In this part of the tutorial we paint the various parts and start the building of the helicopter.

There are a couple of things you should do before building the model. First look over the various sprues and parts. Examine it all for broken parts or missing parts.

And look over the instruction booklet. It tells you everything you will need to know including how to assemble it step by step and how to paint it.

Then gently wash the sprues of parts in mild soapy water. This removes any oils from it that occur during the manufacturing process.

Lay the wet parts on paper towel to let them air dry. Do not dry them by hand. You might break some of the smaller parts right off the sprue.

Once the parts are dry we can start the process of building it.

And you have some options here.

You can paint the helicopter after it is assembled or you can paint the parts ahead of time before assembly. For this build I decided to paint all the parts ahead of time while they were still on the sprue. Doing it this way has the advantage of the parts still being on the sprue. That means they are much easier to handle - particularly effective with the smaller parts.

The instruction manual tells you all the colors you need and what color to paint every part. This is if you want it to be authentic. You can of course paint it any color you want. And if you don't have the exact colors you can always substitute with similar colors.

Painting ahead of time does slow the process down a bit. You are probably anxious to get to the assembling of the model.

About Painting

If you are a casual model maker or a beginner you have a lot of options. I simply used acrylic paints with no primer. This is pretty good. If your model will be on a shelf or on display most of the time then just painting is quite ok. If you plan on handling your model a lot then priming before paint and sealing after paint is a good idea. It will extend the life of the paint and keep the colors crisp.

Let's start the building of it

The assembly instructions show you step by step and we start with step 1. We assemble the two turbines together then we attach them to the fuselage of the helicopter.

You cut each part from the sprue as it is needed.

And clean up any burr you created with the cutting process.

And before gluing any parts together you should always test fit them first. This is to make sure they fit correctly and that you have the correct parts in the correct orientation.

Okay! Let's continue

Essential Skills for Scale Modelers

Beginning scale modelers need a basic set of skills that they can build on as they continue through the hobby. Essential Skills for Scale Modelers, written by FineScale Modeler's Aaron Skinner, lays the foundation needed to build, paint, weather, and display all types of models. This technique-driven how-to book contains a variety of projects that allow modelers to put their new found skills to use.