what is going on my friends Hank here from Spruce and Brews scale modeling and today we're talking all about what not to do if you're just getting started in the hobby of plastic model building we're going to cover five common beginner mistakes that I learned the hard way so you don't have to as with anything skill modeling is a hobby of live and learn but hopefully I can share a few tips with you guys from my own personal experience to save you a little bit of trouble be sure to stick around until the end of the video for what I think might be the single biggest mistake that beginner scale modelers make and my suggestions on how to avoid it with that all said let's hop right into mistake number one alrighty so the first mistake that I often see folks make that are just getting into the hobby of scale modeling actually happens before they even start building if you started looking around online a bit for a kid to order for yourself you've probably noticed that there are tons of scale model Brands out there nowadays and not all scale model brands are made alike not even all models from a single brand are made alike and what I mean by that is one model from let's say Tamiya might be very complex while another one of their kits might be quite simpler and a lot easier to build and paint so the first and in many ways the most crucial mistake I see new Builders making is not doing their research before buying a kit scale modeling is a wonderful Hobby and it's one that you can really grow into and develop your skills over the years but if you start out with your first kit and it's a real challenge you might get discouraged and quit and that's not what we want of course it's so important to make sure that your first ever model kit or even your first few model kits are good kits for beginners what makes a good kit for beginners Well I'd recommend checking out my best kits for beginners video which I'll link to right here but essentially a good beginner kit is well engineered it doesn't have a ton of parts and it's going to be relatively straightforward to paint it's also super important that it's a subject that you're invested in so that you stay motivated so what I'd recommend doing if you're just starting out is watch some best beginner kids videos right here on YouTube and watch mine watch other builders videos just whatever works get some inspiration for yourself and beyond that is a fantastic resource called scalemates.com you can go onto scale mates type in the name of a kit that you might be eyeing online somewhere and you can check out the instruction manual before you even order the model so say you're looking at To Me is m4a3e8 Easy 8 for example you just type in to me at easy eight match the box art and then scroll down to instructions and there you can get an idea of just how complicated the model will be to build scale Mates is a super helpful resource I check it out before I buy literally any kit to this day and it's a great tool to have in your back pocket so to speak so don't make mistake number one do your research before you you buy a kit I promise it'll be worth it moving on to mistake number two and this one is a real doozy so you've got yourself a kit you've opened it up instruction manual is out and you're ready to start building every single plastic part that you're going to be using to build this model is going to be attached to one of many sprues that's what these little frames are called sprues like sprues and Brews and to use the parts you're going to have to remove them one at a time as they're called for in the instruction manual and here is where we see mistake number two do not I swear do not twist the pieces to get them off the sprue I'm going to demonstrate this once and it's really going to pain me all right I've got an old old set here I'm gonna twist this off oh yes that was awful now technically this works the piece is off the sprue but there's a bunch of like leftover mess on here bad the part is damaged and it just is bad don't do this there is one proper way to remove pieces from a sprue and to do this you need to make a very small investment in what's called a spruce snipper or a sprue cutter so take a look at this here's mine right here these are going to cost you anywhere between five and ten dollars I've been using this one set right here for the last seven years or so and it's been great the whole time I'll put a link for it in the description below if you'd like to check it out and the proper way to remove parts of one of these you're going to pick apart so we'll just do this arm right here for consistency get the cutting head up nice and close and just like that your piece is off there's only going to be a tiny little bit of cleanup on the cut Mark here that you need to clean up with some sandpaper and then you're ready to rock and roll so that is mistake number two do not twist parts off the sprue it makes me cringe just thinking about it yeah all right on to mistake number three so we've got our kit we've got our Spruce snippers we're taking pieces off this Brew awesome we're all moving along nicely here the next logical step we need to glue our pieces together right we've got to actually build this thing well fun fact when you're assembling plastic models you don't actually use glue it's basically glue but it's called plastic cement this is a chemical bonding agent that actually melts the plastic a bit and creates a nice strong bond between the two pieces you're joining together plastic cement doesn't work on other surfaces so unlike super glue or PVA glue like Elmer's Glue you can't use it to stick anything together other than soft plastic and when I was growing up testers plastic cement like these guys right here were the be-all end-all of plastic model cement and as far as I was concerned at least it's a little tube like of toothpaste and you just squeeze out the plastic cement as you need it now no knock against testers they pave the way for a lot of scale modelers like myself but it is 2023 there are much better options out there for plastic cement nowadays so mistake number three to today is using plastic cement out of a tube this stuff kind of sucks it makes a colossal mess of your parts it's super difficult to control and you're just not going to have a great time with it trust me I didn't know any better when I first started out but now you can so this right here is Tamiya extra thin cement and this is the stuff that you need you can get one of these bottles online for around 10 bucks and it's going to last you many many models if you take care of it you can see here it's just a clear liquid and if you unscrew this top you get this really nice fine tip applicator brush and this is going to give you so much more control with what you're cementing so you're not making a big goopy mess it doesn't really smell and it stores super well so mistake number three is using plastic cement out of a tube or really any regular glues that aren't designed for plastic modeling now some things like resin or metal photo etch parts will require super glue down the road but for a true beginner you're only going to need a little bit of Tamiya extra thin cement I'm not sponsored by these guys or anything of course but this is the industry standard for plastic cement this is the good stuff all right on to mistake number four we're getting right through it now so you've built up your whole model it's looking great and you've gotten some paint on there it's starting to look like the real deal awesome and now it's time for decals almost all Scale Models come with what's called water slide decals and these are all the fine markings that go on your vehicle that are a little too complicated to paint by hand so think of the stars or crosses on a tank model or all the unit markings on an aircraft for example I won't go into all the details of how to apply decals today we'll save that for another video you can check out this one right here for a little walk through if you'd like but right before we put on our decals is where we come to mistake number four and that is not using a clear coat or a varnish coat now most model kit instructions will have some sort of paint guide to tell you which parts need to be painted which colors Etc but what they don't tell you is when to apply clear coats a clear coat is exactly what it sounds like it's a clear coat of paint and these clear coats are formulated to have various different finishes some of them are really shiny or glossy see and some of them are really flat or matte and what they do is help protect your work and prepare your work for further steps in the modeling process so what I often see people doing when they're first starting out is they paint up their model and then they immediately just put the decals right on the paint and technically this will work but it's often going to give you a not so nice result if decals have any air trapped under them between the decal and the paint they do something called silvering and if you've ever seen a model where the decals look kind of shiny and Gray in some pieces that's silvering and to avoid this we want to apply a clear coat after we paint and before we apply our decals in particular a gloss clear coat this is going to provide a great surface for the decals to settle into and help avoid any silvering and it's going to avoid causing any discoloration to your paintwork if you have an airbrush I like to use this stuff right here this is AK interactive intermediate Gauzy agent but if you don't and I didn't for my first few models you can use a gloss coat that comes out of a disposable spray can I'll add some links in the description below for options to test test out if you'd like you can just spray your whole model with this clear coat let it dry and then apply your decals once the decals have dried completely you can spray on another gloss coat and boom those decals are going to be nice and protected and have gone on super smoothly and depending on the finished look you want for your model I like to spray my kids with a flat or a matte clear coat at the end to knock down the extra shininess and make them a little more real so that is mistake number four not clear coating your models particularly before decowing it's a super easy one to forget especially when you're just getting started but now you know all right mistake number five we made it our final mistake commonly made by beginner scale modelers as I mentioned in the beginning of this video this is a big one and this can be a real problem and a bad habit to develop as a scale modeler especially when you're just getting started now when I say this next part I don't want to sound like an old geezer but I'm going to a little bit so stick with me almost everything in our world today is fast ordering food is fast buying things online is fast learning something on YouTube is fast you're doing it right now a quick however long this video ends up being video with some scale modeling tips so it can be easy to get into an expectation of instant gratification I fall for this myself all the time I might have an idea for a project I want to work on I order a model kit and boom it's sitting at my door in a few days scale modeling however is inherently not fast this hobby when it's at its best is slow it's methodical it's artistic when you're building a scale model if you want to get the best result and get the most enjoyment out of making it you need to go slow take your time enjoy the process enjoy the build enjoy the painting and if you take your time you're going to avoid making silly mistakes our final mistake today mistake number five is rushing when you're working on a scale model I have found myself over the years getting to a point where I've been working on a kit for a few hours and think to myself all right I'm just going to finish XYZ parts and then I'm going to stop for the day and then I'll be cruising along trying to reach that goal and sometimes when I do that I'm more focused on reaching the Finish Line reaching that goal that I set for myself that I am on enjoying the build and enjoying the little detail tales of the step that I'm working on and when that happens that's when you're most likely to make a mistake this could be something small like a bad cut of a part or it could be something really noticeable like a sloppy paint job so here is my hint to you my final little tip for you beginners out there is when you have that feeling the I just want to get one more little thing done feeling stop put the model away put it somewhere safe take a break it's not going anywhere and then come back to it later I promise you're going to do better work you're going to have a better experience if you take that break scale modeling is a labor of love and it's so worth it in the end when you take your time and you do it right so those are five of the most common mistakes that I see beginner scale modelers making and my tips on how to avoid them I really hope you guys enjoyed the video if you have please be sure to hit that subscribe button if you want to check out some of my other beginner tutorial videos you can do so right here and until next time my friends be well happy building cheers
