Category: 1:72 scale
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Ilyushin 4 – Part Four – Baltic Bomber

When I picked the Ilyushin off the Hobbytech shelf before Father’s Day I knew it would be somewhat of a gamble – Mister Craft kits are always that. They would be the sort of kit that Forrest Gump would buy. However, this is a Zvezda, not an old FROG, and the basic structure is perfectly…
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Ilyushin 4 – Part Three – I Give In To Zvezda

I have written before about my technique of painting the canopies of my aircraft – how I use a bow pen to add the framework at the end of the build. It is closer to my past experiences and very effective in most cases. But looking at the glass nose of the Ilyushin I knew…
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Ilyushin 4 – Part Two – Why You Do This Sergey?

Every model kit is an adventure in a cardboard box – some are the Walt Disney types and some are the Jumanji sort… In the case of the Ilyushin 4, I arrived at the wing stage and took some time out to be flabberghasted. The construction of the thing is a unique departure. The engine…
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Ilyushin 4 – Part One – Bob’s Your Uncle

My brother-in-law, actually. We have Christmas lunch at his house most years. Not a prolific model builder, but he has completed some from-the-plan models of ships and boats. He’s more of a full-size builder of houses and cars. But back to the Bob. This model of the Ilyushin 4 was part of the Father’s Day…
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Stash And Stashette

No, it isn’t a new take on Mozart’s Magic Flute characters – I am trying to quantify the pile of unbuilt kits that every modeller seems to have. If one kit is…one kit…when does a number of kits become a stashette and when does it graduated to being a full-fledged stash? I could have answered…
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Douglas Skyhawk – Part Four – Park It Under The Trees, Izzy

If you’re going to work on the wiring in 218 after lunch you’d better tarp it over in the morning or the thing will be red-hot inside. Hanging with your head upside down under the instrument panel with sweat running in your eyes is not conducive to precision work. And the flies don’t help, either.…
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Douglas Skyhawk – Part Three – Freehand

The Skyhawk is almost done, and so am I. I elected to give this one the full pre-shading and then a freehand three-tone camouflage scheme…as much to see if i could do it as to make it look authentic. I am not sure about the authenticity, but I did discover that I do not like…
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Douglas Skyhawk – Part Two – Grey Ghost

The grey primer stage of the Skyhawk build is very accusatory – it accuses me of great failure in losing that canopy. The rest of the plane is superb. Ah, well, it is ever thus. I have a long history of losing parts – and not all on the concrete floor of the workshop, either.…
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Douglas Skyhawk – Part One – The Experimental Craft

Never mind your Bell X-1 – your Douglas Skyrocket, X-3, or X-15. I’ve got a real experimental airplane. One on which I intend to try out new things, hell, Hay, or bust. The canopy of the A-4D was missing from the kit. I needed to make a new canopy shape so that I could weather…
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In The Laboratory – Part Two

Well, the experiment was a success. We can now create artificial life in the zombies at the SMCWA clubrooms. The only difficulty will be telling it from normal behaviour. I set up a standard soaking bath for the decals I wanted to test. There were plenty of unused ones from various makers so I carefully…
