Category: design
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Razzle Dazzle ‘Em

And you don’t even need to use bright colours. This year’s scale model exhibition opened itself to new groups – and in the case of the first stand in the hall it was a wargaming outfit that built a magnificent set depicting something of the Battle of Berlin 1945. The set components were a mixture…
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The Scale Of the Problem

Is related to the person judging it. Those who have a problem, have a problem. Those who do not, have the people who do, and that is a problem… Some years ago I noted an very attractive model of a modern jetliner at an exhibition of scale models. There were ground crew figures and vehicles…
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Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Four – Broken On The Wheel

In Prague they have a tradition of throwing difficult people out of third-story windows. Look it up. I can certainly agree with this when it comes to scale model designers who decide to make a resin hub and separate injected plastic blades for a propeller. I should be happy to set punji stakes or hungry…
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Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Three – Got It Taped

I have been trying a new procedure in my aircraft builds; dry-taping. It is at the dry-fit stage and allows me to build up a phantom of the cemented assembly and add more parts to it. I can catch cockpits wedging the fuselage sides apart before committing to them – it is hard enough sanding…
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Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Two – The Paradox

How can a short-run moulder be so good at making injected parts… And then make so many bad resin ones; detailed resin panels that are meant to fit precisely. ” Meant ” is a curiously elastic word. I have been making two cockpit tubs from this Czech kit – they involve sides, back and top…
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Model Car Sunday – Part Eight

The Jewels. They may not be crown jewels. They may not be in a Cartier window. They may be made of plastic and not worth over $ 20 apiece – but they are jewels nevertheless. They represent the efforts of a major manufacturer and a dedicated enthusiast to remember real trophy winners of the past.…
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Model Car Sunday – Part Seven

The Daily Driver Does no-one have ordinary days any more? Have model car kits stopped being three-in-one? Can we not build the car our Dad drove in 1959? How about the one we drove yesterday? I do admire a good hot rod. I am in awe of the custom car that took a decade and…
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Model Car Sunday – Part Four

Overblown is my favourite colour. You cannot look at a modern motor car and not experience a heart-stopping moment. The colour – whether black, white, or grey – will be so depressing that your ticker will slow dangerously. You may lose consciousness or go into deep depression. Memories of the actual spectrum may fade from…
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Model Car Sunday – Part Three

Local Model Car Sunday…with vehicles that really do resonate with our city and state. Not to diss the hot rodders or race car builders, but there is also a world that is average, mundane, and historically real and it can reach out to the viewer as much as the candy apple paint job or the…
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Lux-ury

If there is any simple thing I want to make my scale modelling experience better it is light. More light, brighter light, cleaner light, portable light, steady light, etc. No room in an Australian house seems to have a ready supply of it, even with the window blinds open. At night we are at the…
