Novice Build
with Aadyan Sonawne
A note from Geoff…
I was recently contacted by Aadyan and I want to give him some experience of writing and enjoying this great hobby of ours by giving him an opportunity to build a project for SMN – here’s what he sent me:
To the Editor,
This mail is with regards to content contribution to your publication. I am sixteen years old, a student of the arts, and I’m looking for professional experience. I figured the best place to go looking for it would be a modelling magazine, given my deep interest in miniature reproduction of aircraft and aviation in general. Rather than submitting content unguided and uninformed, I thought it would be a good idea to consult with you to get a better understanding of your curation process.
I am not what you’d call an ‘advanced’ modeller, I don’t even have access to particularly specialised tools (not even an airbrush). But I figure at least some amount of your readership comes from modellers who aren’t that deep into the hobby themselves. I wouldn’t be lying if I said that I am relatively more skilled at writing and photography than I am at modelling (circumstances have not allowed me much exploration; lack of product retailers in my country and a local modelling community and so on). Yet, I can say that I am not a total beginner. No disrespect, but I am someone who was at the absolute beginner stage more recently than some of your other more experienced contributors. Therefore, I think I’m in a better position to tell that nine-year old boy building his first Tomcat in his bedroom that things aren’t as difficult as they appear. My own first attempt at building a model is still fresh in my mind. The intimidation, shock and awe, fear of messing up, they’re all there. My point is, I’m in a better position to appeal to total newbies.
Here is a picture of one of my builds; a Bf-109 F-4. It was an inexpensive kit and had sub-par detailing and fit (to put it politely). It was built with no specialised equipment excluding some Revell Contacta Professional Glue. It was assembled with minimal sanding, no filling, no masking excluding some locally sourced masking tape, no chipping medium or weathering powders. The photography was done using household tools as well (the family camera, some tinted paper, and a lamp diffused with a translucent plastic bag). A made it a while ago and the resources at my disposal at the time were representative of many rookie modellers around the globe.
As for the writing part, if you can tell me what you’re looking for, I’d be more than happy to mail you some samples. If you think they’re good enough for publication, maybe we can make something happen!
Thanks for your time.
…
I am writing from India. As you can imagine, scale modelling hasn’t really caught on here. In fact, I was unaware of the fact that there were modelling magazines and online communities until a few days ago. I’ll be making subscriptions once I figure out how to make foreign payments, I think PayPal is the way to go.
As for the 109, I do have progress pictures in the form of Instagram stories, but they are rather crude and unpresentable in my opinion. Nevertheless, I am about to start work on a Spitfire. I think that should be a better subject for an article given that every modeller is bound to build a Spitfire at some point. This time, I shall take proper pictures of the model as I go along and pictures of the finished aircraft against a white background. Once I have that down, I’ll write a few pieces (aimed at novices, of course) for you to consider. Do let me know if there are certain parameters like the word limit or any other format that you need me to follow so I can document my process accordingly.
Thanks a lot for giving me this opportunity!
Sincerely,
Aadyan Sonawne.
It’s a pleasure to bring you Aadyan’s Revell Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XVI in 1:48 that has come from what you read above.