Category: 1:72 scale
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Fokker D.XXI – Part Two – Dutch Canals
And a surprise – as the rest of this MPM kit fit together superbly. The gaps either side of the wing fillet were the only areas on this fighter that needed a filling. Fully deep, but narrow, possible to bridge with Vallejo acrylic putty. It dries quickly enough not to be an impediment to the…
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Fokker D.XXI – Part One -SOOTB Fighter
I have so few Dutch aircraft in my collection that this stash buy is a real asset – Let us hope the kit is up to MPM standards. New MPM standards, I hasten to add. The canopy is clear injection and there is only the wretched resin propeller boss and separate blades to gloom the…
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What Does A Free Model Teach You?
If chance brings a free model kit to your bench, what should you do? a. Thank the donor profusely. b. Bear it away unopened and when alone, look inside. c. Whatever the state of the contents, do not panic. There might be gold or iron pyrites in there, and you may have to actually build…
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Grumman Tracker – Part Three – A Bonnie Aircraft
Bonnie, but not magnificent… The Idea Model Company Grumman S2F-1 model that came to me at a low price has proved to be an excellent bargain. It might not have the precision of a Hasegawa or Tamiya product, but it is here, now, and has built up to a good stand-off model. The Royal Canadian…
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Grumman Tracker – Part Two – Do You Goo?
Yes, I do – particularly when I am making Idea Model, Minicraft, Mistercraft, or Novo kits. It is a natural reaction to the sight of gaping crevasses. I should be a quivering mess in Antarctica. At my workbench I am just barely controlled. It was not always thus. As a child builder I would have…
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Grumman Tracker – Part One – The Started Kit
Kits that have been started by another modeller are traditionally lower priced than pristine ones. I suppose this would be reversed if the original builder was Leonardo da Vinci, but so few of his plastic models seem to have survived the Reformation… I got this aircraft kit from the clearance of a legacy stash and…
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Mitsubishi Betty – Part Three -Tour Of Inspection
Orders to Ground Crew: Rabaul 17 April, 1943 Prepare G4M1 bomber serial 323 for inspection tour by Admiral Yamamoto tomorrow. Aircraft is to be cleaned thoroughly including all windows. Make sure the defensive tail armament is in correct working order. The side positions may be left closed. As the flight will be leaving at 0600…
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Mitsubishi Betty – Part Two – Not-So-Ghostly Seam
I wondered what that cracking noise was… It was the top fuselage seam giving way. I must have flexed a wing too much and surpassed the tensile strength of the thin cement used to seal the fuselage. Well that’s what undercoat painting is designed to catch – the flaw that occurs before you add a…
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Mitsubishi Betty – Part One – Flying Cigar
The Mitsubishi G4M bomber – the Betty – was given this nickname because of the fuselage. It featured an almost constant cylindrical shape aft of the wing roots and terminated in many models in a rounded tailpiece. This model kit contains this shape, thought he specific aircraft being modelled had the round-off removed to give…
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Curtiss H16 – Part Six – Long Yellow Wings
And a remarkable scale model. The history of the Curtiss H16, as well as the British-built Felixstowe types, is available on the net. They were patrol birds in the WW1 period and undoubtedly endured very hard service over the waters. It is not surprising that so few have survived to become museum exhibits. This Roden…
The Little World 