new guy starting out, guide me please!

hey all, I am VERY new to car modeling. I've been a warbird modeler my whole life (I built one crappy tank though), but when my lisence came around working on real cars became my hobby. well, i'm at school now with my own big desk in my own place, and no garage to work on a real car, so now i'm experimenting with car models.

I used to know all sorts of tricks and things you could do to add detail to planes, but not cars. I'm already learning so much by reading these forums, and they're wonderful. I thought that I would let you guys in on my projects so you can guide me and maybe I can ask questions along the way.

So, my g/f bought me the AMT F&F supra because I love supras. well, it's an AMT, and I knew it would need a lot of work to make it nice. I was thinking that i would open a door, the hood, and the back hatch. I've cut the driver door and back hatch out, but I kinda don't know where to go from there. I think what I'm goign to do is build another kit just straight out of the box, learn the right way to build a car model, then work on that supra. I also have a bunch of classic monograms of old cars like the Merc. Benz 540-k, a CORD 812, and a bunch of other older cars that were my dad's that I would like to build. I'll keep looking around for advice, but I'm welcome to anything you guys can tell me.

What I'm going to work on right now is a Ferrari 348ts by MRC Fujimi. I won it in a raffle at an IPMS contest and never built it cause i didn't do cars back in the day. Once I get some batteries I'll take some pictures of my progress. Until then, I guess what I'll do is just do stuff in the order of the instructions. Let me know what you guys think.

I think the best way to learn something is by doing it. Build a couple cars out of the box, aim for a small amount of improvement everytime, and you'll be building great cars in no time! I build airplanes as well, a surprising amount of plane stuff can be applied to cars too, like pre-shading and detail washes.

Welcome to AF!

If you need help with your build, figure out exactly what you need to know, and ask it in a question giving as much detail as possible. We're very happy to help, but general questions get useless answers.

There's a huge amount of intormation on this site, and it's easily found by looking through the how-to sections and by searching. But it certainly falls to you to figure out what you need to know. It's not that we're trying to be mean or unhelpful, but few of us have the time and inclination to write out a book to answer someone's vague 'tell me everything I need to know' question.

If you've build planes, you should know you'll do OK with cars. The biggest thing planes doesn't really prepare you for is body painting- and it of course can be learned by reading and practicing.

So bring it on- let's see your 348. Post lots of pics with lots of descriptions, and if you need to know something, feel free to ask.

I'm new to the forum myself and, like you, have built a lot of aircraft. As said previously aircraft modeling may not prepare you for the bodywork of a car model, but you will be amazed at how much of your aircraft skill you'll apply to the car. For example, drybrushing, a mainly weathering technique for aircraft modeling works wonderfully for enhancing the appearance of chassis, engines, and interiors, on car models.

Coincidently, I'm building the Hasegawa 348tb right now.