Category: design
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Landing Hard – Part One – Spindly Is As Spindly Does
And if you occasionally collapse onto the airfield in a welter of tin tubes and screaming passengers…well, that’s British engineering. Also French and Russian aero design. For people too cheap to build proper airports with runways, they seem to have had a propensity for iffy landing gear. Thin legs splayed at impossible angles guyed up…
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Big Pinch – Little Pinch
A gripping story… The best tool I ever purchased from Stanbridges was a set of clamps by Xacto. The buy was in 1974 when Stanbridges was Stanbridges and Xacto was Xacto… The clamps are made of metal, though I often wonder which one. I would have guessed aluminium but lately I’m not so sure. Originally…
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They Do Better Than I Do Now…
And I do better than I did then. And that keeps me from being anxious about other modeller’s efforts. The fact that I am improving – slowly – in my own skills means that I can take pride in my latest efforts. It doesn’t mean that I need to be ashamed of my previous ones.…
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Israeli Bell 47 – Part One – Legacy Build
My friend, Warren Hughes, gave me four 1:72 scale kits in the months before he died. He knew he would not get to them, and it was my honour to complete three of them before his passing and show him how well they came out. We were both pleased with the results. This last kit…
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Make At Least One Little World
No matter what the size. The Little World is a fun column to write. I draw on the individual scale models I build and sometimes get to expand to several at once. Then I get to arrange them in dioramas and eventually into layouts. I’ve been fortunate to have enough space to do this, though…
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Swiss Ju-52 – Part Two – The Inside Story
I have beetled on before about how I like Italeri kits. I particularly like their multi-engine jobs that have interior fittings. Whether they are civilian or military, the inclusion of inside bits always makes for a more satisfying build. Oh, I know the old argument about no-one seeing in there after you are done, but…
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Swiss Ju-52 – Part One – Straight Out
Of the box. This one is a tribute to a club mate who left a large uncompleted stash. I’ll confess that it is not the first Ju-52 I’ve built – one was a Heller kit repopped by the Czechs, and one was a slightly later Italeri offering. Of course this Lufthansa plane will be the…
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The Peculiar Model
The oddity. The kit that everyone else avoids. The scratch-built model that no-one has ever heard of. In other words – just down your alley. I have been the recipient of numerous models that fit into this category – and I’ve gone out and spent actual money on others. Not a lot of it, mind,…
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The Two Musketeers
Dumas became an economical man. And it was just gilding the lily to add an extra hero. Porthos was a nightmare to feed. I often wonder what we would have seen if accountants had as much control over literature as they seem to have over the cinema. Two coins in a fountain? And get a…
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” Launch At Unfriendly Target “
I kid you not…this was part of an advertisement for a scale model kit. It described a navy attack fighter. Presumably the launching of anything would most likely be done at a target…and unfriendly ones the first choice. Friendly targets are also possible, but you use smaller missiles. Advertising in a language that is not…
The Little World 