Category: Colour Schemes
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Lockheed Lodestar – Part One – Personal Plane
I just barely squeaked into respectability – this column was typed on the 31st of December at about a quarter to midnight. The respectable part was actually starting a kit within the year of buying it. A slow builder, not a hoarder… The Lockheed Lodestar leapt at me from the shelves of Metro Hobbies and…
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The Waiting Room
If you think time spent in a dentist’s waiting room is difficult, try waiting for a paint coat or decal application to set. You know that you should leave the model undisturbed…but you can barely resist the desire to try the next operation or apply the next coat. I was like this when made my…
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Boulton Paul P82 – One Special Day
One special day in 1938 the Boulton Paul P82 – the turret fighter that was to become the Defiant – was rolled out onto a field for the men from the Air Ministry to look at. They had seen it without its turret nine months earlier, but this time it had teeth. It was still…
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Yakovlev-3 – Part Four – The Silver Bird
Encouraged by the silver paint coat on the Yak-3 I went ahead and added the decal stripes and stars. The decals were good – they released quickly but were not fragile and I surprised myself with how well the red side stripes went. The fact that the pre-decal clear coat was Mr. Hobby Superclear UV…
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Yakovlev-3 – Part One – Never Slow Down Past The Kit Aisle
I was just going to Hobbytech for a pot of paint…I told myself…I noticed that my lacquer bright silver was running very low and I wanted to stock up. The paint aisle was easy – I found the Mr Color Bright Silver and grabbed it. They make a number of other forms of silver paint…
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The Positive And Negative Mask
If there is one thing that model airplane building brings you to, it is the knowledge of how to do masking. You may do it badly or well, but you will be doing it for nearly every model you work on. I’ve just been taping up the Grumman Duck and it has prompted me to set…
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Bell Iroquois – Part Three – The Local
When my friend Terry paid his bill in model helicopters I was initially going to make a yellow and red RCAF rescue – sauvetage machine of the modern era – the bright colours were the attraction. The Italeri kit is an excellent structure to do this on – it fit together with minimal trimming of…
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Bell Iroquois – Part One – The New Currency
Move over, Dollar. Step aside, Euro. Bitcoin, I laugh at you. I have my own medium of exchange now. I am no longer tied to your paltry numbers. I am accepting payment in model kits. Recently I took a series of portrait photographs for a friend at his request. Rather than charge studio rates to a…
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Lavotchkin 5-FN – Part Two – The Russian Jig
It’s like an Irish jig…but with vodka. My first impressions of the Zvezda kit were not wrong – it is well-built. The cockpit was adequate, without being overly complex, and Ivan, the pilot, fit well into his seat. Unlike Airfix aircrew, I did not have to Douglas Bader him to get him into his seat…
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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…
The Little World 