yellow paint running all over my model.

Scribing a not so straight line:  I have a scribing tool (like a dentist scraper thing) for etching panel lines.  More than once I have messed up my panel lines, so I go to re-etch them......without a guide.  Uh oh, big mess, I just dug a panel line way off onto the wing!!  AHHHHH!!  I don't care HOW coordinated you are, you cannot etch a panel line without using a straight edge or some tape to keep you from slipping. 

A Hot Problem:  I may or may not be the first person to use hot glue to put a fuselage together.  It actually works wonderfully well for holding those fussy wing or fuselage pieces together on model airplanes.  I still think this can be a good thing, but don't let your glue get too hot, and don't directly touch the area that is being glued.  I was building an airliner model  and used hot glue, and it caused a dent so large in the side, that if it was in real scale it might be several feet deep!!  

Evil Grinder:   My dremel tool is really handy, but if your going to use it on a model, be careful.   The padded wheel on the tool looks good for polishing.  Don't be mistaken, it is EVIL.  This little, seeming soft pad can wreck the surface of your model, and leave little white threads half imbedded in your model.  Another thing, unless your planning on gouging your model to pieces, don't use the sanding belts on a dremmel to sand things. 

Taking the paint off:  There are many ways to smooth out a rough paint job, or remove it.   Whatever you do, DON'T use paint thinner.  I brushed paint thinner on rear wing once to remove the paint, it totally WRECKED the surface of the wing.  It melted the plastic, and to make things worse I got it all smeared.   

Decal Dilemma: If you've modeled before, you know that decals don't always look clear.   I had an EXTRA bad case of this once.  It was on a model I actually did a pretty good job on.  I painted the model flat black instead of gloss black.   Decals are meant to go on smooth surfaces.  The flat paint was so bad for the decals that the clear areas turned out VERY filmy, and some decals basically fell of because they couldn't stick.  So before you put decals on, get a setting kit, or make sure the decals are going to work on the type of paint you've chosen.

Masking Mess:   I used some Mask-it-Easy masking goo.  It worked fine, so I decided to put some in a hard to mask area, the wheel well of my P-51.  It masked the area fine, but the goo in a place like that is VERY hard to get off.  I still haven't removed all of it.

Stripes Stripes Stripes:  This isn't a major problem here, but it will save you time.....   When painting stripes, say a black-white-black-white combination of stripes that are connected, don't do as I did once (mask each stripe and paint it)  Instead, just paint a base color (make it the white for now) and then add the other colored stripe over top.  This may seem like a no brainer, but if I did it, then I'm sure one of you out in cyberspace would also do it.

     Some of these problems, and many others can be prevented by just stopping and thinking about what your going to do on your model before you ever do it.  This is one of my major downfalls as a modeler, don't follow in my footsteps.