Vintage aviation model collecting tips

Age treats the contents of a kit box very unevenly. The plastic is usually fine after fifty years. The paper, the rubber and the decals are usually not. Knowing which is which turns a gamble into a decision.

What actually degrades in an old kit

The decal rescue that works

Two separate problems get confused. Yellowing is discolouration of the clear carrier film, not of the printed ink, and it commonly fades after a few days in bright indirect daylight or under a bright lamp. Cracking is the film losing flexibility, and it is fixed by brushing on a coat of liquid decal film, an acrylic sold for exactly this, which re-bonds the sheet into one flexible layer before it touches water.

Do them in that order, test on a spare stencil first, and expect the adhesive to be weak either way, so have a decal setting solution to hand. A sheet that shatters into flakes under the brush is beyond saving, and that is the point at which an aftermarket sheet is the answer.

Checking a built model before you buy it

Ask for photographs from directly in front and directly above, then look for six things:

• Glue fog under clear parts. A white haze inside a canopy is solvent damage and it is permanent.
• Repaints. Overspray on glazing, thick paint edges at panel lines, or a finish that is glossier than the era would suggest.
• Broken and reattached parts. Aerials, pitot tubes and undercarriage legs, usually reattached slightly crooked.
• Undercarriage rake. If the model squats or leans, a leg has bent or a joint has failed under weight.
• Silvering around the markings. Tells you the model was decalled onto a matt surface, and it cannot be fixed afterwards.
• Fine scratches on gloss surfaces. The signature of somebody dusting with a cloth for twenty years.

The same photograph checks, applied to bought replicas rather than built kits, are set out on the replica page.

What a sealed box really tells you

Less than people think. A factory seal says the parts are complete and the plastic has not been handled. It says nothing about the decals, because decal film ages in the dark just as well as in the light. Ask for a photograph of the decal sheet and the clear sprue before you commit, and treat a refusal as an answer.

Storage: four conditions

That rules out three popular places. A loft cycles thirty degrees between February and August. A garage is damp and shares its air with solvents. And a sealed plastic tub without desiccant traps whatever humidity was in the room on the day you closed it.

Provenance is worth keeping

Keep the box, the instructions, the unused portion of the decal sheet, and a note of where the kit came from and when. For a built model, keep the build date and the kit it came from. That is the entire documentation of a collection, it costs one index card per model, and it is the difference between a collection and a pile.

An inventory that takes one evening

Photograph each model against a plain background, in the same light, from the same angle. Note scale, subject, maker, date acquired and where it lives. This is useful when you are thinning a shelf, as described on the favorites page, and it is the first thing an insurer asks for after any loss.

Crazing

A network of fine cracks in clear plastic, caused by solvent or by stress. Permanent.

Metal rot

Progressive swelling and crumbling of some cast white metal alloys. It spreads within the part and cannot be arrested.

Liquid decal film

A brushable acrylic that re-bonds a cracked or fragile decal sheet into a single flexible layer before use.

Setting solution

A mild solvent that softens a decal so it conforms over raised detail instead of bridging it.