As a teenager, and even starting as early as age 6, I liked to build plastic models. At one point I think I had built every single 1:172 scale plastic model which existed. I built race cars, army tanks, HO scale rail-road buildings, and nearly every possible aircraft. In fact, I had so many airplanes hanging from my ceiling with fishing line, that times you could not see the ceiling. A miniature Smithsonian Aviation Museum in the making – so, that’s what I did in my youth, and I enjoyed it very much.
Now that I’m older I still occasionally enjoy building models, air brushing them, and although I don’t have space for them all, I enjoy building dioramas also. Now then, if you would like to learn more about building plastic models, or if you would like the models you build to come out better, more realistic, and more historically authentic, then there is a very good book I’d like to recommend to you, and it is actually one that I own myself. The name of the book is;
“Plastic Modeling Kits” by Jack C. Harris, Crestwood House Publishers, New York, NY, (1993), 48 pages, ISBN: 0-89686-623-8.
The author of this book is a master modeler, and this book is well illustrated. Mr. Jack C. Harris has written an excellent book and he has included chapters about; plastic model kits, how to choose your first plastic kit to build, and how you can work your way up in skill. He also explains the tools you will need to build these models, along with the glues, and paints. There is a great section on airbrushing, and I wish I had this book back when I was a teenager because I could have really used it.
Would you like to learn how to customize your plastic models once you are completed, there is a chapter on that as well. And there is information on how to win and enter contests, and where to display your plastic models where they will be viewed the most. You’d be surprised that museums will be happy to have your plastic models if they are done correctly, and you can even enter them in the local county fair for prizes and accolades.
In the book there is information on joining master modeler clubs, or even how to make your own club with other local hobbyists. And if you are worried about using the right terminology when talking to your modeling friends, then there is a complete glossary in the back, so you use the proper buzzwords. Indeed, I hope you will please consider this if you plan on building plastic models for profit, or as a hobby. Please think on it.