Carrying out home improvements recently has unearthed a stash of old finished and part finished models, of which a selected few have since been cleaned and re-photographed. Still finding my feet and experimenting with all sorts of new materials, many of these early builds have so many building and paint finish flaws that it makes me cringe to look at them again. But we all have to start somewhere!
All my early builds were painted with rattle cans before I realised an airbrush was definately the way to go! As I slowly began to accumulate all the necessary basic tools and gained inspiration from other modellers I also made some early attempts at building resin kits, adding photoetch with more and more aftermarket parts. I hated PE until I fairly recently discovered rubberised black CA glues. Although 3D printed parts are slowly taking over, due to its strength and ability to be manipulated PE still has a place in the hobby.
There are many builds I remember being so proud of at the time and I still like to look at them now, but so many of them have rudimentry construction flaws and less than flattering paint finishes. Completing builds without construction gaffs whilst acheiving a consistent paint finish was still a long way off. They might all be flawed in some aspect or another, but they are all physical evidence of my creative journey. May I apologise in advance for some of the terrible photography.
