Modelling Technics - Building
The modelling technics of contruction I follow are coming from years of testing on my table and exchange of ideas and experience with many other modellers.
The very first experience of deep model detailing have been inspired by the great models and dioramas of the modelmasters Sheperd Paine and François Verlinden; looking at his revolutionary and large production of resin kits, Verlinden proposed the whole assembly of all the details (for instance a cockpit including rudder pedals, piping, cables, instruments, etc.) and their next painting with a larger use of dry-brushing.
This is the reason of my decision to focus on this technics using resin to double all the details I've previously built as ejection seat, engine bays, avionics bays, cockpits, conversion part.
On the Tornado model shown on this site, for instance, are installed very many details in resin I've doubled from master parts entirely rebuilt in plastic (the whole cockpit, engine, avionics, undercarriage bays, etc.)
Following this philosophy I've built the most of my models with exception of S3B Viking, built with a newer modelling technic.
In this page are shown some of the pictures taken on models I've built to test new building and painting technics.
During many Modelling Competitions I had opportunity to admire the excellent and very high level of detail on 1/43rd scale car models; as 1/48th scale is about 1/43rd scale, I wondered if it could be ever built an aircraft model with the same level of detailing, so that the same deep attention to the very minor parts and the same "cleanliness" of assembly and painting.
The market of car models offers a larger amount of accessories, a car model is defenitely less complicated then an aircraft model and the car documentation is more generous than the aircraft's one, specially thinking about not famous subjects.
Despite these not encouraging considerations about aircraft models built being inspired by the car modelling philosophy, I begun my S3B Viking looking for the most complete documentation available on the market; in this way I've been able to get at least a picture of all the visible points of the aircfraft.
This means every visible corner, for instance on undercarriage bays, was illustrated on some picture in my hand; without such a complete documentation it couldn't have been thought a model built as per this new technics I wanted to try.
So that, I begun to build every smaller detail of my S3B Viking using plastic sheet and strips, Milliput white putty, copper wiring, plastic rods of different colors, brass and lead foil.
The sole difference between the previous technic and the new one is the idea of think about every detail as an explosion of all its parts splitted in function of their color; for instance, an ejectable seat wont be thought anymore as a "monolith" in resin or plastic to be painted, but an assembly including main structure, fabrics, lever of any kind, cabling, piping connections, bottles, rockets, belts and buckles.
By the way, the four ejection seats of my S3B Viking have been built from Aires resin kit adding and modifying many minor details, so that a whole seat has become an assembly of 32 parts; every parts has been painted apart and then assembled.
In short, the idea of my new building technic philosophy is to think about every single piece as a model itself which, for instance, we could imagine to be shown on its own stand.
In this way we will be required to pay a lot of attention to every minor things and, meanwhile, to spend the most of our time to get a better result.
Aiming to give the maximum realism ever to our models, I'm used to brass foil of different thickness (0.025mm - 0.15mm) to be bent in order to build boxes, plane surfaces, panels, etc; this foil is normally sold in rolls and it could be easily found to industrial workshop supplier.
F102 1/48 Front landing gear bay
F102 1/48 Nose avionic bay (right side)
F102 1/48 Painted resin cocpkit
F102 1/48 Cockpit components entirely rebuilt
A few F102 1/48th details rebuilt
and doubled in resin
A few Tornado 1/48th details rebuilt
and doubled in resin
F16A 1/48th engine exhaust nozzle, built exploiting the outer plates from the kit part and adding all the inner plates cut and sized one by one from 0.15mm brass foil
F16A 1/48th cockpit entirely rebuilt using 0.25mm plasticard; all the not black details as steel switches, selectors and buttons on the side consoles have been installed once the cockpit has been painted. The consoles have been drilled and all this details have been positioned and fixed with a small amount of cynoacrilate on the back