Category: 1:72 scale
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Shall I Break It Now Or Wait Until Later?
The people in the plastic kit companies who write out the instructions and draw the diagrams are to be admired. I would accord them all honour as I tied them to the stake and bid the firing squad take aim. Because they are very talented and artistic criminals. Their chief crime, past the price they…
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Bell Iroquois – Part Three – The Local
When my friend Terry paid his bill in model helicopters I was initially going to make a yellow and red RCAF rescue – sauvetage machine of the modern era – the bright colours were the attraction. The Italeri kit is an excellent structure to do this on – it fit together with minimal trimming of…
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Bell Iroquois – Part One – The New Currency
Move over, Dollar. Step aside, Euro. Bitcoin, I laugh at you. I have my own medium of exchange now. I am no longer tied to your paltry numbers. I am accepting payment in model kits. Recently I took a series of portrait photographs for a friend at his request. Rather than charge studio rates to a…
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If You Know You Cannot Do It, Don’t Do It.
No sense jumping off the roof with cardboard wings. But if you don’t know you can’t do it…go ahead and try. I use this principle all the time in scale model building. I have built kits that were unbuildable, finished buildings that were improbable, and built dioramas with no knowledge whatsoever of what I was…
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Can We Be Too Fussy?
Yes, we can! We’re scale modellers and fussy is what we do. If you want lackadaisical go down the hall to the Morris Dancing Club – they drink and they don’t care. Scale modellers, and their disreputable cousins, the Lego builders, do fuss a lot about little details. We want the model we build to…
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Your Official Licence To Read
A recent look at a modelling forum site was really horrifying…not because the scale models were bad, or because the people were painful, but because the procedure to send them any pictures of your models was so complex as to defy description. Protocols and electronic permissions to the walls… We are not generally in this…
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Lavotchkin 5-FN – Part Three – Decalling The White Bird
The paint job on the Lavotchkin was simplicity itself – if you discount the fact that you spend a lot of masking tape doing it. Fortunately the bigger bits can be done with the cheap DIY store stuff instead of the thin hobby shop rolls. They do the details. Now, remember I was nervous about…
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Lavotchkin 5-FN – Part Two – The Russian Jig
It’s like an Irish jig…but with vodka. My first impressions of the Zvezda kit were not wrong – it is well-built. The cockpit was adequate, without being overly complex, and Ivan, the pilot, fit well into his seat. Unlike Airfix aircrew, I did not have to Douglas Bader him to get him into his seat…
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Lavotchkin 5-FN – Part One – First Russian
I was idling though a hobby shop that has few aircraft – they specialise in figures and games – when I remembered that they sometimes have cheap airplane kits. I think they are stocked as a sop to the shoppers rather than a serious attempt to earn money…but I am prepared to be condescended to…
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A New Superhero For The DC Or Marvel Universe
I don’t know which comic book empire is which, but I can recognise super-talent when I see it. I’m even more delighted to be able to report that it has surfaced in one of my favourite people – me. Captain Frugal. Nicknamed Cheap John. One afternoon I decided to get down to it and build…
The Little World 