The aim of this area of the Techniques Bank will be to provide you with the means to choose the right kit for your skill level and provide guidance on the processes necessary to prepare and construct the component parts to produce an accurate, blemish-free and suitably detailed model, ready for painting and/or airbrushing.
The range of topics that will be covered in the Model Construction area will, we are sure, evolve with time but this is the range of techniques that we either have available now or are in the development stage to go live as soon as possible.
A Beginners Tutorial – How to Build a 1:35 AFV Kit: Tamiya 1:35 Steyr 1500
- Part 1 Construction – 1 Full Length HD Video Demo Tamiya 1:35 Steyr 1500
- Part 2 Painting, Decals – 1 Full Length HD Video Demo Tamiya 1:35 Steyr 1500
Adding detail and super detailing (see also Photo Etch below)
- Adding cast texture to turrets – 2 Video Demos
- Aerial wires – creating realistic aerial wires – 10 Video Demos!
- Aerial wires – Luftwaffe cone-shaped anti-icing isolators
- Annealing PE belts to soften and bend to shape – 4 Video Demos!
- Balsa wood to add detail quickly and simply – Video Demo
- Barbed wire, how to make it – Video Demo
- Converting AIM-9 to AAM-3 of JASDF
- FOD guards for jet aircraft intakes – make your own! – 7 HD Video Demos!
- Fruil Tracks and how to assemble them
- Making a dinghy and flares for 5th Emergency Squadron USAAF P-47D – Video Demos
- Making a model tree
- Making corrugated iron – Video Demo
- Making jet aircraft mirrors for canopies
- Making jet landing gear retraction locks
- Making oxygen hoses for aircraft cockpits – HD Video Demo
- Making sandbags
- Making Tracks
- Metal foil for seat belts and harness
- Metal foil to detail undercarriage and stores
- Mini Spares Box – do you have one? – HD Video Demo
- Navigation lights – making wing tip navigation lights
- Quinta detail sets – how to add the F-14 detail set – HD Video Demo
- Ship rigging
- Spoked wheels for WWI Bi-planes
- Spoked wheels – Re-spoking wheels on motorcycles
- Stretched sprue for rigging, aerials and lots of uses! – HD Video Demo
- Turret periscope lenses on AFVs – HD Video Demo
Adding improved parts
- Adding resin parts, getting the fit right
- How to use AMMO Anti-Slip Paste – HD Video Demo
- Assembling and Burnishing Friul Tracks
- Construction of a 1:700th scale Photo Etch catapult
- Creating ship masts in brass HD Video Demo
- Eduard Superfabric seat belts (HGW) and how to use them HD Video Demo
- HGW Micro Textile Seatbelts
- Hinges
- Making curved metal parts HD Video Demo
- Making one-off new components (Trumpeter EA-7L Conversion currently in Finished Now)
- Type conversions (Trumpeter EA-7L Conversion currently in Finished Now)
- Vacuum forming your own components (Trumpeter EA-7L Conversion currently in Finished Now)
- Vac-form canopies
- Working with Fruil Modelisimo metal tracks – 4 HD Video Demos!
Canopies and clear parts
- for painting canopies see Model Painting and Airbrushing
- for painting canopies see Airliner windows – Bondo Automotive Body Glazing and Spot Putty 907C
- Attaching clear parts– 2 HD Video Demos!
- Broken glass effects
- Cleaning canopies – HD Video Demo
- Dipping canopies and clear parts to improve clarity
- Epoxy lights – how to make them – HD Video Demo
- Making open windows for vehicles
- Polishing canopies – 3 HD Video Demos!
- Polishing canopies using UMP 4-Part system– Video Demo
- Removing mould seam lines from canopies – 4 HD Video Demos!
- Seamless front windscreens on aircraft – 3 HD Video Demos!
- Vac-form canopies – 4 HD Video Demos!
- Wing tip navigation and landing light covers – HD Video Demos!
Casting your own parts
Clamping and fixing parts
- Making Individual Track Links
- Model Clamp to hold your model
- Mini pegs for holding small parts – HD Video Demo
Cutting Tools, other useful tools and getting underway
- Starting out on your first armour project with Andy Burton
- Knives, what Geoff C uses – HD Video Demo
- The DSPIAE MT-C Stepless Adjustment Circular Cutter
- Gyro Cut swivel head cutting tool – HD Video Demo
- Lighting your workbench – a quick intro!
- Mini Long Nose Pliers – HD Video Demo
- Mini Needle Files from Revell – HD Video Demo
- Magnetic Handle 60 by RP Toolz
- Revell Precision Scraper – How to use it – HD Video Demo
- Side cutters, important choices and decisions – HD Video Demo
- Simple ideas for parts holders – HD Video Demo
- Tweezers – great value set from Pixnor – HD Video Demo
- Using a razor saw – HD Video Demo
- Many reviews of useful modelling tools in Here Now
Drills and Drilling
- Drilling out gun ports on aircraft – HD Video Demo
- Mini Needle Files from Revell – HD Video Demo
- Pin vice drills – using the Humbrol Pin Vice Drill – HD Video Demo
- Pin vice drill – using a pin vice drill to enhance rivet detail – HD Video Demo
Filler
- for painting canopies see Airliner windows – Bondo Automotive Body Glazing and Spot Putty 907C
- Cyano (superglue) and baby powder mix – 2 HD Video Demos
- Filling seams with Mr Surfacer
- How to use AMMO Putty Surfacer – Video Demo
- How to Apply Arming Putty Classic – Video Demo
- Milliput White as filler
- Using PVA Glue as a filler – HD Video Demo
Glues and gluing
- Applying cyano (superglue) with an applicator with Andy Brown – HD Video Demo
- Attaching clear parts – 2 HD Video Demo
- Cyano or superglue, my favourite by a mile – HD Video Demo
- How To Use AMMO Cyanoacrylate Glues – HD Video Demo
- Getting started on a new project – glues, tools and approach with Andy Burton
- Glues the choices and how to use them – 7 HD Video Demo
- Gluing deck sections using Pin Flow Applicator
- Homemade cyano applicator
- Pin Point Bottle Kit – HD Video Demo
- Ultimate Glue Bottle Holder (for Tamiya glue) – HD Video Demo
- Using an artist ruling pen to apply cyano/superglue
- Using liquid poly to join parts and avoid filling – HD Video Demo
- Using polystyrene cement – HD Video Demo
IDF Model Projects
Kit Instructions
- Kit instructions – an introduction and tips – 3 HD Video Demos
- Making a plan
Light and sound projects and resources
Here are links to full builds in SMN that feature light and sound kits:
- Adding light and sound to Revell 1.48 Bristol Beaufighter
- Revell 1:32 F4U1A Corsair
- Tamiya 1:32 De Havilland Mosquito FB.VI
See also these pages:
Magnets
Planning
Plans
Photo Etch (PE)
- Advantages of adding Photo Etch to your Armour kits – HD Video Demo
- Annealing PE belts to soften and bend to shape – 4 HD Video Demos!
- Pre-painted Photo Etch (PE) Brass in cockpits
- Working with Photo Etch, getting started – 6 HD Video Demos
Reference material
- Choosing and using reference material – Aircraft
- German Vehicle Colours
- Operation Northern Watch 1994-95 F-4G, EF-111A, Harrier GR5
Repairing mistakes, reinstating and creating surface detail
- AMMO Scribing Tape, Straight Edge – How to use it
- Filling seams with Mr Surfacer
- Getting rid of mould ejector pin and sink marks – 3 HD Video Demos
- Hiding join lines inside engine cowls – 3 HD Video Demos
- Improving overdone moulded rivet detail
- Join lines – filling and getting rid of join lines – HD Video Demo
- Mini chisel set to remove kit detail – 2 HD Video Demos
- Oil Canning, how to create stressed metal effects
- How to use Plasticator Thin & Thick by AMMO – HD Video Demo
- Removing ghost seam line joins – Micromesh – 2 HD Video Demos
- Repairing broken aircraft tail wheels – HD Video Demo
- Riveting aircraft – 2 HD Video Demos
- Scribing and re-scribing panel lines – HD Video Demo
- Stressed metal effects on the Avro Lancaster
- Stressed metal effects on panels – 4 HD Video Demos!
- Using Dymo tape as a guide edge for riveting – HD Video Demo
Resin
- How to Use the AMMO Hot Dog Hot Air Gun – Video Demo
- Removing the casting block from resin parts HD Video Demo
- Thinking of trying a resin kit or accessory?
- ‘Resin Rookie’ – building your first resin armour kit
Resurrecting old kits
Rigging
- How to rig a WWI Albatros Bi-plane in 1.32 scale – 20 HD VIDEO DEMOS!
- How To Use AMMO Rigging – HD VIDEO DEMOS!
- How to rig a WWI biplane
- Ship rigging
- Stretched sprue for rigging, aerials and lots of uses! – HD Video Demo
Riveting
- Adding rivets using a pin vice drill – 2 HD Video Demos
- HGW Positive Rivets – how to apply them
- Improving overdone moulded rivet detail
- Making rivets using old airbrush nozzle tips
- Revell Rivet Maker – 2 HD Video Demos
- Riveting aircraft – 2 HD Video Demos
- Rosie The Riveter – how to use this excellent tool – HD Video Demo
- Using Dymo tape as a guide edge – HD Video Demo
Rubber-vinyl tyres
- Removing mould seam lines – HD Video Demo
- Finishing Off – HD Video Demo
Safety
Sanding and Polishing
- Fine-sanding alternative: the coffee filter ‘onion’
- Micromesh to get rid of paint demarcation lines
- Micromesh Polishing Cloths – 6 Video Demos
- Polishing canopies – 3 HD Video Demos!
- Sanders, Buffers and Thinny Sticks – HD Video Demo
- Tools to get you started – sander and buffers
- Ultimate Customisable Sanding Sheets – HD Video Demo
- Using Albion Alloys plastic sanding needles – HD Video Demo
- Using Micromesh to polish the paint surface
Scratchbuilding
Selecting a Kit
Soldering
Storing parts during construction
Trouble-shooting
Water
Waterline Models
Other
- Fitting painted wheels, avoiding damage to painted areas
- Getting angled wheels and tyres to sit correctly – VIDEO DEMO
- Making adjustments to fit (Panzer 3L)
- Removing pieces from their sprues (Panzer 3L)
- Test fitting parts (Panzer 3L)
