Category: 1:72 scale
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Five – RAAF Roulette
The Pilatus PC-21 were ready to fly – the next batch of pilot trainees due to make their solos. One of them was the son of my niece. I have a short reel of him flying that first solo taken by a squadron mate. It is detailed enough to make out the number of the…
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Four – Decal Phobia
Fear of water-slide transfers, if you wish to be pedantic… It strikes us all at one time or another. We see a commemoration scheme on the box lid and are lured into getting a kit with complex curved surfaces. The real-life plane or vehicle is painted by professionals with masks, spray guns, and a lot…
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Three – The Double Mask
The look of this Swiss trainer in RAAF service is a bit daunting – all that colour and complex markings. Yet, like every paint job in the world, it yields to careful study of individual parts. You just have to mentally look past the complex decals to the basic colours – red, blue and white.…
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Two – My Faith Rewarded
Remember I said I was confident in the new Swiss kit? Well, it is getting better. A dry-fit stage is not a perfect thing – you can miss slightly less obvious gaps and misalignment…only to have them show up and bite at cement time. However this time it looks as if the cockpit tub fits…
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part One – Serendipity
The definition of the word links random occurrences that produce a beneficial result – in short good luck. It has started for me with the donation of this new kit. The firm that makes it – 3D Blitz Models – seem to be Swiss. This will be one of the few occasions when I have…
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Queen Mary – Part Three – Hughes Transport
Or what to do with a wartime leftover… If it is a plate of powdered egg scrambled with Spam, consider how many decades have passed since VE- Day,,,If it is an old QMT, also consider what time has done to wartime metal construction – particularly British metal with British engineering. The QMT trailer is marked…
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Queen Mary – Part Two – Club Afternoon
I frequent two hobby clubs: The One You Admit To and The One You Conceal. To be fair, I change the designations around from month to month so that everyone can feel uncomfortable… The heading image is the amount accomplished at one 3-hour session. Airfix were precise and sensible when they wanted to be; you…
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Queen Mary – Part One – ” Can You Use This? “
Whenever someone says this to you, reply ” Yes, please…thank you. ” . It doesn’t matter whether they are offering you a gold Rolex or a tin of condemned beef – take it. You can decide what to do with it later – the offer and acceptance is the fulcrum of friendship. This Queen Mary…
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The Curse Of The Rivet
The curse of the riveted kit is most often seen with the older moulds. The days were when it was simpler to represent the details of an aircraft fuselage or wing by drilling minute depressions in the mould block. Everyone did it, and only in the last 20+ years have they made an effort to…
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The Scale Statue Of Ozymandias
I am very grateful to the committee for giving me one of the model airplanes built by a former club member. It is a beauty, and shows the sort of skill he had. I would willingly trade it in for him back in the club, but funerals put an end to a lot of things.…
