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RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

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Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#71

Post by hibikir »

rightbyte wrote: post #10
JKCalhoun wrote: post #4

When I grew up I would spend hours looking through all the plastic model kits at the local hobby store. I just loved building plastic models. I never mastered painting them. The most advanced I got was rattle-can style spray paints — maybe masking a bit for a camouflage or what-have-you. Only when I got older and got back into plastic model building did I make the leap to air-brushing and really finishing models corr…

> I never mastered painting them. It was really hard to paint with these old oil based paints if you are as old as me or older. I struggled with that too. The water based one sold by e.g. Games Workshop I bought years later was way easier to work with.

And there's been great improvements in usability in the last decade. You still want to use oils in models that try to look like cars, with semi transparent layers and clear coatings on top, but now you can get a coat of acrylic that will do reds or yellows well without being super transparent or covering details. Even paint from 2008 has much worse formulations than what we have now for painting by brush

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#72

Post by JKCalhoun »

7thaccount wrote: post #68
JKCalhoun wrote: post #4

When I grew up I would spend hours looking through all the plastic model kits at the local hobby store. I just loved building plastic models. I never mastered painting them. The most advanced I got was rattle-can style spray paints — maybe masking a bit for a camouflage or what-have-you. Only when I got older and got back into plastic model building did I make the leap to air-brushing and really finishing models corr…

I think the kind of plastic model kits like building muscle cars and ships has died down, but Warhammer and Gundam are both extremely popular. Battletech and Star Wars are also popular in my area. There are a lot of Warhammer models and the parent company "Games Workshop" is doing extremely well and expanding despite it all being built in Britain. One neat thing about Warhammer is that there are a LOT of books and vi…

That's a good point. I painted D&D miniatures in the day, but didn't think of it as "modeling". Perhaps because you are not assembling anything (or very little). I never got into Warhammer but have seen the displays, storefronts to know it's a big deal.

When I thought to design and 3D print a model, I was not sure people actually painted their prints — it seemed mostly about just the printing. I've seen enough 3D prints go full paint-job on YouTube by now though to know it's a thing.

I still feel like the 3D-print-plus-painting modeling is kind of a niche thing. At the very least it requires young people to have access to so me pretty expensive stuff.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#73

Post by JKCalhoun »

sho_hn wrote: post #67
JKCalhoun wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true — there are certainly a lot of variety now, especially with 3D printing and garage kits. The "long tail" has definitely been kind to the esoteric modeler. Adult-me recently took to designing a kit for a NASA "Space Tug" that never existed (only proposed "artist's renderings" from the 1970;s) [1]. It is so esoteric that no one made a kit for it — I had to learn to use Blender, ha ha. I just wish more kids…

FWIW, this kind of thing is a lot easier to model in a CAD package (e.g. FreeCAD or Fusion) than Blender. If you ever go again!

I have played with a couple of CAD packages (free ones like FreeCAD anyway). There is quite a learning curve to those as well.

I had hoped that learning Blender would pay dividends in other types of pursuits as well since it is a fairly broad tool. And as you probably now, there are "mathematical" ways to use Blender — parametrization though is a bit lacking (without going down the plug-in rabbit-hole).

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#74

Post by sumtechguy »

louthy wrote: post #25

In the 80s I had the Tamiya Grasshopper [1], which was the greatest remote control car ever (opinion). I remember attaching three battery packs (instead of the standard one)—to make it drive at roughly 8 billion miles per hour, in the process ripping the tyres to shreds and pretty much ruining the car—because it couldn’t turn without flipping several thousand times. Still, for those initial few seconds, it was glorio…

I had that same thing. It was a nice entry level. Still have the 'hot shot' on my wish list on amazon :) After my third set of tires and second set of struts I kinda stopped messing with it as I didnt have the money for that. I had already saved like crazy just to have the thing.

Tamiya was the top end stuff. I would go to Hobby Town at eastpark (the downtown original store had more stuff though) and drool over them. So I would get the other ones there were in my price range and go 'some day' well now I have other hobbies. Still have my eye on that f14.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#75

Post by burnt-resistor »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #4

When I grew up I would spend hours looking through all the plastic model kits at the local hobby store. I just loved building plastic models. I never mastered painting them. The most advanced I got was rattle-can style spray paints — maybe masking a bit for a camouflage or what-have-you. Only when I got older and got back into plastic model building did I make the leap to air-brushing and really finishing models corr…

In San Jose, the place was D&J Hobby.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2015/12/04/san-jose-hobby-store-...

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#76

Post by burnt-resistor »

imdsm wrote: post #53
JKCalhoun wrote: post #4

When I grew up I would spend hours looking through all the plastic model kits at the local hobby store. I just loved building plastic models. I never mastered painting them. The most advanced I got was rattle-can style spray paints — maybe masking a bit for a camouflage or what-have-you. Only when I got older and got back into plastic model building did I make the leap to air-brushing and really finishing models corr…

I'd love to get involved in R/C planes but in the UK it seems there's nowhere to do it, and with the law due to drones, it feels impossible to get started even just with starter kit

I remember in the 80's and 90's in the US, my dad and I launched Estes model rockets several hundred feet into the air from the field of a local middle school. R/C airplanes and helicopters were expensive but weren't very common and there weren't many legal regulations from flying them as there are now.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#77

Post by Loughla »

hibikir wrote: post #70
7thaccount wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the kind of plastic model kits like building muscle cars and ships has died down, but Warhammer and Gundam are both extremely popular. Battletech and Star Wars are also popular in my area. There are a lot of Warhammer models and the parent company "Games Workshop" is doing extremely well and expanding despite it all being built in Britain. One neat thing about Warhammer is that there are a LOT of books and vi…

What is amazing is how much the modeling tech has improved. A modern warhammer model is much bigger and better not just than in the 80s or 90s, but even 110 years go. The painting experience is also much better. As for Gundam, the improvements in detail in assembly makes Games Workshop's models look bad and expensive. An amazing attention to the building experience. Even cheap HG model made this year would look like…

I know it's a mistype, but thinking of Warhammer and Gundam existing in the first world war is amazingly hilarious to me.

>Dear Mother,

I've grown a reputation among the men in my regiment as being both fearless and introspective. I never hesitate to go over the top, even when Jerry is close enough that we can smell him. But also the men are impressed with the play of light and shadows that I am able to accomplish on my Eldar Warlock using only mud and dog food.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#78

Post by kergonath »

secdeal wrote: post #45
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't have anything near you, I would look for acrylics designed for models online. Games Workshop sells them, but there are other brands (Vallejo, Reaper, etc) which are also quite good and generally cheaper. And they will, as a rule, be more pleasant to work with than the acrylics you get at Michael's/Hobby Lobby.

Generally I would recommend Vallejo or Army Painter paints over GW ones. They are cheaper, better quality coming with a much better bottle.

It’s an eternal war and I agree with your points. However, I found that for people without much experience with acrylics Citadel paints are much more consistent and forgiving, and are generally of very good quality (there are problematic colours, but then Vallejo or Army Painter are not immune either). They are also easy to source. And honestly if all you paint is a couple of models, the price difference is not that much (not all of us are painting several different armies).

I use personally a mix of Citadel, AK and Vallejo, but for newbies or light uses I still generally recommend GW, or Army Painter for the rattle cans.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#79

Post by imdsm »

lebski88 wrote: post #58
imdsm wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to get involved in R/C planes but in the UK it seems there's nowhere to do it, and with the law due to drones, it feels impossible to get started even just with starter kit

There's a model aircraft club near to where I live (UK). They have a runway and people use it most days. In the summer they have a two day festival where people come and camp and do model plane stuff. Presumably it's the Glastonbury of model aircraft. It's quite fun to watch them fly around for a couple of hours. Anyway, my point is that if I didn't live just around the corner, I would never have known it existed. I'…

Thanks. I'd love a runway to build & test experimental aircraft. This and the other comments below are great, and found an area I can fly near me (council controlled), just need paperwork first. A new project!

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#80

Post by imdsm »

hermitcrab wrote: post #60
imdsm wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to get involved in R/C planes but in the UK it seems there's nowhere to do it, and with the law due to drones, it feels impossible to get started even just with starter kit

RC aircraft flying is very much alive and well in the UK: https://bmfa.club/ There are also some model rocketry clubs. However model rocketry is a relatively small scene in the UK, compared to RC planes.

Thanks, seen a lot at airshows and it's great, but hoping to mix R/C aircraft with technology, and hoping I can find somewhere without too much pressure (old boys with old ways etc)

Found some local spots where the council have designated it for non-quad flying which is great!

Thank you

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