Getting back into the hobby... some questions.

Hi there!

I used to do some modelling some years ago, around 2002-2004. I mainly lost interest due to financial reasons, being just a young school boy back then (I must have been 13 or 14) and having no money to actually buy kits with. :( Now that I'm older and actually have a job and can pay for my own stuff that shouldn't be a problem anymore. :)

Anyways, I recently completed the rebuild of my 1:1 car (a '97 BMW E36 323i Touring sitting pretty on some BBS RF splits - if anyone is interested, I can post up some pics), I now find myself in a peculiar situation... it's too cold outside to work on the minor stuff left to do on the car, as I'm a driveway wrencher but I find myself with itching fingers to tinker with something!

As I loved the model building a few years ago, I thought I'd take it back up. But this time, I want to go with a different scale, as I've discovered that the 1/43 world offers more subjects fitting with my interests.

Now, with 1/43 kits being mostly resin and having quite a heavy price tag for such a little model, I thought I'd do some research beforehand.

Unfortunately, there's some questions I haven't yet found some answers to.


First, is there a major difference between working with the standart 1/24 plastic kits and the 1/43 resins? I mean with the materials - do the same rules for glue and such apply, or does resin require different chemicals? I know that resin often requires some more clean up and maybe some corrections to the fit.

I'd like to get an airbrush. I've read some into the hardware side of things, and I feel like I've got the theory down. But what brand of colors work best with the resin kits or is there no difference to the standart plastics?

Can anyone give a recommendation on which 1/43 kits are the easiest to work with? To get back into things, I'd like something relatively simple. How are the Scala43 kits? They offer quite some cars I'm interested in.

That's mostly it for now. I'll get back to making some room for my future work area now. ;)


Thanks in advance!

Welcome back to the hobby. I have been experimenting with 1/43rd myself so can relate some of my opinions thus far.

1/43rd is just like 1/24th only smaller so dry-fit the components before you paint them and leave a little room for paint thickness. I build up all the major components with white glue adjusting each piece until it fits and the entire car looks straight. (The white glue peels off when you pull the parts apart.)

Plastic cement welds styrene together but it won't do anything to resin. Some folks swear by ca's (superglue) but I use 5 minute epoxy for most stuff because it allows positioning time, cleans up with alcohol and it won't fog the parts.

I like Tameo kits because they are excellent quality, reasonably priced and come in 400 (!) flavors. They are whitemetal and photoetch rather than resin, mostly F1 subjects, and designed for all skill levels.

I'll leave it for someone else to answer your questions about airbrushes and paints. There are people on this forum who build exclusively in this scale. I'm just dipping my toe in the water and my opinions are always subject to change.

Hey, thanks for the reply. :)

The bit about the glue is very helpful.

It seems this forum is a bit less active than I remember...

In the meantime I've found a few articles about working with resin, so I feel resonable competent that I won't mess things up now. :)

Still just slowly getting tools and supplies together, just ordered an airbrush actually. :)

Good hint with the Tameo kits as well. My main interest is actually 70ies and 80ies Touring cars, like the DTM and DRM, but after I had the chance to see a bunch of vintage Formula 1 cars ripping up the track recently, I just may end up poking my nose into F1 stuff too!

Can't wait to get started... :)