Category: design
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Chance Vought Cutlass- Part Two – Fit
Whether it is dry or wet, the fit of a kit is the factor that most determines our satisfaction. Or to put it succinctly – it either will or it won’t. My praise to the Fujimi people for this one – it did. Not all their offerings in the past have, but here we have…
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How Do You Second-Guess The Factory?
With boldness, one would suggest. Scale model kit makers get it right most of the time. Their products are meticulously designed, moulded, and packaged. They are sold at reasonable prices by retailers who have the best interests of the modeller at heart. And every time you wish upon a star a Fairey gets it’s wings…
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The Double Decal
The idea of a commercial double decal is not new…but it might be just the answer for your home-made ones. Some decals come on Cartograf or other printer’s sheets as a two layer plan. I have made up French Air Force planes where not only the tail tricolor but the main roundels require two applications;…
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The Noodles You Have In Your Bowl
Are all you need. Have you ever been to a fast food outlet that tried to sell you food by asking whether you wanted to ” up-size ” it? Did you agree or decline, thinking that a standard-size assault on your gall bladder was all you really needed? You felt you had just been hustled.…
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Buy A Curse
Be careful in your selection – you want something that will disturb and haunt you for a long time to come. The thing to do is go to the hobby shop and search the shelves until you find something that is both impossibly expensive and horribly complex. Preferably with a complicated colour scheme and a…
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Me 262 – Part Two – How Wrong I Was
When I saw the flash flooding around some of the Revell parts for this jet fighter I though that I was in for an epic of cutting and sanding. As it is, there has been little fettling needed and by the time it has progressed from dry fit to cementation, no filler gaps are to…
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Know When To Fold ‘Em
Kenny Rogers’ good advice to scale model builders. We all know the virtues of perseverance and hard work, having had it drummed into us by parents, schools, and employers. What has been missing is the virtue of quitting while you are ahead. Kenny Rogers’ gambler knew it, and it is time we did too. You…
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The Burgeoning
It is like ” The Quickening ” only it takes longer. It also takes more money, time, and space. The Burgeoning is the process by which scale model kits get bigger and more complex. It steers the scale model hobby into new areas of expertise while it clutters up display cabinets worldwide. It’s not hard…
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Potez 63-11 – Part Four – The Fishbowl Of Sadness
I refer to this rather sleek French aircraft in this way as it was witness to the failures of its own armies in the spring of 1940 – from an elegant vantage point. The design is deliberately biased toward the primary mission – reconnaissance – with the pilot up above like a hansom cab driver…
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Potez 63-11 – Part Two – Having A Fit
A tight fit. The Azur model of the Potez 63-11 is probably fairly old in the Czech modelling world. I think the firm that makes these models has retired the name in favour of their ” Special Hobby ” marque. This one is from the multi-media days of styrene/resin/brass. So far the fit of the…
The Little World 