Category: Decals
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Impatience Is Better than No Patience At All

Hurry up and read this essay – I want to get on and write more. Come on, come on…move your eyes faster…Sheesh… And get on with that model. You’ve had it for over a week and it’s still not done. The box says it’s quick to build…and who are you to make the manufacturer look…
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Nakajima ‘ Kate ‘ – Part Two – Realistic Manufacture

The new Airfix model kit is sitting drying in the warm workshop as I write. I’ve done the washing of the parts, scanned the decal sheet and instructions, and done a preliminary check of the parts. I’m delighted with what I’ve found. Or not found…no polyurethane blocks with miniscule parts to be sawn free and…
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Northrop Nomad – Part Two – A Sea Of Plastic

I have never been so happy to see a plastic bag full of parts before. Particularly as they are all injection-moulded with nary a resin part in sight. The new Northrop Nomad kit ( also known as the DB8A3N ) is a return to traditional construction. There is evidence of thought throughout the box. In…
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Tamiya Acrylic – The Viable Challenger

Note: in this test I used the Tamiya acrylic paints, but I could slso have used the Creos Mr. Hobby acrylics as well – they can interchange thinners and brush cleaners. Well, as the Avro Anson MkI was slowly being painted and cured, I decided to fill the time with two other kits – a…
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Enamel Is The First Bottle Off The Shelf

Well, in for a penny, in for a Pound…I decided that the Special Hobby Avro Anson MkI was the test bed for the Humbrol system. Other people may know it as the Angst-on but I make my own discoveries… After painting up the interior and locking it into the fuselage, I covered over the windows…
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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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Build The Stash

A pause in the litany of sin today – It’s my birthday and I thought you deserved a little variety in the column. Back to the grind tomorrow… I am a relatively recent returnee to the hobby of model kit building – though I have been whacking away at scratchbuilt structures and repurposed die-casts for…
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Well, Sheet…Now What’s Gone Wrong?

The heading image is fuzzy, out of focus, over coloured, and frightening. That actually describes my mind on a lot of occasions – federal elections, tax time, family festivals, etc – but in this instance it was actually vital – I need decals for my new aircraft. And my go-to solution for them appeared to…
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Who Said Yellow Was For Cowards?

The author of the wonderful illustration of the Canadian Anson Mk1 – Mr Reidel – will forgive me, I hope, for making a desktop image of his drawing. I’m posting it up on my computer to cheer myself up. I have a suspicion that I will need the inspiration during the next few weeks as…
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Too Much Of A Good Thing

Waterslide decals were the wonder of my childhood. I only encountered them in the model kits I built, and since these were kits in the 1950’s, they weren’t all that good. They were yellowed, cracked, thick, lumpy, and inaccurate. They had margins that looked like stranded jellyfish. They took about a half hour to soak…
