Category: Decals
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Ilyushin IL-2 – Part Four _ Winter At Uszhitmi

Uszhitmi Air Base is what is known in Russia as a winter wonderland. It’s the place that they send people who have been exiled from Siberia. Thus we see the Ilyushin IL-2 sitting on the tarmac on a bright day in midsummer. You can tell it’s summer as they have not put the snow skis…
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Curtiss SBC-4 – Part Three – The Bad Bargains

The French paid through the nose for the Curtiss SBC-4 Helldivers. They were compelled to pay in gold bullion hauled to the USA by the aircraft carrier BÉARN, then forced to load them in Nova Scotia after they were towed over the international border, then forced to abandon them in the West Indies when metropolitan…
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F-15 Eagle – Part Three – Baz

Not Bazza – this is not an Australian fighter. Baz, as in Hebrew. One of the couple of dozen of this type the IDF flies. The tail markings were initially meant to be two red triangles inside and an eagle on the outer but the home printing proved difficult – they were impossible to actually…
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Hillson Praga Air Baby – Part Four – It Was A Good Idea At The Time…

Plywood wing, tube-frame fuselage, tiny 4-cylinder engine. What could possibly go wrong? Well you have to hand it to Hillson Praga. They were stylish. The little Air Baby looks good from many angles, and if the history of the type in Australia is to be believed, the three examples that got here were successful. Part…
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Hillson Praga Air Baby – Part Three – See What You Get When You Listen To Yourself

Particularly when it is the voice of experience and has arrived at wisdom through previous bad decisions. The Australian civil registration code on this plane is on clear decal film – the sort that the Czechs do well. The sheet is finely-printed and seems to be in register, but I know from past jobs that…
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Glossing Over it All

I tend to gloss over many things; my qualifications, my time spent in the chorus line of Le Crazy Horse*, the mysterious mounds in the back yard… And I now religiously gloss over my models in preparation for decaling. I have been caught by silvering too many times to take it lightly. The problem of…
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What If It’s Misnamed…?

” What If ” modelling – colloquially known as Whiffery – is an established genre in the scale world. It is the basis for a good deal of science fiction work, and can be very well thought-out indeed. It permeates the doll house genre and appears in many hot rod builds. But it is most…
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Canadian Car And Foundry Harvard II – Part Four – Goldilocks

You can’t make this stuff up, folks. This Harvard was a part of an RCAF flight display team called ” the Goldilocks “. I believe they were sort of slow-speed comedy relief for air shows. I agree with this. You need some variety at military displays. There can only be so much of the troops…
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Problem Solvered

Advice offered in jest to a person in a modelling club has just lit up a lightbulb in my mind. I’ve a perfect solution to the problem of painting. Well, not to ALL the problems – but at least to the business of getting the right colour onto the models. We all spend hours…days…years…acquiring pots…
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Douglas RB-66B – Part One – The Shelf Queen

Some kits fly out the door of the hobby shop as soon as they arrive. Some stay until the sales. Some stay until the owner dies and the executors hacksaw the door open. The reasons for this can be many – the kit is horrible – the kit is so obscure than no living being…
