Category: 1:72 scale
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The Broken Model
Few accidents distressed me so much when I was a child as breaking a scale model. It happened occasionally when building, and then on during the display life of the item…we moved house frequently and you can imagine the toll this took on any collection I tried to build up. I came to appreciate Dinky…
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When The Wing Falls Off…
Or the tailplane, or the engine nacelle… The aging of a model – or of a collection – can be graceful and unremarkable, or not. You will not notice the first circumstance but the second one will call itself to your eye every now and then. Something will break off. When you stop and think…
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Landing Hard – Part two – Lolly Legs
You can google that one up to read the full horror of Australian vernacular, but for now just concentrate on the landing gear of scale model aircraft. Landing gear on real aircraft are the structures that allow the aircraft to land safely, supporting it as it rolls down the runway. On scale aircraft they are…
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Landing Hard – Part One – Spindly Is As Spindly Does
And if you occasionally collapse onto the airfield in a welter of tin tubes and screaming passengers…well, that’s British engineering. Also French and Russian aero design. For people too cheap to build proper airports with runways, they seem to have had a propensity for iffy landing gear. Thin legs splayed at impossible angles guyed up…
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Israeli Bell 47 – Part Three – A Bubble In The Desert Sun
It cannot have been much fun to climb into a Bell 47 bubble in the desert sun of the Negev. Even on a cold day, it would have been hot in there and the overhead fan would not have helped if you had the doors shut… The Italeri kit has proved as good as it…
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Israeli Bell 47 – Part Two – Production Lines For The Win
The idea of serial building is working out, but there is still a place for sub-assembly lines in the scale model factory Even with modern super-glues there is still time required for re-enforcement to set, and of course the drying and setting times of the various paint coats. So there is a real advantage to…
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Israeli Bell 47 – Part One – Legacy Build
My friend, Warren Hughes, gave me four 1:72 scale kits in the months before he died. He knew he would not get to them, and it was my honour to complete three of them before his passing and show him how well they came out. We were both pleased with the results. This last kit…
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Swiss Ju-52 – Part Three – Iron Annie In The Alps
The discovery of an unbuilt civilian version of the Ju-52 by Italeri in a legacy sale meant it could join the other post-war airliners at Flugplatz Strelsau. The Lufthansa colour scheme was tempting, but I could see the problems that might arise trying to get large block letters to snuggle down into the corrugations on…
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Swiss Ju-52 – Part Two – The Inside Story
I have beetled on before about how I like Italeri kits. I particularly like their multi-engine jobs that have interior fittings. Whether they are civilian or military, the inclusion of inside bits always makes for a more satisfying build. Oh, I know the old argument about no-one seeing in there after you are done, but…
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Swiss Ju-52 – Part One – Straight Out
Of the box. This one is a tribute to a club mate who left a large uncompleted stash. I’ll confess that it is not the first Ju-52 I’ve built – one was a Heller kit repopped by the Czechs, and one was a slightly later Italeri offering. Of course this Lufthansa plane will be the…
The Little World 