Category: 1:72 scale
-
De Havilland 60 G – Part One – Too Long On The Shelf
Actually, too long on several shelves… This model was purchased at my favourite local hobby shop to rescue it from obscurity on the back shelf. It had lain there – along with a number of obscure Soviet experimental and propaganda ships – for as long as I had been going to the place. Finally they…
-
See Sub?
A model submarine in operation is like a smiling Methodist. You suspect they exist because someone told you so, but you never actually see one for yourself. Once it submerges the only evidence most people see is the wake of a periscope or a Harpoon missile broaching the water and streaking off to blow up…
-
Historical Friends
I hope that’s right – I tried ” Hysterical Friends ” and the auto-correct passed that as well… One of the groups I belong to is called ” Historical Modelling Friends “. We meet either at the Cambridge Public Library in Floreat or at my studio in Willetton. The sessions are always modelling afternoons –…
-
Schmattarim
Stop groaning. It’s my model airport and I get to make the jokes. Actually, it’s a museum layout – a very useful way to display a variety of aircraft. In this case they are Israeli, and the idea is patterned on the real IAF museum at Hatzerim. I’ve built enough models to mount two separate…
-
Razzle Dazzle ‘Em
And you don’t even need to use bright colours. This year’s scale model exhibition opened itself to new groups – and in the case of the first stand in the hall it was a wargaming outfit that built a magnificent set depicting something of the Battle of Berlin 1945. The set components were a mixture…
-
Do You Advance?
Is each build making you a better modeller? It can, if you let it. If you learn one new technique, or have one new disaster, or accomplish one new task each time you complete a kit, you are on the road to success. Hopefully, you will not reach it – else what’s a Heaven for?…
-
Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Six – Jarvis, Ontario
No 1 Bombing And Gunnery School RCAF. The Battle was used extensively in Canada as a training aircraft and target tug. Kept well away from the Luftwaffe, its only enemies on the prairies were the cold, the students, and gravity. Slow, heavy, but a good flier for limited purposes. The RCAF even fielded a variant…
-
Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Five – The Hangin’ Tree
I am not a naturally cruel man, though I have trained in the art… Nevertheless there is a certain grimness about constructing a gallows on which to execute a model airplane. You start to think of Sidney Carton or Till Eulenspiegel… The advantage of it all is the ability to spray from all sides in…
-
Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Four – Broken On The Wheel
In Prague they have a tradition of throwing difficult people out of third-story windows. Look it up. I can certainly agree with this when it comes to scale model designers who decide to make a resin hub and separate injected plastic blades for a propeller. I should be happy to set punji stakes or hungry…
-
Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Three – Got It Taped
I have been trying a new procedure in my aircraft builds; dry-taping. It is at the dry-fit stage and allows me to build up a phantom of the cemented assembly and add more parts to it. I can catch cockpits wedging the fuselage sides apart before committing to them – it is hard enough sanding…
The Little World 