5 simple tips to improve your WW2 model airplane builds!

greetings everyone this is brett with hammerhead model making here with a special episode i thought i would take a break from my normal build videos and bring you a video of my top five tips to improve your world war ii airplane models tip number one detailing a radial engine here are the tools that we will be using for this porsche for this tutorial we are using a 14 cylinder radial engine off of an old amt a20 kit the first thing that we're going to need to do is drill the holes for the spark plugs i purchased these drill bits off of amazon and i got six cases of them for around 30 us dollars they're pretty inexpensive and really invaluable as a modeling tool each cylinder on most radial engines will have two spark plugs one on the front and one on the back since these engines only have cylinders molded on the front side we only need to really worry about drilling the hole in the front of the cylinder however keep in mind that each cylinder would have two spark plugs so here i'm just drilling through the cylinders and fortunately with this kit there were small indentations that indicate where the spark plugs would be so please check your references on the engine that you were working on to know exactly where the spark plugs should be the next step that we're going to do is we're going to have to drill holes to accept all the ignition wires in the ignition ring that's the silver ring circling the crank case again remember we will be drilling two holes in the ignition ring for every cylinder so we have 14 cylinders so that's going to be 28 holes just be sure to go slow and take your time it might help to use a mechanical pencil to indicate or mark where the hole should be drilled but basically what i did was i would drill two holes in front of one cylinder and then drill two holes in the space in between that would give me the necessary 28 holes [Music] with all of the holes drilled we can now concentrate on finishing assembling this engine in spite of this age which is nearing 30 years old now this engine is actually quite detailed and really nice out of the box however adding these ignition wires will really help spruce up the engine and really make it pop you'll want to make sure that the glue completely cures before proceeding onto the next step here we are using 22 gauge floral wire i prefer to use the floral wire because i can get it in these large spools and i can get it in very specific diameters alternatively you could also use copper wire or lead wire if those are more readily available to you next up we will need to cut the wire into lights for each ignition wire the actual length isn't important we just need to make sure it reaches from the ignition harness to the cylinder heads i also try to make sure to have a little extra just in case better to have too much and not need it than not have enough and need it now we will need to attach the ignition wires into the ignition harness i am using super glue for this and i'm going to be attaching every other ignition wire i will only be worrying about the fronts of the cylinders first since these will be the most difficult and it'll be easier not to have the other wires in the way so i will be placing a wire in every other hole this is another instance where you will want to ensure that your glue has fully cured since we will be bending the wires the force could accidentally pop them out if the glue hasn't fully cured take your tweezers and gently start bending the wires down here i'm using my clippers to clip off some excess and then moving back to the tweezers again essentially what i will be doing here is trying to bend the wire to get it into position to insert it into the hole where the spark plug would be just slowly take your time and work the wire in [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now that we have completed the front row of ignition wires we can work on the back row of ignition wires these are going to be installed in the exact same way as before and again be sure the glue cures completely before moving on to the next step [Music] bending these wires is going to be much easier than the other ones as i mentioned before this engine only has the cylinders molded on the front face so really all we're going to do is bend these wires over and then bend them back in on themselves behind the cylinders at this point i'm going to trim off some of the excess wire but still leave enough to bend back around you could also use some super glue at this point once you've bent the wires in however i find that just bending the wires is enough friction to keep it in place it won't be moving anywhere soon however depending on the way that the engine is installed to the airframe you may need to think about gluing it or trimming them flush with the back end of the engine and with that our engine modification is done here you can see i've painted up an unmodified version of the engine and comparing it next to a modified version that's been painted as you can see simply adding the ignition wires adds a tremendous amount of detail and really improves the look of this engine and keep in mind most radial engines are very visible on a model kit so doing this one simple addition can really elevate the look of your model in total i think i spent about 30 minutes modifying each engine and that's not including the glue drying time however i believe that it is 30 minutes well spent [Music] moving on to tip number two adding brake cables and radio wires here are the tools that we will be using for this tutorial adding brake cables is a rather simple addition that you can make to your model every airplane has brakes they have to be able to stop and most airplanes have very prominent brake cables running from inside the wing down the strut into the tire you'll want to make sure to check your references to be sure exactly how it works but for the most part they're all pretty similar here you can see i'm adding brake cables to my p51 mustang build that i completed earlier i have already pre-bent the wire and in this case i'm also using 22 gauge floral wire to the correct shape and applying it with super glue i am using my tweezers to help keep it aligned correctly and make sure it is in the correct space a very simple but effective addition using the same techniques and tools and materials we can also add wires to radios and batteries again i'm using my p51d from earlier it has very prominent radios and batteries that you can see inside the cockpit here i'm just using my same drill bits that i used from the engine tutorial and the same 22 gauge wire from the previous tutorials and adding the wires as needed you'll always want to check your references to kind of get an idea of how the wires were situated but in the end adding some wires will greatly enhance the look of a cockpit and really make it look busy [Applause] here i am using tweezers to bend the wires into the correct position and i will secure it using super glue [Music] [Music] again this is another simple addition but when painted up looks really fantastic tip number three adding a figure to your model now i know what some of you might be thinking or saying to yourself brett i'm really not very good at painting figures and i can totally understand that however hear me out in my opinion adding a figure really creates a sense of context for the subject that you're building for example my p47 here i never realized how big a p-47 was until i put a figure next to it and then i realized it's really big and for a lot of people who may not be familiar with airplanes or the subject that you're modeling it really provides a sense of scale to whoever might be viewing it and really showing them these machines are big and not only that but people actually went inside them it really sets the scene and the mood for the subject that you're building to add a figure in there i like to add figures to most of my builds or as many as i can when i can really to help give myself a sense of scale and show just how big or how small these machines may have been and also to kind of put a human element into your build the fact that these machines were piloted or driven or used by real people in real combat situations and people really died or lived and for me it kind of adds a whole new level to my model building when i start putting figures in there now i don't add figures to every single model i build but i try to add them to as many as i can and this can work from one seventy second scale up to one thirty second scale or anything in between and it's really even if you're not very good at it even if it's just a matter of throwing on some dry brushing and some paint i really think it adds a huge value to your model tip number four adding seat belts here are the tools we will be using for this tutorial every airplane has seats and these seats usually always have a seat belt of some sort however most model manufacturers do not include seat belts in the kit if they do they are often decals and while decals might work at a smaller scale for pretty much anything over 148 scale just doesn't cut it you can also purchase aftermarket seat belts but those can sometimes be expensive and sometimes are difficult to work with so in this tutorial i want to show you how to make your own seat belts using wire and masking tape here i've laid some masking tape on a very hard surface in this case some ceramic tile and i'm cutting strips that i will be using for the seat belts i am also using some 32 gauge floral wire to add the to do the buckles and the the clasps and things like that you will need to use some tweezers to bend some rudimentary shapes basically i make a couple of triangles and some other various shapes using the wire this wire is very thin and is easy to cut using your knife once you have all your components you can start cutting out some lengths of tape for your seat belts i will be using super glue to attach the masking tape to the buckles that i made and you might be saying to yourself but hey tape is self-adhesive why do you need the glue well in my experience i have found that adhesive tape eventually loses its stickiness over time so using the super glue will ensure that it always remains intact and together so i am making these seat belts based off of us patterned seat belts and harnesses so i have done two lap belts and i will do two shoulder belts basically i'm just going to use the rudimentary eye shapes i made earlier and start slowly attaching them as as my references dictate here you can see i am attaching buckles to the shoulder straps now normally the actual seat belt material be woven into the buckle i'm not going to worry about trying to represent that at this scale maybe if i was doing 30 second scale i would try that but in 148 scale it's not that critical to me but here i continue just to add the various components and pieces and build up the actual seat belts once you have your seat belts constructed you can start applying them to the seat here i'm just using small dabs of super glue to attach the lap belts that i made earlier again i am using the super glue since the adhesiveness of the tape eventually wears away first i will glue it to the sides of the seat once the glue has cured i will add bits of glue to the harnesses and i will fold them over onto the seat [Music] more super glue is added for the shoulder harnesses be sure to fold the shoulder harnesses over the back of the seat and secure it with some super glue and there we go our seat is finished add a little paint in there and you have a really nice looking seat with seat belts and finally tip number five drilling out gun barrels and exhaust here are the tools we will need for this tutorial taking the time to drill out gun barrels and exhaust on your model will really help add a layer of detail and realism i will start off using a fresh sharp hobby knife blade to create a pilot hole that i will then use to drill out the gun barrels [Music] i'm sure you will be sick of hearing me say this by now but just make sure to go slow and take your time we'll use the same technique on this exhaust i first start by creating a small pilot hole with the tip of a very sharp fresh number 11 blade in my hobby knife even on something as small as these exhaust stubs it's really not that difficult just be sure to be safe and not cut yourself [Music] and with that our drilling is done and our exhaust is complete this took me about five minutes but was very worth it here you can see some other examples of drilled out gun barrels this really doesn't take much time but adds so much detail to your model kit and that concludes my five tips on how to improve your model airplane kit i hope this video was informative and helpful and i would love to hear any comments suggestions or feedbacks in the comments down below and as always if you're not subscribed yet please consider subscribing and hit the like button down below [Music] thank you for watching and i'll see you on the next video

Channel: Hammerhead Model Making

Views: 35,686

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Id: 8Wc89Gwv5uQ

Length: 19min 7sec (1147 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021