Category: 1:72 scale
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part Two – The Soviet Engine
I might not have been paying attention in the past to the details of aero engineering…but I do now that the kit makers are making much more detailed efforts. For instance, I always built the Airfix and Monogram fighters with radial engines that fit inside cowlings. In many cases they were just engine fronts inside…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part One – Out Of Left Field
The rise of the eastern bloc modelling industry is a blessing and a curse – the former because it gives us good models to build and the latter because it chooses some of the most obscure prototypes. At least they are obscure to a modeller in Western Australia. They might be household names in Minsk.…
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PZL P.11c – Part Three – Krakow Cracker
If ever I go to a peaceful, clean, cheap, and safe Europe, which is probably never, I hope to see Poland. And I hope to see the planes in the aviation museum in Krakow. One of which would be the PZL P.11c. This kit has entirely turned around my regard for the Polish moulding industry.…
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PZL P.11c – Part Two – Volte Face
Ahem. This may be difficult. I need to change my mind without giving the impression I was ever wrong. I mean, I don’t want to rend the fabric of the universe, now do I? But I need to change my mind about the Polish model moulding business. I once was of the opinion that the…
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PZL P.11c – Part One – 3.23 Złoty Bet…
When I decide to gamble, I do not hold myself back. Whether it is the race horses, the roulette table, or plastic model kits, I just open my wallet and let myself go. I spent 3.23 złoty on this Polish fighter plane and I am not ashamed to admit it. The gamble, of course, is…
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Of Course It Doesn’t Fit
It never fit in 1959, when the kit was released. It didn’t fit in 1989 when Revell bought the mould and re-issued it. It will not fit when someone east of the Urals finally gets the worn-out blocks and injects reindeer poo into them to claw back some rubles. It’s not about fit. It’s about…
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Unwrap At Your Peril
Yesterday was Christmas. In the morning I unwrapped my Christmas gift and expressed delight and surprise. Only one of those emotions was genuine. I bought it myself – at my local hobby shop – with my own money. It was be just what I wanted because I knew what I wanted. I have been reimbursed…
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Fiat CR.32 – Part Four – Under A Chinese Sun
The Fiat CR.32 is now ready to fight off the hordes of invading Japanese bombers from the Xú Jichâng airfield. The period of time between the last post and this one was spent painting the wheel sub-assemblies – an easy task – and putting them on the fuselage. This was also an easy task, giving…
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Fiat CR.32 – Part Three – Subassemblies
The call-out and the box art for this Italian/Chinese fighter show sub-assemblies bolted onto the basic structure. The pictures provide a valuable clue that the instructions fail to show; you need to pre-paint the assemblies before you attach them – or you’ll never get clean demarcations. So, emboldened by the Slovakian jigs, I tried a…
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Fiat CR.32 – Part Two – Rosatelli Rocket
I had never heard about Celestino Rosatelli before I read the instruction sheet for this kit, but the story there was enough to send me looking at some of his other designs. They were mostly successful and few of them looked like clunkers, but as with most of the designs of the period I long…
The Little World 