Category: 1:72 scale
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De Havilland Beaver – Part One – Leave it To Me, Wally

Those of a ” certain age ” will get it… Those of that samecertain age will recognize the Airfix Vintage Classic Beaver kit as one of the British Army cooperation planes – but will be surprised when they look at the side of the box – it appears to have been used by the US…
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Stand In Line

Standing in line is Europe’s national sport. Whether it is waiting for pancreas sausage in Poland or boiled tripe in England, you have only to get two people to line up and they will be joined by twenty more. In Perth we line up for cheap plastic. The ( so far ) annual big scale…
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Every Time You Bolt On A Main Spar

A Fairey gets its wings… The magic of scale model building is far greater than any mousey studio could dream up – we actually get to do things instead of just watch other people do them. One of the things we do is cement wings onto aircraft. We can do this neatly or not, but…
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Avia B-135 – Part Four – One Time Lucky

But there’s more than one kind of luck… Sold to Bulgaria by the Czechs, relegated to training duties even in that air force, and out for a four-plane mission in 1944 when American B-24 Liberators approached Bulgarian air space after attacking Ploesti. They were unable to catch most of the bombers but at least one…
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Avia B-135 – Part Three – Black Green

Or Green Black – you can please yourselves as to what the colour was called. I suspect you will also be flailing about trying to pin it down exactly. Like PRU Blue, Russian Green, and Zinc Chromate, there will be as many shades of Black Green as there are paint manufacturers and club anoraks. I…
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Avia B-135 – Part Two – Pretty Darn Good

For a short-run Czech kit. The dry fit for the Avia has been a pleasure. Say what you will about the rudimentary nature of these kits, there is a wealth of engraved detail in the parts and the dry fit has been exemplary. Deep in the tiny cockpit are stick, seat, straps, dash with glazing…
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Avia B-135 – Part One – A Semi-Precious Stash Gem

The big annual local scale model exhibition had come and gone – and there was some speculation that it had gone forever.* But I did well. My model Ruritanian airport garnered only slight interest, but the stash sales made it all worth while. This Czech fighter appeared at a very advantageous price and I was…
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The Corner Of Frugal Boulevard and Tight Arse Lane

The cheap end of town. I got there after consulting the internet and looking at eBay sales items. The prices were high and the shipping costs higher. But I did benefit from the product illustrations – which I could screen save and use for reference. Free information. My project involved making some more buildings for…
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Decal Or Not Decal

That is the question. Whether ’tis nobler to suffer the agonies of masking tape and airbrush or to take scissors and water and end them. I am in the position of Hamlet every time I look a the colour call-out of a kit. I have the decal sheet in one hand and my heart in…
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Soviet AS Truck – Part Two – The Light Dawns

The ” Aha! ” moment in this build came as I tried to figure out what the platforms and driveshafts were all about and I ran across the term ” Huck starter “. A google hour then filled me in. And filled in a question I had about a number of airplane designs. On a…
