Category: design
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Design Folly
Whenever I complain about the folly of others I am compelled to regard my own. Fortunately I am hypocrite enough not to dwell on it too long… Some days see a club mate building a model tank and looking in horror at the task of the tracks and wheels. I’ve heard groans before from the…
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Atlantic Wildcat – Part Two – Look, Ma! No Instructions!
Do the wings go on the back or the front? Well, it was free. How can you complain at the lack of instructions with that in mind.? And how hard can it be to make a monoplane fighter? Not hard at all, as one afternoon at the bench showed. Even early Minicraft kits are good…
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Less Can Indeed Be More
Well…more or less… This famous fashion dictum also applies to a lot of scale modelling. Those of us who model in smaller scales are often unable to apply the same structures or details that other people can achieve. We have to paint suggestions rather than cement on actual structures. We also spend less on individual…
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YF23 – Part Three – Trial Duo
Well, it didn’t get the contract. Despite the design and the twin engines of this McDonell Douglas/Northrop, the ultimate choice for the air superiority fighter went to the YF – later – F-22. The two test aircraft were relegated to museum pieces. I suspect that this Trumpeter lkit – a 1999 product – was drawn…
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Modelling True To Yourself
Relax – there will be no hippie touchy-feely stuff. I’ve written before about trying out different types of modelling to see what you most enjoy. A car, a ship, an airplane, a rocket, and a tank give you a broad look at what is out there. Okay, there are trucks and figures and trains as…
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The Specialty Wagon
Someone, somewhere, built special cars to transport any unlikely thing you can imagine. The LNER had fish vans, the NP had silk trains, and presumably the EFOM had tonky little coffee vans. You can buy potash cars that say ” Saskatchewan ” and presumably surprise your friends. I get my surprise looking a the odd…
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Airco DH2 – Part Two – The Little Revelation
Stand back, folks. I am about to admit I’ve been wrong. Wow, eh? Didn’t see that coming, did’ja? Neither did I, and it only hit me when I got to the end of this build. I have had a epiphany, or a revelation, or a slight brain fart. I have missed out on a lot…
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Boeing 314 Clipper – Part Two – Slicker
And as slick as only a flying boat can be – particularly if it is not an amphibian. Not too many designs of the flying boat era eschewed outboard pontoons or floats. Whether they were local or overseas designs, few used the hull-and-sponson configuration to stop the boat tipping to the side once landed. And…
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Boeing 314 Clipper – Part One – It’s Not Old Gold
It’s new – in the shops and on my workbench. If you have never built a certain model made by a certain manufacturer of a certain aircraft, it is, by definition, a new model. It might be reissued, it might be remaindered, it might be stash-sold…no matter. You and that model are meeting for the…
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What’s The Biggest Headache In Model Aircraft Kits?
Is it gaps in the joints? Impossibly big sprue feed gates? Dodgy decals? Nope – the worst thing about a model aircraft kit is the landing gear. Unless you’re building a flying boat ( and they have their own problems ) you will encounter your worst moment with the legs. Your problem will be balanced…
The Little World 