Category: adhesives
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De Havilland Beaver – Part Two – Let Me Clear Something Up…

A recent build of another Airfix Vintage Classic kit – a Westland Whirlwind helicopter – pointed out the perils of remoulding 1950’s models. The clear plastic on that one was appalling. This Vintage Classic is of a newer year – 1971 – and the clear parts have improved immensely. But they are still just the…
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Progressive Cementation

Sounds like a political party that’s going to lose their deposit, eh? Well, it’s a good idea for scale modelling when the makers of our kits decide to care less about them than we do. When they mould things too fast and the plastic warps out of the blocks. When the parts only fit where…
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A7 Corsair II – Part Five – On Her Feet

When next you see a charity tin marked ” Italeri “, stop and put a dollar in. They are good people. In particular, they have respect and kindness for builders of their 1:72 aircraft – they always provide decent landing gear and attachment points for gear legs in the engine nacelles, wings, or fuselages. If…
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The Things I Never Knew…

Are probably only half the things that I don’t know yet. This has never been the case so much as in scale modelling, and particularly in the adhesives. Until I started adult modelling I had no idea of the possibilities for success or failure of PVA glue when I tried to use it on a…
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SNCAN Martinet – Part Two – Pre-Armed

I am never quite sure whether I want the good news or the bad news first – but in any case I want to be warned what is coming. In the case of the Martinet I looked up another modeller’s build of the same kit and learned that Czech Sneeze had made a slight error…
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Polish Tankette – Part One – A Gem Off The Shelf

This kit is the second venture I’m making in 1/35 scale – and this is a deliberate choice, rather than a chance purchase. The little Polish armoured car kit that I bought for a dollar proved to be so much fun to build that I determined to add more to the Stein’s Military World museum.…
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SAAB Tunnen – Part Two – Spacious Swede

Nearly all tricycle-gear planes need some sort of nose weight to prevent them sitting on their tails. In some cases it can be a geometric nightmare trying to find enough space at the front of the fuselage to accommodate that weight. You are asking for trouble if you try to do it with lumps of…
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Oh Ye Of Little Faith

Draw Nigh And Listen Unto Me. Cement it twice and glue it three times. For that is the only way that thou wilt be able to keep the pissy little landing gear legs in their position, or the canopy on firmly. Or indeed the fuselage halves together. Add another layer of cement or glue and…
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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…

