Category: 1:72 scale
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Polikarpov U-2 – Part One – Washing Machine Charley

I’ll explain that later. In the meantime I need to start work on the ICM model of the Polikarpov U-2. This is not the U-2 that was shot down with Francis Gary Powers in it. Very similar but a different engine… In any case, the ICM kit was quite inexpensive in a hobby shop where…
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Bomber In A Box

No, it’s not a horrible new addition to home delivery of food and parcels. This bomber is in a box for a good reason. When you start a collection of scale models, you really need to start with the biggest darn one you’re ever going to build and work back from that. Then, when you…
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Isuzu TX-40 – Part Three – Now You Don’t

But the Isuzu is there in full glory. And the people at Hasegawa have been thoughtful enough to provide a hand trolley and two ground crewmen to push it, plus 5 fuel drums. This has been one of the best little mojo builds I’ve encountered in a long time. Every part went on it and…
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Isuzu TX-40 – Part Two – Now You See Him

Yoshi is a driver for the Imperial Japanese Army on Lakanuki Island. He is in charge of the refuelling truck. Always impeccable in his freshly-pressed uniform, he wheels the Isuzu TX-40 around the airfield servicing army and navy planes as they land and take off. Everyone else on the island is dressed in rags and…
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Isuzu TX-40 – Part One – Fuel For The Empire

You never think of the more humble vehicles in war – the dump trucks, re-fuelling trucks, and dustcarts. Yet they were manned by service personnel just as dedicated as the tankers and aircrew they served. I always leap on 1:76 service vehicles when I find them in the hobby shop. This Isuzu showed up at…
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The Big Local Scale Model Exhibition – Part Seven – Tanks For The Memories

At one time I would have regarded armour models and military vehicles with only minor interest – I am an aviation modeller. Yet, the need for prop vehicles for my airfields, and then civilian vehicles, has meant an increased recognition of the little machines. And recently a dollar purchase of a Polish armoured car in…
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The Big Local Scale Model Exhibition – Part Five – The Quest For Novelty

One of the charms for me when I attend the doll-house ladies’ exhibition, or that of the model railway enthusiasts – is the novelty of the models and exhibits. I preserve this freshness by attending only one of these per year – one year it will be the doll-houses and next the trains. Every time…
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The Big Local Scale Model Exhibition – Part One

Well, there we were – the morning of the Big Local Scale Model Exhibition. And I was off to do my bit. 5:00 AM: Up and clean for the show. Loaded the car with the 6 little airfields plus a model box to work on – and a sandwich for lunch. I live locally, so…
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Katyusha M13 – Part Three – Whooshin’ Rooshians

The wartime accounts of the use of rocket trucks by the Soviets are quite spectacular. Stories of mass attacks that caused whole vilages to disappear are rife. These rocket artillery pieces may have been restricted to 5-8 miles range but the effect of 16 of the rockets falling simultaneously – even if the target circle…
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Katyusha M13 – Part Two – Truckin’

Apparently the basic design for this class of Soviet trucks is an American vehicle of the 1930’s, though I don’t know if it is meant to be Ford or Chevrolet. In any case they adapted it to all sorts of roles at the time, as they did for many vehicles in the 1950’s and 50’s.…
