Things to Know When Starting Out In Scale Modelling

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• Mistakes are inevitable. A Professional is simply an amateur who knows how to gracefully recover from their mistakes. Learn and practice with purpose, become proficient.
• Anything worth doing is is worth doing badly at first, then grow from there. Seek out experienced modellers who will help you.
• Use a test piece of styrene sheet to test techniques or practice before applying to your build.
• Different types of plastic cement (cool, medium, hot, extreme) are tools, each performing a specific type of bonding.
  • Tightly capped bottles can last for years.
  • Depending on the brand, clear or black coloured cement is available.
• Cyanoacrylate (CA) also known as SuperGlue has a limited shelf life of about 24 months from the date of manufacture.
  • All CA glues have the same Cyanoacrylate base, proprietary ingredients for anti-shear strength vary by manufacturer.
  • The partially used bottle will eventually become a brick or tacky syrup within months of opening and there is nothing to prevent it. The chemical properties of Cyanoacrylate determine lifespan.
  • Purchase fresh CA from new stock and look for a manufacturing date stamp or ask the hobby shop how old the inventory is.
  • Date bottles of CA to know where they are in the product lifecycle.
• Get around people who are better modellers than yourself.
• Compare yourself to yesterday’s you, not someone else’s today.
• Understand the brand of paint you want to use.

We know what we know,
know what we don’t,
don’t know what we don’t know.