Category: 1:144 scale
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Will We Run Out Of Prototypes?

I asked myself this one day as I idly scrolled through the catalogues of Hasegawa, RS, and Special Hobby. I was trolling for 1:72 aircraft that I had not built yet. For a time there it was looking a bit bleak. The Hasegawa people are deriving a lot of their income from kits of Gundam,…
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MiG-29 Fulcrum – Part Two – Thinking Behind

Thinking behind is opposite from thinking ahead and has different rules. a. You are not meant to feel good. b. You are not going to do a good job. c. The language is different. Shorter and sharper… My second lesson in second thinking came when I had closed up the fuselage of he MiG-29. It…
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MiG-29 Fulcrum – Part One – Not 1959

I can’t understand why Airfix did not make a 50¢ model of a MiG-29 in 1959 when I was a kid. But, better late than never. The second kit in the Fifty Cent Fighter series is as neatly moulded as the Su-22 – and contains just as many traps for the unwary. I am delighted…
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If It Is Not The Best Model That You Have Ever Made…

Is it the worst? Let’s face it – we do have failures from time to time. Things start out fine and end up slightly horrid. We may have done what we always do, expecting a win…and ended up with a loss. The finish was off, the shape was off, the build was off. We were…
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When It Is All Too Flaming Much

Do not despair. Do not allow kit makers to sell you unhappiness. If they have decided that you need to model the rivets on the underside of the toilet seat in the 1/144 scale airliner, consider your own opinion before theirs. They may very well be making fools of themselves and you at the same…
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The Box Diorama

I’m a sucker for boxed displays – I spend more time over them at a museum than the open equipment. Call this a peculiarity of the scale modelling mind, if you will, but I think it is because the box-builder has more control of the subject. Lighting is the key for a lot of things;…
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Pick On Someone Your Own Size!

And your own scale! Do you have models in your collection that are all different sizes? I do. Are they all different scales? Generally, no. This may not be a problem for you if you are a widespread modeller. But if you want a consistent collection that can tie together, you need to discipline yourself.…
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Boeing B17G – Part Two – Doodle Bug

There are very few steps to the average 1/144 kit – and if you walk fast… You get to the end very quickly. This Academy kit was started on Saturday and finished on Wednesday. That was not a deliberate sprint – it just happened to fall together with very little filling or sanding and a…
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Boeing B-17G – Part One – Academy

Or is that Minicraft? The box for this old B-17 lists both companies and a recent announcement from Academy in South Korea says that the assets of this older American company have been acquired by them. This box looks to be slightly old and slightly squashed and the instructions date the Academy sheet at 1992.…
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Is Your Kit Pre-Painted?

A friend once showed me a model kit in very small scale – 1/144 or smaller – that was pre-painted by the maker. It was delightful to look at, in a sort of toy-like manner. The makers had finished the fighter in camouflage but I think there were a choice of decals that could be…
