Category: Box Art
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OD’ing On Olive Drab
Is it just me or is it hard to find The True Meaning Of Olive Drab? I need to paint a number of USAAF planes and I am going to avoid the flashy multicolour of nose art and loud decals. I just want cooking quality Army ships for a diorama. You’d think that Olive Drab…
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Fulfil Its Destiny – Build That Kit
On a recent trip to the eastern states I went charged with the task of finding a 1:48 scale model of a Macchi jet trainer for my friend Warren. He had worked on them in the Air Force and a few years ago Italeri had kitted one up with RAAF markings. Indeed, they had also…
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Grumman Avenger – Part Two – Bathed And Naked
Settle down, class. You’ve seen uncovered airplanes before. No need to get excited. The preliminary researches on the TBF for the USS BUNKER HILL all point to the same visual conclusion; the colour scheme that the box art shows is accurate enough for a direct build. Perhaps a little modification of the yellow nose around…
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North American AT6 – Part One – The Kosher Texan
We often buy a set of decals to match a kit we have – but in this case I have reversed the procedure. I had a leftover set of Israeli Air Force markings for an Academy kit and I purchased a Hobby Boss substitute to use them up. The original Texan became an RCAF Harvard…
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Scale Model Kit Building Is Craft Beer In Styrene
Here’s two parallel experiences; buying a plastic model kit in a hobby shop and buying a six-pack of craft beer at the local Dan Murphy’s. In both cases you are basically paying out for a pig in a poke. The externals are generally confusing…the plastic model kit has either great box art or horrible writing,…
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Fairey Fulmar Mk I – Part One – The Easter Airplane
I have no idea why the tradition started in our family, but every Easter I got a model airplane kit. Of course there were chocolate bunnies and candy eggs and the fun of dying hard-boiled real eggs, but the big surprise was to hunt around the living room to see what plane was there. This…
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Piasecki Army Mule – Part One – Buy Me, Boss…
Trolling the aisles of Hobbytech recently I was feeling discouraged – they’d had a big Christmas and sold off a lot of goods – but there weren’t many small kits left that fit my criteria; cheap, simple, and a western prototype in the propeller or early jet eras. I wasn’t able to spend big on…
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Yellow Sky In The Morning…
Modellers take warning. Have you ever looked at the box art of the plastic kits and wondered at the meteorology of it all? I took some time last week to survey the skies displayed inside the kit aisle of Hobbytech and found that they were predominantly yellow. Well, three colours, actually; yellow, orange, and lurid.…
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Lavotchkin 5-FN – Part One – First Russian
I was idling though a hobby shop that has few aircraft – they specialise in figures and games – when I remembered that they sometimes have cheap airplane kits. I think they are stocked as a sop to the shoppers rather than a serious attempt to earn money…but I am prepared to be condescended to…
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The Little Kid Model
I was in the airplane kit aisle of my local – Hobbytech – one Sunday, and I encountered a charming scene. A young man – under 20, I should say – was introducing a friend to model kits and helping him to get some to start building. The sort of thing that encourages us all.…
The Little World 