Category: 1:72 scale
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Douglas Digby Mk I – Part Two – The Split Herring

Well, you gotta admit the heading image looks a bit like that. I decided to show the office before I closed it up as the thing took the best part of two days to do. The club session was spent assembling big structures like wings and tailplanes but the rest of that day and all…
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Douglas Digby Mk I – Part One – The Show Find

Another show find from last year’s Victorian Scale modelling exhibition, folks, but this time it was not on the bargain tables. It was firmly in the fancy kit section – an area in which I look but do not touch. However, it had the magic word on the box ; ” Canadian ” and that…
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Hawker Sea Fury – Part Four – Perfect Paki

The PM model of the Hawker Sea Fury is just done and onto the photo table. It has been a symphony of pleasant surprises right from the start. And it’s a good lesson for the modern modeller – particularly the person who hangs on every internet report and thinks that there are experts who know…
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Hawker Sea Fury – Part Three – If You Look Very Carefully…

And I did. I did look carefully. And I’m glad I did. The external fuel tanks of the PM Models Hawker Sea Fury fit together very well. A lick of MEK, a clamp, and they were ready for sanding. And not a lot of that needed – the seams fit very well. As I had…
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Hawker Sea Fury – Part Two – Hours Of Building

About two, as it happened. And part of the time was spent making beef pies in the kitchen. This aircraft kit is a fair way shy of the 1000-piece puzzle… But the pieces that do exist are rewarding. Well-shaped, and with few flaws. The wings and fuselage went together with the kind of precision that…
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Hawker Sea Fury – Part One – A New Maker

I’m a bigger sucker for novelty than I readily admit – I make noises like all the old goods and methods are the best and the new ones are rubbish, and you’d think I have not advanced since the 1950’s. But in truth l’m always buying something new from the shops just to try it…
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I Now Know…

I now know my least favourite scale modelling task: making up propellers from separate blades and hubs. I have just completed the gluing on two propellers for the Lockheed Electra Junior and am waiting for them to set. The maker decided to do the hubs in resin and the blades in styrene – so I…
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Consolidated Catalina – Part Five – 3402 At Last

I finally figured out what I liked about the Israeli 3401 Catalina that is displayed at Hatzerim – they have painted it a shade of blue that has always called to me. My first car, the late lamented Renault 10, was painted this blue-grey and it has set a lead that I’ve followed for many…
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Consolidated Catalina – Part Four – Tail Sitter

I take particular care with my scale models to ensure that the aircraft sit on their wheels properly. The tail-sitters like the Lancaster and Whitley, the B-17’s and B-18’s are no problem. Something can nearly always be done to beef up even the scaliest of landing gear to take the weight of plastic. The something…
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Consolidated Catalina – Part Three – A Gem In Full Sight

In full sight, but strangely hidden. The detail that has emerged with the undercoating of the Catalina is astounding. I normally do not effuse about rivet details or sunken and raised panel lines. I am a modeller of the Olde Schoole and as catholic as anyone of hebraic faith might be as far as admitting…
