Category: design
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Model Airfield Hobby Part One
In case you think I have become addled or have narrowed myself too much, let me make a modest proposal. Model airfields and airports form the basis for a complete division of the little world hobby – every bit as much as model railways or miniature houses. The concept just needs organization. I’ve done a…
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Too Hard?
Possibly. But remember that clean joints and clear canopies were too hard when you were 11 years old. You are now 67, and all the joints are good and all the canopies are clean. Life has progressed, and so have you. If the scheme on the colour call-out looks impossibly complex, do not worry. Take…
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Ural Starter Truck – Part Four – Arctic
My decision to paint the Ural starter truck in yellow-orange was initially based on a picture from Taganrog in Russia. As it is, this truck will be on the hardstand at Wet Dog Regional so the winter yellow is perfectly appropriate. The aircraft at Wet Dog are exposed to cold just as intense and Russia…
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Ural Starter Truck – Part Two – Straight Into It
And likely to remain straight, as well. The designers of this Ural kit are smarter than the average bear. The moulded the basic frame as one piece with springs attached and a number of extremely precise location holes throughout it. This meant that, even in the hurley burley of a club morning – with the…
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Whirling Or Non-Whirling?
Decide the section in which you wish to be seated. The business of the propeller on a scale model kit can be a painful one. Some makers mould them with fine detail but flimsy construction – expect to have to straighten them repeatedly. Some are just hubs and blades and these can be horrible to…
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You Really Do Need Two Pairs Of Cutters.
I should have laughed at myself for writing that header a few years ago. I had just re-started in scale kit building and had purchased a Ustar tool kit with knife, cutter, sandpaper blocks, etc. I still have most of it and most of it still works. What more could you want? Well, you could…
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Hobby Boss MiG3 – Part Two – Day One
Tuesday at the club is always a balancing act – the opportunity to speak with friends vs time to build a model. Often friends win out and a great deal of manure exchange takes place. It makes the hobby all that more fertile. It is a good opportunity to work on a simple kit like…
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It Must Have A Little Challenge
It cannot be entirely Shake ‘n Bake. Easy-build kits are a blessing. I welcome the opportunity to whack together a classic air-frame in a day. It gives me a chance at the airbrush and decal printer next morning ( I love the smell of lacquer thinner in the morning. It smells like victory….). I can…
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French Lancaster – Part Three – Strut…
Alors! As soon as you see a good idea – then a better idea – all the ideas prior to it become bad ones. Students of model kit design are particularly sensitive to this, because we pay high prices for our education. Remember the old model airplane kits you bought that had a slot on…
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French Lancaster – Part One – Not My First Rodeo
Third one, actually – as I have built two other Lancaster bombers in the past. The first was an old Airfix kit in 1960, the next a new Airfix kit in the last 5 years. The old model was SOOTB as an RAF subject. The new model became an RCAF rescue aircraft. This Hasegawa kit…
The Little World 