Panels Open or Everything Buttoned Up

[Drifterdon]

So I'm curious on how folks build their kits these days.   Back in the day when I was heavily into to the contest scene, I'd open up panels and have everything hanging out for the world to see.   Now days, since I'm just building for myself, I find I'm building everything buttoned up showing the clean look of the plane I'm building.   I'm still hanging dangly things under the wings (drop tanks, bombs, missiles..) but no more open panels.   

I know this is very subjective and totally up the individual modeller but I'm curious what others thoughts are on this.

Don

[Ben Brown]

I prefer everything mostly closed up. I’ll open canopies on some, but others I keep them closed to keep the clean lines of the airplane. If the flaps, speed brakes, slats, or gear doors bleed open on the real plane when parked, like the F-86 and F-100, I’ll usually display them open. Companies like Trumpeter and Kitty Hawk who think every access panel needs to be open drives me nuts. You end up spending too much time trying to get a bunch of ill-fitting panels closed and filled. That’s one reason why my Kitty Hawk Jaguar is on the verge of getting binned.

 

Ben

Edited April 30 by Ben Brown

[Drifterdon]

1 hour ago, Ben Brown said:

Companies like Trumpeter and Kitty Hawk who think every access panel needs to be open drives me nuts. You end up spending too much time trying to get a bunch of ill-fitting panels closed and filled.

 

Ben

Absolutely couldn't agree more Ben.   Drives me friggin crazy.   And then you end up loosing detail because you have to fill and sand the crappy fitting seams of panels that you don't want open in the first place.   Panels that maybe 10% of the builders leave open.

[Spruemeister]

I had to shim every side of the Airfix F.8 Meteor gun compartment panels to get them back to where they would close up and not look like an after thought (which must have been what they were to Airfix). What a pain and many, many hours that were unnecessary to me.  Hate open panels. If you want them, YOU cut em out!  🤪

 

Rick L. 
 

 

[John Tapsell]

Sometimes I'll open up a kit but often I'll keep it closed up (except possibly for the cockpit). It really depends on what I'm trying to achieve for that particular project.

 

I've always built for myself, even when I was entering contests on a regular basis. I was still able to pick up awards. My hobby, my rules and no obligation to satisfy anyone else. If someone likes my work that's great. If they don't, that's fine with me too. I find that building models to satisfy someone else is the quickest way to kill my enjoyment of a project - I've never agreed to do commissions for that reason.

[eraucubsfan]

I think it kinda depends on the subject matter too.  WWII aircraft tend to look cool with open gun bays, open cowlings etc.  But jet aircraft, look better streamlined. I do like open canopies, and think that most aircraft look cool with folded wings  

[ST0RM]

I've never been an open panel builder, with everything opened. Maybe one hatch for the Data Transfer Card, some pre-flight inspection. 
But seeing everything hanging open with live weps, was a huge pet peeve of mine.

[Joe Hegedus]

Buttoned up.  Typically with the canopy closed as well, although there are some exceptions.  I don't care about contests or competing and I'm more interested in the shape, colors and markings so I don't want any of that interrupted by open panels.  Flap/slat/speed brake position is a variable; it depends on what would be typical for a parked, ready-to-go airplane and also on what options the kit offer - I'm not interested in buying aftermarket just to open a speed brake or lower the flaps.

[annie.shikinami]

buttoned up, canopy closed, and in-flight with a crew in the cockpit are my preferences. open panels on a kit usually kinda put me off cos of how hard they often are to close up properly. 

 

but boy howdy do i love it when other modelers go nuts with the open panels! love seeing the kinda work that i'll probably never do myself lol

[f5guy]

Definitely buttoned up! I too find that all open panel do is make more problems to fix, and also break up the lines of the aircraft. And some of the panels that manufacturers choose to open up often boggle the mind. Take the Kitty Hawk 32nd scale F-5E for example. The chute doors that open up to allow the 20mm spent brass casings to be ejected from the bottom of the aircraft are molded in the open position. These doors are only open in flight WHEN the gun is firing!! 🤮??? How many modelers are going to build their 32nd F-5E in flight with the gun firing? One? Maybe two? Probably none. Its an easy enough fix, but just one more thing to do on a kit with a lot of things to do already because of dumb stuff like that. What were they thinking? Fred.

[wxltcol]

I'm not a good enough builder to have anything open.  I can barely get a kit built, let alone get anywhere near contest worthy.

 

Tom

[spejic]

I usually close everything up as well, and going by what I see at model shows ~90% of models are done this way too. Model companies that mold the access doors open on aircraft are probably barking up the wrong tree.

 

My exceptions are scratchbuilding helicopter hangers for ships and opening doors on helicopters with cabins. But I think those are a little different than what you are asking.

 

[Cajun21]

On 5/1/2024 at 8:25 AM, ST0RM said:

I've never been an open panel builder, with everything opened. Maybe one hatch for the Data Transfer Card, some pre-flight inspection. 
But seeing everything hanging open with live weps, was a huge pet peeve of mine.

Agreed, with everything open it's in maintenance mode and as such would not be armed. I do open canopies when ever possible though.

Cheers 

Itch 

[ORANGF15Guy]

Canopy open, FOD covers on, RBF flags flowing freely and boarding ladder hanging off of the canopy rail!  Just my two cents!

Edited May 3 by ORANGF15Guy

[airmechaja]

I like everything closed tight and out of sight. The beautiful aerodynamics are what I'm after. 

[Curt B]

I mostly build everything, except canopies, closed up. Like many of you, I prefer to show a plane with its aerodynamics in place, ready to fly.  Now, I admit that in a perfect  world (infinite time, and infinite space to display all builds), for those planes that have interesting internals, I'd build one with everything buttoned up, and one with all the panels open.  But since we don't live in a perfect world, closed up is the way I go.

[Collin]

Everything closed…preferably in-flight. 
 

Cheers

Collin

[Drifterdon]

I’m seeing a pattern here.

[Curt B]

Agreed, appears most display their models with panels closed, however, some of the most spectacular models I have seen show everything ‘hanging out’. 

[Drifterdon]

1 hour ago, Curt B said:

Agreed, appears most display their models with panels closed, however, some of the most spectacular models I have seen show everything ‘hanging out’. 

Yep.  I think those are the ones we see at the major contests.  

[Hooker169]

Earlier in my life I'd build with everything opened up and spend a bunch of time detailing everything but the last few years I've been building mostly OOB with the exception of adding cockpit sets.  I felt like the overly complicated, time consuming builds were really sapping my motivation, I'd get bogged down and procrastinate. 

These days I'm building to complete collections. I can usually wrap up a build in 6-8 weeks by keeping it simple then move on to the next subject. 

The days of super detailing with everything wide open are probably behind me, unfortunately.

[Darren Roberts]

6 hours ago, Hooker169 said:

Earlier in my life I'd build with everything opened up and spend a bunch of time detailing everything but the last few years I've been building mostly OOB with the exception of adding cockpit sets.  I felt like the overly complicated, time consuming builds were really sapping my motivation, I'd get bogged down and procrastinate. 

These days I'm building to complete collections. I can usually wrap up a build in 6-8 weeks by keeping it simple then move on to the next subject. 

The days of super detailing with everything wide open are probably behind me, unfortunately.

This right here!

[Joe Hegedus]

1 hour ago, Darren Roberts said:

This right here!

Yep.  Life’s too short, and there are too many subjects I want to build.  I’m generally happy with a nice, clean build of whatever.  Mostly sans weathering, as well, unless the subject absolutely demands some (like a WWII USN tri-color subject - the white underside just looks wrong without at least exhaust stains usually - although I did skip those on the big 1/32 Avenger I did).

[Drifterdon]

7 hours ago, Hooker169 said:

Earlier in my life I'd build with everything opened up and spend a bunch of time detailing everything but the last few years I've been building mostly OOB with the exception of adding cockpit sets.  I felt like the overly complicated, time consuming builds were really sapping my motivation, I'd get bogged down and procrastinate. 

These days I'm building to complete collections. I can usually wrap up a build in 6-8 weeks by keeping it simple then move on to the next subject. 

The days of super detailing with everything wide open are probably behind me, unfortunately.

I think you hit the nail on the head for most of us Hooker.    Though I wish I could complete a build in 6-8 weeks.   I've got stuff on the shelf that is closer to 6-8 years.

[Spruemeister]

The older I get, the more this makes sense. 

 

Rick L.