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Sopwith Pup – Part One – Fresh In The Shop
Fresh from 1973, mind – courtesy of Airfix’s Vintage Classics range. This is fresh this week from the local shop, and at a price that seems laughably low. I have just this sense of humour, so I grabbed it and chortled my way to the till. The opening of the old-style box was not a…
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Worrying Your Way To Better Models
Are your models good enough? Are you good enough? Have you had your daily hour of anxiety? We are constantly being told to stop stressing ourselves – advice that can really depress you. You no sooner sit down and let your jaw muscles sag than someone is leaping at you with a pill or a…
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Pure Colour
Means a pure, clean model with no moral deficiencies. You will be accepted into the company of saints. You may be able to use your halo as a building lamp. Or not, if you are one of those sort of people who just weather every surface in the house. There are advantages to using pure…
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Do The Kit Makers Set Traps?
Is your favourite scale model manufacturer playing with you? Have they moulded a practical joke in their latest offering? Are they laughing at you in the lunchroom? You may be forgiven for asking this unpleasant question if you have just opened a $ 250 kit that has three parts and a decal sheet made of…
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The Design Meeting At The Model Plant
They have them, I’m sure of it. All businesses have meetings, and they all stink. In the case of scale model moulding plants the most important decisions are taken at these meetings, and most of them are held just before lunch when everyone is too hungry to think straight, or just after lunch when they…
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Swedish Hampden – Part Four – The Trials Aircraft
One only – that’s all the Swedes ordered in 1935 – and it took three years to get it to Sweden. It was partly an experiment and partly a political football – the Swedish air force actually wanted Junkers bombers and eventually got them under licence. The single Hampden was never armed, but did go…
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Swedish Hampden – Part Three – What Colour Is Swedish Green?
Go ask at IKEA… Or look carefully at the greens in your paint rack and note which ones can be poured together into a bottle and shaken up. This is a good opportunity to get the last few drops worth out of stuff that needs replacement anyway. A vigorous thinner will blend them all together…
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Swedish Hampden – Part Two – Grey Is Better?
Hmmmm. I am unsure. Ask me later. The grey plastic of this Airfix Vintage Classic seems to have a different fel to it from that of the 2010 version I built. Harder, stiffer, and less warped. I have only found one shot shot and one sink and the short shot is in the perfect place…
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Swedish Hampden – Part One – An Excuse
A very good excuse… a. For a trip to the local hobby shop. b. To purchase a fresh Airfix ” Vintage Classic “. c. To use up the decals that I got with my first Hampden. d. To see if Airix have corrected the flaws of that first kit. I do not really expect (d.)…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
