Category: design
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Mitsubishi Babs – Part Three – An Observant Aircraft
It goes to temple every weekend… The Mitsubishi Ki-15 was possibly very useful to the Imperial Japanese Army – depending upon where it was sent and what was going on down on the ground. The aerial observation of enemy movements – whether that was Chinese or Soviet – could have guided the high command to…
-
Mitsubishi Babs – Part One – The Name
I have heard it put forward that the designations we give to our land, sea and air models should conform to the original languages of the makers. Thus, this Mitsubishi product should be known as a Ki-15-I Karigane or Army Type 97 Command Reconnaissance Aircraft. Or alternately, the Wild Goose. All of which will bewilder,…
-
Pride Of Place
The models displayed at my scale club are varied – aircraft, vehicles, ships, armour – even figures and Sci-Fi items. They are so very varied that there is no chance of making one-scale-only or one-theme-only cabinets – they jostle with each other for attention. But the attention they get is from dedicated model makers –…
-
Frugal Storage – Part One – Costco Croissants
The wonderful thing about Costco is that nearly everything they sell is in big lots and it is all well packaged. Thus the recent purchase of 10 croissants in a clear plastic container was actually a considered modelling decision. The fact that the pasties were heated up and consumed with strawberry jam and cups of…
The Little World 