Feature article by: Les Venus
Gallery and pdf
From the loft…your mission starts here!
Not all US Navy, but good to get you in the mood!
Background
Once in a while thinking, circumstances and coincidences all combine to create a moment of opportunity.
Modelling can be very expensive. We all have this propensity to get the latest release that ‘I’ve always been waiting for’, only to put it in the ‘stash’ until the next thing you’ve always wanted comes out; and so the cycle continues. In business terms, this is cost without value. In any climate this isn’t good; just now it’s even worse.
Picking up on this point and thinking about it from a personal point of view, I, like many of us, am being significantly affected by the recession and one thing I am determined to do is reduce the cost, but increase the value, of everything I do.
Modelling is on my list and I began to wonder, in this context, what I could do. First up, I have cancelled a lot of subscriptions to paperbase magazines, modelling or otherwise, having found myself drawn more and more to better value options like this magazine.
Moreover, I’ve already got a reasonable stash of un-built models, albeit I do tend to build more prolifically than some. So I was determined to look again at my modelling habits by reduced buying and, instead, looking more at what’s available “From the loft”.
With this in the front of my mind and flicking through some old magazines (see how it works), I found an article on a 1:32nd F-8 Crusader (yep, it’s not a typo). This was stunning and I remembered that I had one of those in 1:48th part-finished in the loft!
So up I went found it and, as I was about to leave, spotted beneath a few other kits the boxes of the 1:32nd Scale Trumpy Corsair II. So, without much thought, I brought that down too!
So that was the circumstances, now for the coincidence bit. Because, as I determined which of these two kits to build, up pops Geoff’s previous Editorial and this part simply jumped right out of the page at me, just as I was thinking which of the two kits I would choose….
“….I encouraged him to just pick up a simple kit in the stash…”
Talk about great minds; Geoff is right!
So this article, another first I think for SMN, will show what can be done with what you already have in the loft and how much pleasure can be gained from taking this approach, as well as how much real value you can gain too and for no extra cash.
So, first up it’s the Trumpeter A-7E Corsair II. Here’s what I built; log-in to read the full review and see how I did it…
