Last week I began explaining how I started out with modelling. I can clearly remember that at the age of 10 sitting in my parent’s kitchen making an Airfix racing car, I think it was a Ferrari. Well I had finished the model and it was ready for its paint job. One of my elder brother’s who was a car paint sprayer always cleaned the body work down with thinners to remove grease and dirt etc. This I thought was a great idea.
Now in my defence I was only 10 years of age, so I duly got the Cellulose Thinners to clean down the body before painting and to my horror watched the plastic body melt before my very eyes. There in a matter of minutes was my beautiful Ferrari completely melted, ruined, a few tears were shed on that night.
Oh well after that disaster I decided to, and it is now the very first thing I do (even now) is to read the instructions before I do anything else, a lesson learnt you might say, and at 10 years of age a very painful one!
After making cars, boats etc it was time to venture into the skies. One of my elder sisters bought me a Mercury Marauder 65″ wing span glider; which I believe may still be available from Replikit.
This was my first venture into the world of Balsa modelling and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. I still remember the satisfaction of cutting out all the ribs for the wings and by following the plans being able to make a complete wing structure, which although looked extremely fragile is in fact quite strong.
I was totally hooked on the whole concept of building rather than buying a readymade model, although I will confess that the RTF models do offer the modeller instant fun and enjoyment.
Anyway after many hours building this wonderful airplane and suffering from tendonitis the next day from chopping through the hard balsa sheets with nothing more than a craft knife the covering of the plane’s delicate skeletal frame was looming.
I’ll cover (pardon the pun) this next time