Build Types
Plastic kits
Aircraft, armour, cars, ships and sci-fi kits moulded in plastic and built from a sprue.
What you need
- Sprue cutters or a sharp hobby knife
- Plastic cement or cyanoacrylate (CA) glue
- Fine sandpaper or a sanding stick
- A cutting mat and good light
First project
A simple single-sprue kit in 1:72 or 1:76 scale, with few parts, so you can learn test-fitting and gluing before anything more detailed.
Common mistakes
- Gluing a sub-assembly before test-fitting it dry
- Leaving mould lines and seams unsanded before paint
- Cutting parts off the sprue with scissors instead of cutters, which stresses and can snap small parts
Related guides
Painting basics
Seven stages every painting guide on this site builds on: priming, base coats, washes, layering, highlighting, basing and varnish. Method and materials follow Army Painter's own technique guides in the sources below; we have not run every step on one model ourselves. Works for plastic kits and miniatures alike.
Researched method, not a tested build
Related Kit Archive entries
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Airfix Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (A01010A), 1:72
Airfix's 2014-tooled 1:72 fabric-wing Hurricane Mk.I: 51 parts, skill level 1, one marking scheme, 133 mm long with a 171 mm wingspan.
Researched profile -
Airfix Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Ia (A01071C)
Airfix's 1:72 Spitfire Mk.Ia: 36 parts, skill level 1, one marking scheme, 127 mm long with a 155 mm wingspan.
Researched profile Photo: NASA, Public domain -
Airfix T-34 (A01316V)
A Vintage Classics reissue of Airfix's 1:76 T-34, from mould tools made in 1968: 58 parts, skill level 2, one marking scheme. Note it is 1:76, not 1:72.
Researched profile Photo: Simon, CC BY 2.0 -
Airfix Wellington Mk.IA/C (A08019A)
Airfix's 1:72 Wellington Mk.IA/C: 141 parts, skill level 3, two marking schemes, 364 mm wingspan.
Researched profile -
Revell Churchill A.V.R.E. (03297), 1:76
Revell's reissue of the 1983 Matchbox 1:76 Churchill AVRE bridgelayer: 87 parts, three Royal Engineers schemes, rated advanced by Revell for its bridge rigging.
Researched profile -
Rubicon Models M4A4 Sherman / Firefly VC (280088), 1:56
A 105-part, four-sprue 1:56 (28mm wargames scale) plastic kit that builds an M4A4 Sherman or a Firefly VC, with crew figures and open or closed hatches.
Researched profile -
Tamiya M4 Sherman, Early Production
A 1995 rebox of an older Tamiya Sherman hull with new early-production parts. Published reviews describe it as a simple, well-fitting build, though it is closer to a mid-production tank than its name suggests.
Researched profile Photo: Roland Turner, CC BY-SA 2.0 -
Tamiya M4A3E8 Sherman "Easy Eight" European Theater (35346)
Tamiya's new-tool 1:35 Easy Eight from 2015: 214 mm long, single-pin T66 tracks as belt parts, a commander torso figure and markings for two units.
Researched profile Photo: Assassin3577, CC BY-SA 4.0