Category: Australian aircraft
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We Need The Tiny Tin Can

I am looking at small and large cans of paint – spray paint, as it happens – and wondering at the rationale around it. The can contained a grey Tamiya primer. I’ve just sprayed the very last of it on a 1:72 aircraft and can feel satisfied – it completed the job just before it…
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Precision Need Not Be Prestigious

Nor need it be pricey.* I came to that conclusion each time I approached the Hobby Boss Brewster Buffalo kit – even at the wash and trim stage – where I got the mould-parting agent off the basic sprues and then air-dried them. And then started cutting parts from them and building subassembies. This was…
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The Kids In The Candy Store

For a number of years I avoided going into hobby shops. Whether I thought they were passé or whether I thought I was more sophisticated…I don’t know. The result of this was I missed out on some of the really great hobby experiences – things that came and went while I was somewhere else. Now…
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Modelling To A Theme – Building For A Purpose

I have a confession to make. I have a mental condition that permeates my life. It has affected me ever since childhood and makes itself felt in everything I do. It is sometimes a good thing and sometimes bad…but I have come to realise what it is and to accept it. It is the need…
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The Integrated Multi-Level Spatial Constructional Workflow Paradigm

Oops, sorry. I had the Dilbert switch turned on there when I typed that. Lemme turn it off. Here we go again. ” When To Glue Things On. ” That’s better. As a topic it may seem a lot more complex than it really is…because the whole thing basically is not to stick something on…
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Where Was That Blasted XF-68?

Yes, I paint model kits. Yes, I have more than one bottle of paint. Yes, I lose the occasional one down the back of the sofa… Now that I am building more model aircraft kits from different air forces I am getting more paints. Some are direct shades and some are mixtures. I have transcribed…
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Ye Olde Kitte

I went to the swap-meet section of the plastic modelling exhibition a little while ago and looked around. I do that – surreptitious spying is one of those hobbies that you can do with little initial outlay – Just a black cloak and broad – brimmed hat. The dark sunglasses and anarchist’s bomb are just…
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Move Over Acme Manufacturing Co…

Because the Little Workshop is here and we’ve got the ideas that’ll make your life easier. They’re not giant projects – they’re not vast concepts – but by golly when we think things up, they’re half-vast. Like our new model building supports. We’ve all had times whilst building an airplane kit when we needed to…
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The Small Encouragement – F2A Five

The people who have been reading about my Anson Encounter may have formed the opinion that it was a difficult time. That it may have been driving me to blasphemy, murder, or federal politics. Rest assured, while I have no problem with the first two, I would never stoop to the last. But there was…
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I Only Know What I Don’t Read In The Papers – F2A Four

My misquotation of Will Rogers is not meant to be disrespectful – I have always thought him one of the finest humourists that the Americas have produced. But he was long before the era of the internet and the wonderful collection of bad information that it provides. Note that I’m not using this column to…
