Reflection

ICM Bf 109F-4… Decals and more

Pierre Lagacé3 Comments

Day 251

Wednesday November 2, 2022

Building model kits since the late 50s has been a self-soothing experience. Listening to music is also soothing. People should listen to music more often…

Intermission Milk’n Blues – Smooth Operator + Secret (Sade + Madonna)

Wednesday morning shots…

The Tempest finally got its final clear coat. I had some leftover highly diluted clear coat so I completed that build.

The Bf 109F-4 got some decals in the morning and it will soon be a thing of the past.

The countdown will then begin for the P-38.

I still don’t know if I will document that build, but “Whereof what’s past is prologue; what to come, in yours and my discharge.”…

Footnote…

Final footnote…

 

Intermission – Resilience

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Day 248

Sunday October 30, 2022

My forgotten hobby has been a learning experience I have been documenting since December 2013, and even more since February 24, 2022.

Sharing about what I have been building here was mostly about the fear of messing things up and taking bad decisions in a much smaller scale… 1/48 scale.

My forgotten hobby has been testing my resilience with ICM’s Bf 109F-4 since I wanted it to be a memorial for what has been happening in Ukraine since February 24, 2022.

One thing I haven’t learned is to get over mistakes I have accumulated and move on by building this model kit…

Wednesday the Bf 109F-4 had received its second coat of paint, and Thursday I wanted to see if the paint had effectively peeled off like it did a week ago.

I took this photo Thursday afternoon before removing the masking tape even if the last camouflage dark green coat had not been applied.

Taking photos helps remembering the decisions I make on the spur of the moment.

The paint didn’t peel off, but this is what happened… I saw that coming but I kept on removing the masking tape covering the landing gear.

 

I will never learn making bad decisions leads me eventually to mess things up again and again. However in this case I was able to fix that by drilling two holes and inserting a piece of stapple.

The landing gear was glued back and set aside for the glue to cure.

This is when I saw…

More yellow paint had peeled off under the wings and the engine…

Stay tuned.

Intermission – Bf 109-F4: Sleeping on it…

Pierre Lagacé3 Comments

Day 237

Wednesday October 19, 2022

Sleeping on it is sometimes the best thing to do, but I couldn’t wait.

I used a soft bristle paint brush with Vallejo Gray Primer to go over some areas.

Yellow identification markings had been added before to the Tempest using a Tamiya cotton swab and Vallejo yellow paint. I skipped airbrushing although I had masked the wings leading edges.

Not perfect but it will do.

It still needs a few touch-ups using Tamiya cotton swabs but this will have to wait.

I will now get back to the PBY Catalina and complete it. Displaying it will come later.

Which brings me to reflecting on what I have been saving all those years with all I have been building.

Why do I keep all this? Is all this useful!

I have thrown away most of my model kit boxes, but I keep saving the instructions sheets of model kits I have built. Some I still have but most I don’t have anymore like Monogram F-104.

Have you been saving this kind of stuff?

Unfinished business – Part 1: ICM Bf 109F-4

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Day 222…

Tuesday October 4, 2022

I did some thinking on Sunday morning when I took this photo.

It was about unfinished business…

Modelers always have model kits staring at them imploring to be completed. And what do I have that is staring at me?

One aircraft carrier missing its planes…

One Bf 109F-4 badly needing a new paint job…

A Hawker Tempest waiting to receive its final clear coat and to be permanently displayed…

I won’t even start talking about my collection of unbuilt model kits…well at least not for now even if I had added one more.

Taking pictures, as well as writing this diary, serves as a reminder to get moving. But I have learned since December 2013 to take this hobby in stride.

Having a clean workbench is also how I motivate myself.

Before…

After…

The first unfinished business will be the Bf 109F-4.

Intermission – Post 203

Pierre Lagacé4 Comments

Day 214

The special military operation has entered in a new phase…

BLOG STATS
285 hits

This is how many times I was hit on My Forgotten Hobby V since I decided to follow up on My Forgotten Hobby IV.

I think I enjoy My Forgotten Hobby V even more than trying to build all that I have collected since I went wild and bought more model kits in 2019 and 2020.

Blame this on a child’s memories.

The late 1950s was a period of my life filled with innocence. Building model airplane kits later was a way to travel back to those years of innocence.

Now, each time I see someone building a model airplane on the Internet or on YouTube, I go back in time whether it’s a plane I first saw an image in a book or something I saw in a hobby shop.

My favorite hobby shop in the mid 1960s was Westmount Hobby Shop 4926 Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal.

This is what I found on a newspaper page published in 1964.

This was something I wrote about nostalgia a long time ago on the original My Forgotten Hobby.

Nostalgia – Westmount Hobby Shop revisited

Westmount Hobby Shop is not there anymore. It was where I was buying all my Profile Publications which I still have and I would hate to depart from.

I rarely consult them with the advent of the Internet…

Scale Modeler Magazines I wouldn’t mind departing from them although my brains tells me not to do it.

Letting things go is hard to do. This is why there will probably be a My Forgotten VI when I will exceed my upload limit on WordPress.

I have used only 70%.

Until then, here is more of my collection of Profile Publications bought at Westmount Hobby Shop in the mid 1960s and early 1970s.

Letting things go like keeping leftover decals, spare parts, instructions sheets and boxes is also hard to do.

Next Intermission…?

How to display my five aircraft carriers?

Intermission – Cutting corners

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Lest We Forget
Day 186…

I have decided to repaint the Tempest with the right camouflage colors using my airbrush.

I have to stop cutting corners and stop going back and forth on what I am currently building.

Masking is done for the canopies but I will need to go back to JacHobby and get more Vallejo Air for the Tempest.

This will have to wait though…

I already have most of the paint I need for the Hurricane.

With masking completed I am waiting to spray on black primer later.

Creativity is the most enjoyable part of my forgotten hobby as well as getting around mistakes I have made since 2013.

We all make those don’t we?

Whoops!

There’s nothing that can’t be fixed.

About waiting to spray on black primer later?

Monogram PBY Catalina – Progress Report

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Building model kits was my salvation as a kid in a dysfunctional family environment to keep my sanity. Today it’s keeping my sanity in a dysfunctional world environment…

This is Tuesday morning shot.

On Monday morning I had gone all in with my airbrush after the heat wave we had endured for four days in a row.

This is another shot taken late Monday afternoon after my airbrush session.

Having spent four hours masking canopies I was surely not going to wait for another heat wave to add primer.

Before going all in I was pondering what to do next so I rearranged my workplace to find some urgent working space.

My first step was uncluttering my workbench… 

Then uncluttering my foldable table where the C-47 was still waiting for someone to pick it up…

Then to clutter the foldable table again.

The C-47 now sits on top of…

…my storage cabinet maybe for another year.

What came next?

My uncluttered workbench starring at me.

This is when I went all in!

First painting the masked canopies and some leftover parts with Vallejo primer.

Then painting my Airfix Hurricane…

Building model kits was my salvation as a kid in a dysfunctional family environment to keep my sanity. Today it’s keeping my sanity in a dysfunctional world environment…

 

 

 

 

 

Intermission – Consolidated PBY Catalina Color Photographs Part 1 — Inch High Guy

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Exactly two years ago this is what got me to start building Monogram PBY Catalina.


Intermission – Consolidated PBY Catalina Color Photographs Part 1 — Inch High Guy


I still have Monogram 1/48 scale PBY in my collection stash. This should be useful reference when I decide to build it ten years from now.

via Consolidated PBY Catalina Color Photographs Part 1 — Inch High Guy