Plastic, Propellers and Pilots

ENGNEERS @LEISURE

engineers at leisure

I trained as an environmental scientist and I now find myself deeply involved in cyanide and environmental management systems auditing. The essence of this is dealing with people. (The environment is fine, it’s had roughly four and a half billion years to sort itself out and a few billion people are not going to give it any serious problems, long term.)

So what do I do to take my mind off work (or more specifically, people)? Well, I build plastic aeroplanes and ships. More specifically, I build aircraft with propellers and ships with guns from World War II.

How did this all start? That’s easy. I come from a generation in the

UK that went through the growth of Airfix, a company that started off experimenting with plastic and probably became the foremost known brand in unassembled plastic model aircraft in the twentieth century. In 1964, like most boys of around nine, I rushed off to the shop clutching my saved two shillings and sixpence and bought, first, my Spitfire, and then my Hurricane, followed by the dreaded Messerschmitt, and the rest is history. I was gluing, painting, decaling and hanging the finished products from my bedroom ceiling as fast as I could acquire the kits. That is, until I hit GCE O-levels at 15 and was overcome by the pressures of revision, followed by girls and then more revision for GCE A-levels and then beer,

more girls, and university. The poor little plastic aircraft were left in the dust of my mother’s attic, completely forgotten and half-finished.

Fast forward to early 2009. My mother-in-law was discussing her dearth of ideas for a birthday present for me with my wife, who then recalled a recent conversation where I had waxed lyrical about building Airfix model aircraft as a boy. She then suggested that maybe an Airfix model would be a novel present. That present turned out to be a gift-set of three classic Airfix 1:72 scale model aircraft, a Spitfire, a Hurricane and a Messerschmitt Bf 109. The result was drastic. I was hooked and in no time, the boxes of models waiting to be built

engineers at leisure engineers at leisure

by Arend Hoogervorst, Eagle Environmental

(called a “stash”) were growing at an alarming rate. My build rate dropped drastically as my workload increased. I was travelling: first everywhere in South Africa, and then East and West Africa, and then Australia, followed by the Middle East.

It’s strange, during that time I found that I didn’t have the time to build very many models but I found plenty of time to buy new ones! Once my “man cupboards” were filled, I started stacking the piles on the floor and up to the ceiling. The piles rose higher and higher until Domestic Management stepped in and called for a radical rethink. Taking advantage of the initiative, I quickly organised a cupboard designer to come in and design a floor–to-ceiling shelving system which incorporated a computer station and a built-in work bench. When it was empty and just completed, it looked remarkably like a home office complete with file and book shelving. It didn’t take long for the room to metamorphose into what looked very much

like a model shop, as the pictures will attest to.

I go through a “ritual” before I build a model. I first study my shelves and cupboards and come up with a short list of three to four models I think I would like to build. I will then take out the boxes, open them, look at the parts and the paint requirements, think about how much time I have available, and then put them all away. I will then consult my database which contains lists of my models and linked references to reviews and critiques in my bound aircraft magazines which I can then look up. I’ll ponder a little more and sometimes I’ll decide to build a model from the shortlist…or I’ll go for something completely different! It is such a change from being an organised, ordered, structured auditor!

There is no rocket science when it comes to building a model. You just follow the step-by-step instructions in the box. I usually study the instructions carefully before I build, and look online for build reviews of the model I intend building and see if there

are any suggestions or extra hints and tips. As I choose to paint my models in enamel paint, I normally have to do preparatory painting before I build because enamel needs at least 24 hours to dry thoroughly. The alternative is to paint with acrylics which can be faster as they dry-to-touch, in 15 minutes to half an hour.

I usually pre-paint the insides of the model and the figures in advance as it can be very fiddly after the model is assembled! It is also a good idea to paint the smaller parts whilst they are still on the sprues (the plastic frames that hold the parts which need to be cut from before assembly). It is also wise to “dry build” the various sections of the kit before you glue them together to make sure everything fits. It can be very frustrating to discover that just as you try and glue two sticky sections together, the back part will fit but the front part doesn’t even come close! The dark art of masking the model for painting could take a whole article on its

own but suffice to say, check “paint masking” out on the model building sites, and one can learn a great deal about how to do it without too much stress.

A key of model building is understanding what you are letting yourself in for when it comes to storing, hanging, mounting and casing the completed model. There are many different sizes (measured by standard “scales”). For example, a common “small” scale is 1:72, in other words one seventy-second of the original size. As one gets older, the model sizes have to get

bigger (and the scales smaller) due to diminishing eyesight. I now mostly build 1:48, 1:32 or 1:24. The smaller the scale becomes, the more space you need to display the finished model. I find that models up to 1:48 can be readily hung from ceilings (see ceiling photo) and it can be quite relaxing to occasionally look up to them for a screen break or just for inspiration.

Building a model is absorbing, distracting and totally relaxing. I can lose four hours on a Saturday afternoon in the blink of an eye, only broken by the cup of tea in the middle.So where do I stand now?

According to the database, the “stash” consists of a total of 1245 unbuilt models, the bulk of which (1114) are aircraft kits, there are 64 ships, 20 sets of accessories and the remainder (47) are “odds and sods”. I have calculated that if I build two models a month, I should finish the last kit at the end of 2067, which would make me 112 years of age. Any takers on whether I’m going to make it or not?

Contact Arend Hoogervorst, Eagle Environmental, arend@eagleenv.co.za

engineers at

leisure

engineers at leisure engineers at leisure engineers at leisure engineers at leisure