Category: Box Art
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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 Nakajima Nate

Or Nakajima Ki-27 if you want to be technical. This one slipped through the studio without being photographed on the sprues – but that happens sometimes when you get distracted and are anxious to start doing something. It was a Sunday afternoon visit to an old hobby shop that started it – the shop is…
-
1931 Ford Model A – Part One – The Elephant In The Stash

If you have a room, you have an elephant. It doesn’t matter whether it is a real room with a real elephant, or a scale model one. Somewhere there will be a problem that no-one mentions. In my case the pachyderm has been a Minicraft 1:16 scale model of a 1931 Ford two-door sedan. It…
-
Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIX – Part One – So Why This One?

For that matter, why any of them? What’s the factor that impels us to choose one particular plastic model over all the others there in the hobby shop – impels us strongly enough to get us to spend money buying it, and time researching and building it? I think it can be many things: a.…
-
Chance Vought Corsair – Part One – Familiar Territory

As you’ll have seen from my earlier postings, this kit build is a confidence-building exercise occasioned by a recent failure. It is the second Corsair to get on the deck but this time it will fly. The Hobby Boss presentation is familiar – a clear plastic tray that corrals all the sprues and parts. I…
-
Vultee Vengeance – Part One – The Show Special

When I went to this year’s WASMEX plastic model show I promised myself that I would only get one thing. Of course, I was a liar and a fraud; I purchased three things. The last of which came off the stash today and out in front of the camera – the Special Hobby 1:72 Vultee Vengeance.…
-
” It Says So Right Here “

See? There’s even a three-way view of the plane. And you can see the pink lace curtains in the waist gunner’s position. And the snorkel and the chicken coop. It has to be true. Otherwise it wouldn’t be here in the book… I have read my fair share of small illustrated books on aircraft, vehicles,…
