Category: 1:72 scale
-
Tupolev ANT-5 – Part Two – The Midget Submarine

It’s not really, but it looks like it – or Sherman from Sherman’s Lagoon. The actual fit of the fuselage halves for this Zvezda model is spot-on – only basic smoothing needed. The sesqui-wing needs some putty help, but even that is pretty minor. It encourages me to think that the rest of the components…
-
Tupolev ANT-5 – Part One – Singapore Special

Singapore is a special place for Western Australians – a ” foreign ” Asian city-state…that is not foreign at all. We have come to recognise that it is a Williams Street with humidity. A Northbridge that is safe to walk around. A Canning Vale without the semis. It is also home to some good bargains…
-
The Irony Of It All

The use of bright yellow and bright green to attract the eye is a pretty standard practice in construction and road building – vehicles, structures, and people are all decked out accordingly to make sure someone sees them in the confusion of a building site. And the colours are all so bright and solid. Yet…
-
Aichi Seiran – Part Four – Underwater Bomber

I puzzled a bit at the Tamiya box for this float-plane. No Allied code-name. Normally they give that to let people know what it was called – but this one wasn’t called anything…I suspect the Allies never saw one flying. It was meant to be an attack bomber carried by a very large submarine –…
-
Aichi Seiran – Part Three – The Dance Of the Spray Booth

I have numbered the photos today for the new members of the club who wonder how to spray paint things without injury. It is not possible – expect to lose a lung at some stage of the game. In the meantime, No.1 is the Seiran in grey undercoat – in this case Mr. Surfacer 1200.…
-
Aichi Seiran – Part Two – The Trolley

This is quite the most detailed trolley I have ever seen. Seaplanes and float-planes are wonderful birds in the air and slippery fish on the surface of the water, but sad encumbrances back at the air base. Unless they are amphibians like the USAF Albatross, they cannot land on their own wheels and need something…
-
Aichi Seiran – Part One – A Bargain

And a Tamiya bargain at that – you don’t see many of those around the shops these days! I cannot say whether this Aichi Seiran float plane model was inexpensive because it was unpopular, or unpopular because it was an old kit, or an old kit because it was inexpensive…that sort of circular logic is…
-
Gloster Gladiator Mk I – Part Three – The Mandate Of Heaven

Or of the Gloster Aircraft Company. The Gladiator is complete and ready to join the Swu Ping Provincial Air Army. The delightful thing about the SPPAA is that they have a variety of paints with which to decorate their aircraft. Oh, they do follow the guidelines provided by Nanking, but Nanking is a long way…
-
Gloster Gladiator Mk I – Part Two – One Day’s Work

Every fortnight or so I visit a private home for a friendly scale modelling session with a group separate from my normal modelling club. The experience can be quite different. I enjoy the routine of each experience, but I keep them separate in my mind. Oddly, one of the other participants in the home sessions…
-
Gloster Gladiator Mk I – Part One – I’m 14 Again

The last time I built an Airfix Gladiator I was 14 and had 50¢ to spend. I am older than that now, and richer, and glad to see that Airfix have kept up the pace – issuing this new kit a couple of years ago. It is vastly more detailed, with weighted tyres, alternate propellers,…
