Category: 1:72 scale
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Cessna Dragonfly – Part Two – Weighty Nose
You only have to forget once to weight the nose of a three-wheeled plane to impress it on your memory forever. And there is no effective way to excuse it when you are faced with the fact – other than accepting your fate, putting the wheels up, and the model on a flying stand. I…
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Cessna Dragonfly – Part One – The Bagatelle
Some models leap off the shelf into your hand. Others cringe round to the back and must be got out with hooks. And some just call to you, but you don’t know why. The Cessna A-37B was a kit I bypassed frequently, but one day I glanced at the price and noted that it was…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Eight – Air France Libre
My first aircraft model with the Free French cross of Lorraine and it has been quite an experience. The Farman in warpaint would have been simple enough to do, and the camouflage would have disguised many of the difficulties encountered, but the appeal of the ivory paint and those FF insignia won out in the…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Seven – L’Éminence Grise
By the time a large scale model gets to the Mr Surfacer 1000 stage I no longer have any authority over it – the command structure is reversed. In a way, it is comforting to surrender the initiative in this way. Oh, there will be patching and sanding and other attendances but the die has…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Six – Praise Courageous Me
Thank you, thank you. I fully deserve your applause – I have made propellers and engines the HARD way. Not that I had any choice in the matter. The parts were there and the instructions were uncompromising – ” Do as we say or die “. Or, in the case of the engine mounting struts:…
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Farman – NC 223.3 – Part Five – Almost A Sailplane
Well, you could be fooled into thinking that if you just saw the fueslage and wings, couldn’t you. Angular, but sleek. No-one in the SCNAC stayed sleek for long – eventually their Gallic desire to attach a strut, a window, or a café awning and chairs asserted itself and before you knew it you had…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Four – Faire Soi-Même
Or you won’t be faring at all. Scratch-building at the order of the kit maker is a strange feeling. I do not shy from it, as I scratch build many of my airport structures, but it still smacks a little of ” don’t care ” when the instructions demand it and there are no parts…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Three – Sprue Goo
I have taken the – so far – free advice from Phil Flory and made up a jar of Sprue Goo. The Evergreen plastic card was from the surplus scrap bin – a little brown and a lot of white chipped up and dissolved in Supercheap Auto lacquer thinner. It was an overnight success and…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Two – Short Run Need Not Be Vile
I think Forrest Gump would have enjoyed short-run Czech kits – he had a philosophy that would have coped. I may send my next Prague bomb to Tom Hanks. The fuselage halves of this angular bird could have been a disaster – no locating pins and a very long run for twists and warpage. But…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part One – A Packet Of French Letters
Specifically, SNCAC NC 223.3 B.N.5. Hereafter referred to as the Farman – it’s the only one in the stable so I don’t need to be specific. This Azur kit promises to be several weeks worth of advanced building – it is definitely short-run but of the better sort. There are only the vaguest of interior…
The Little World 