Ian Childs Modelling Tips

IAN CHILD'S MODELLING TIPS

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Ian Childs lives in Queensland, Australia and has been modelling for many years. In the 60's he slapped the obligatory 1/72 Frog and Airfix aircraft kits together before turning his hand to railway modelling until the late 1990's, his interest in aircraft modelling returned. During these periods Ian has built up quite an extensive array of tools and handy tips for his work and has provided SMAKR with a list of these tips - mainly related to model railways, that can easily be transferred and used in the aircraft model arena.

Quite some time ago Ian sent me the following information set out in a letter and I intended to refurbish the Tips and Hints page and break these down and add them in. Alas, with reviews and other commitments for the site taking me away from updating the Tips page I decided to provide these tips hereunder out on a page as a tribute to Ian's work.

TOOLS

Blades: Sharp blades are essential and as well as 'Exacto' knife sets with the trusty #11 blade I also use "Stanley Knives" with fixed 1192-C Heavy Duty blades. I do not trust the retractable types as the blades move around too much.

Razor Saw: For a lot of cutting I also use a razor saw that has very fine teeth and is about 5" long by 1" deep. I adapted mine to fit a larger handled 'Eclipse' saw.

Pin Vices: These are very useful - because as well as being used for small drills they can also be used to hold small parts for filing and shaping. I have three that I use for various light drilling and so forth ('Eclipse' #121 and #123, and a "Kadee" double ended one).

Small Drills: From #50 (1.75 mm - 1.8 mm diameter) down to #80 (.33 mm diameter) as well as metric drills in increments of 1/10 mm (.3 mm through to 2.5 mm - 3 mm). I also use standard Imperial drills from 1/64" and up and both small drills can be obtained from engineering suppliers although the numbered (#) drills are carried by my local railway model shop.

DETAILING PARTS

A lot of model railway detailing parts can be used for 1/72 and other scale aircraft kits. Basically if you go into a decent model railway shop detail items like these below can be suitable for aircraft use. Most of them are made in the USA for HO scale (1/87) trains and I will list a few items below that I have found useful.

"Grandt Line" #5085 Lift Rings and Eye bolt assortments: Larger eye bolts could be used as D/F loops on 1/72 and 1/144 models. I used one of the mid sized bolts for the top of a 1/72 Airfix Hurricane control column.

"Detail Associates" #LR1101 Lift Rings: These are quite small and would be quite suitable as eye bolts for rigging on biplane models. This company also does a large range of fine brass wire in packs of 12" lengths. The diameters start at .006" (actual wire diameter) and range up to .52" (twelve sizes). Multiply your scale factor and .006" scales up to .432" (less than half an inch) in 1/72 - which is suitable for biplane rigging and other uses.

"A Line" Windshield Wipers: These items are for truck and locomotives in HO scale and could be worth a look at for aircraft.

"Evergreen" (USA)/"Slaters" (UK) strips/rods and sheet styrene: A good round rod from 0.10" (Slaters) or 0.20" and up are very useful for pipes, undercarriage detailing and anywhere you need round sections and then the larger diameters can be drilled with care.

Hollow Pipe: I use 3/32" diameter styrene pipe for repairing and/or improving propeller mounts. Carefully drill out the propeller hole in the model to suit the pipe being used. If the shaft still exists on the back of the propeller, drill the pipe to suit, otherwise use suitable round rod fixed to the back (centre) of the propeller (which is where a small drill and pin vice are handy). This enables you to remove the propeller for cleaning and so forth - although not a good idea for competitions as your finely detailed prop may walk!

Small Round Rods and Tubes: Smaller diameter round rod and tube are good for undercarriage parts, struts (file a flat on opposite sides), detailing aircraft interiors and anywhere your imagination lets you run riot!

PAINTS & PAINTING

I use good old "Humbrol" paints as well as some "Testors", "Floquil" and "Polly-S" model railroad colours.

Tyre colouring: Add a small amount of grey paint to matt black which seems to replicate actual tyre colour quite well.

Thinning paint: I have brush painted all of my models and good brushes are the key here. I keep several small bottles of turpentine handy when painting, one to use as a general dipping bottle to thin out and clean while painting and at lease one more bottle to make sure the brush is completely clean when finished. I also add a small ball-bearing or nut to the paint tin or bottle to use an agitator in a similar fashion to spray cans (but be careful with bottles!!).

GLUES

"Contacta Professional": This is made by Revell in a plastic bottle leaning on its side with a long spout (which can be cleaned with some fine wire if it becomes blocked). In addition to it being a good glue I have worn out the print on my container and the glue keeps coming!

"5 Minute Araldite": I use small amounts taken from each tube (as this comes with two applicator tubes of different glue) with a toothpick and mixed on a plastic lid and a small amount of "Contacta" and/or super glue on plastic lids and then use toothpicks or small needles to apply glue to small parts.

"MEK": I use a small bottle bottle and apply it with a fine brush but be very careful with this stuff as it can be splashed into eyes and do damage!! It works well with 'Contacta' where I tack a part in place with it and then use MEK to draw the mixture along the join.

DE-KITTING

An interesting word which basically describes what happens when you strip paint from an old model and a lot of glue joins separate! Some of my earlier efforts ended up this way when I stripped paint from them and it makes it easier to add interior details when the rebuilding takes place. The major drawback to de-kitting is that you lose mounting pegs and locating pins and you have to be careful when rejoining fuselage halves and so forth. Most of the rebuilds also need some scratchbuilt parts and this is where all the things I have listed above will come in handy!

Stripping Paint: I use caustic soda flakes in a large flat tray of water (a paint roller tray for instance) and make sure that I am also wearing rubber gloves! Don't overdo the amount of caustic soda and be sure to test it on a small part first. While I am a bit dubious about how it may work with newer 'softer' plastics it does work well on older Airfix and Frog kits. Toothpicks and an old toothbrush help to get the paint off in various areas. Make sure though you wear eye protection!!

Wheels and Plasticard: I have also scratchbuilt wheels from circles of .020" plasticard punched out with a leather/wad punch and glued together to obtain the correct thickness. Suitably filed and so forth, they actually appear quite convincing - and the landing gear of course as stated above, can be scratchbuilt from "Slaters" round rod.

That's it - I hope these notes give you some food for thought and provide some alternative methods and skills from another hobby (railway modelling) that can easily be transferred into building aircraft kits!

IAN CHILDS

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