Category: American aircraft
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Vought Kingfisher – Part Two – The Inside Job

Well, if you’re gonna be inside for weeks, you might as well do airplane interiors. In the case of some of the short-run Czech kits, just a few hours can seem like weeks. But sometimes you can be fooled. When I saw this Kingfisher’s insides I could see all the Czech troubles beginning again; no…
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Vought Kingfisher – Part One – Amos And Andy

An’ if you don’t keep on reading , you gonna get a nasty letter from de Kingfish…an a phone call too. Those of you old enough to know what that was all about will smile. The younger readers will not. But some of them never smile anyway. Movin’ right along, the AZ model of the…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Four – The Carioca Killer

Admire the pictures, Children – they are made with the new focus-stacking technique learned from YouTube. Nearly every part of the 1:72 aircraft in perfect focus . The technique is so simple as to be laughable. I secure the model under constant lighting ( 2 IKEA desk lamps ) and focus upon the closest part.…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Three – Underwear

Under where did you want me to spray? I am getting good value out of my Mr. Hobby Procom single-action spray gun – the one I bought with funds raised by selling off unwanted photo gear. The gun is a big chunky thing with just one giant adjusting knob and an equally large finger button.…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Two – The Subassemblies

Or, in the case of the PV-2…the sub-hunter assemblies. Because remember that this patrol bomber in the hands of the US Navy and the Brazilian Air Force did sink U-boats. And anything else in the small ship line that it encountered. For an airliner it made a pretty mean warplane. The interior is SMS lacquer…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part One – The Mistaken Assumption

I am subject to misapprehensions from time to time. They generally don’t result in disasters, but they can mean that I miss out on good things. I can remember several occasions as a young man when I did not read the signals correctly and passed lonely Valentine’s Days. It all worked out perfectly in the…
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Backtracking With The Beagle Boys

The wisest anonymous tip I ever saw on YouTube was an Australian modeller telling us to look at our mistakes just after we make them – but then do something about them right away. Leave them through subsequent stages imagining that they will go away, and you are in for despair and loathing. Real errors…
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Seversky P-35 – Part Four – Selfridge Field

” Hey, Jennings. Lieutenant Koski says to get the pursuit ships tarped over and tied down. There’s a storm out on the lake. ” ” I’ll do it after chow. ” ” You’re new to Michigan. That dark line out there is rain like a solid wall. The canopies don’t seal that well. You’ll be…
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Seversky P-35 – Part Three – That Yamaguchi Moment

Well, that’ll teach me…but I am not sure what. I was going so well with my Special Hobby Seversky P-35 model. I had used most of the photo etch in the cockpit successfully and even managed the photo-etch aileron horns on the underside of the wing. And the new Super-Metallic Super Silver from Mr. Color…
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Seversky P-35 – Part Two – Well, I’ll Be Darned, Eh?

Washing and tidying up the Special Hobby 1:72 kit today, I left it to dry in the warm workshop. WHen it came time to repack it for he club tomorrow, I noticed a pair of amazing things: There is a spare seat.A little one, but there it is. 2. There is a big rectangular…
