Category: 1:72 scale
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Australian Hurricane – Part One – The Oncer
I was surprised as I could be to see a set of markings on an Australian 1:72 decal sheet that were purported to be for a Hawker Hurricane. I thought the RAAF never had them here in Australia. As it turned out, I was nearly right – they had one. The plane, V7476 was sent…
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Stop Laughing – This Is Serious
Stan Cross fans will recognise the reference… The red plastic cup is my scale model club coffee cup. Taken faithfully every Tuesday for my 50¢ cup of coffee in preference to the club cups which are washed every coentury or so… It is a Decor cup with a plastic lid and keeps things fine and…
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Northrop P-61 Black Widow – Part Six – Any Colour You Want
As long as it’s black. Henry Ford woulda been proud… The Northrop night fighter is ready to roam the dark skies. I have a feeling that it was just good luck on the part of the Japanese and Germans that it was so late in development. Had the Northrop designers not footled about with that…
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Northrop P-61 Black Widow – Part Five – The Ghost Decal
I was a bit puzzled when I opened the box for the Hobby Boss Northrop P-61 Black Widow and saw that there were two sheets of decals; a big one and a little one. The big one had all the usual insignia, tail codes, and wing lines ( BTW, I hate wing lines as they…
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Northrop P-61 Black Widow – Part Four – The Black
If you want to be nervous, spray an undercoat of grey or white on your model kit. Then you’ll see just how good you were at spotting gaps and crevices. Of course then you’ll get a chance to correct them with putty or paint and you can get set to get nervous a second time.…
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Northrop P-61 Black Widow – Part Three – Under Tension
Remember I mentioned that the disparate parts of the P-61 Black Widow fit well together? Well that was before I tried to mate the belly pan to the rest of the fuselage. The basic fit is fine, but tight. The makers have exercised computer machines to measure where the parts slide over each other –…
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Northrop P-61 Black Widow – Part Two – The Parts Are Greater Than The Whole
I am often overwhelmed when I open a new kit and see the dozens of sprues that they pack in the box. Well, make that several, rather than dozens, but you get the idea. Seeing the bits laid out on the runners makes the whole project seem more formidable, mysterious, and complex than it often…
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Northrop P-61 Black Widow – Part One – My Second Widow
Ninth grade – Christmas in Calgary, Alberta. The tree held a number of real surprises…a Guillows SE5A and and Aurora 1:48 Northrop Black WIdow amongst others. It was the first time I had ever seen the aircraft and I was astounded. The Aurora kits were fun for their time but their time was a long…
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Spatial Ambition
Or ” The Kit Designer Is Laughing At You “. I’m drawn to this conclusion upon seeing some of the decal sheets that ask you to reproduce a complex paint job with a two dimensional sheet of plastic film. The painters and decorators that the Air Force and Navy get in from time to time…
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The Perils Of the Hot Box
Now we’re not talking about a broken bearing f on a railroad car – the proverbial North American ” hot box ” that leads to the failure of the axle and derailment of the train. No, our hot box is the plastic curing box that sits on top of an electric oil-reservoir heater in the…
The Little World 