Category: design
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Good Colour
Good Table It really does make a difference at an exhibition if you set your goods out on a table that attracts the passing eye. Many wonderful modelling efforts could be lost to pblic attention by sitting on a dull surface. Let’s face it – most of our models are destined to be seen from…
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Is There Art In Utility?
If the artist is unconscious of it…yes. I do not know if Mr. Burfitt builds scale models – or model trains – or flying aircraft – or doll houses. Possibly, or maybe not – I never quiz him. What I do is pass along the table in front of his selection of tools and imagine.…
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If I Can See It
You win. If the enemy can see it – you lose. Basic rule of camouflage. And it is also a principle to remember when building a scale model for display – especially for public exhibition. If you want ’em to look, attract their eye. This is a challenge for the modeller who is depicting a…
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Wing Walk
You can identify many aircraft from their side profile or plan view. That is the principle of photo-reconnaissance; look down and count the types. Try it yourself with a Google Earth view of Pima, Akron, or Davis Monthan and see how many you can identify. You can also have fun at the scale model exhibition…
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All Kit Builders Should Build Something From Scratch
All scratch-builders should build a model from a kit. It is no good looking at someone else’s take on the scale model hobby and pooh poohing it. Or wondering whether they have it better than you. Or wondering whether you could ever do it… Wise experimenters do it simple at first. The long-time kit builder…
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Soviet Hound – Part Four – It Is Never Open And Shut
It used to be – in the dear old days of Airfix and Monogram. You could buy a model kit that did things. Ailerons moved. as did flaps, elevators, and rudders. Canopies slid back over cockpits and wheels retracted into wells. Occasionally a bomb bay door opened and something fell out. It was all over-scale…
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Stupid Science Theatre 3 – The Proof Of the Pudding
In our case the pudding tastes like old paper and turpentine. Like cooking with the stuff I find in our pantry… The problems in order: a. Yellowing of the decal and surrounds. This one is easy to cure: tape the sheet to a window that gets sun most of the day. Let it sit for…
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Three – The Double Mask
The look of this Swiss trainer in RAAF service is a bit daunting – all that colour and complex markings. Yet, like every paint job in the world, it yields to careful study of individual parts. You just have to mentally look past the complex decals to the basic colours – red, blue and white.…
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Two – My Faith Rewarded
Remember I said I was confident in the new Swiss kit? Well, it is getting better. A dry-fit stage is not a perfect thing – you can miss slightly less obvious gaps and misalignment…only to have them show up and bite at cement time. However this time it looks as if the cockpit tub fits…
The Little World 