Category: design
-
The Medium Is The Message
As Marshal McLuhan said, and was misquoted ever after. He had a right to be mad – he’d ordered a large, instead of a medium. And he was too Canadian to complain. In the hobby world, and especially in the hobby shop, there are lots of mediums – paint mediums, medium brushes, and medium tank…
-
Quonset Hut – Part Two – One A Week In Bull Creek
The title refers to the current batting average for 1:72 scale models – one a week completed. It’s not a contest, so the only prize I win is a fresh model for my collection or a layout but I can tell you – It’s Satisfying! The Rix Products Quonset is a tough build as it…
-
Quonset Hut – Part One – The Tin Of Terror
If you have ever spent time in a Nissen or Quonset hut it is subtracted from your stay in Purgatory… These Corrugated Containers Of Discomfort seem to have been erected everywhere in peace and war. Australia housed service personnel, prisoners, and migrants in them, and still has some left in bush towns. They are still…
-
Grumman F3F – Part Three – The Toy Shop
Well, at this stage of the game it looks like this aircraft has been made by Mattel or Fisher-Price. Solid bright colour and basic shapes. But all is well – a careful evening was spent getting the struts to join the wings in a decent fashion. Czech kits have little markings on the wing surfaces…
-
Grumman F3F – Part Two – The Cockpit Of Thomas Hobbes
The cockpit tub and landing gear platform of this American shipboard fighter are evidence that the Czech kit makers believe in free will. No part of the fuselage compels the struts and legs to be where they should be – they must do it of their own accord. This was probably sound philosophy during the…
-
The Scale Sketch
Versus the final model painting. Which is better? Which is more authentic? Which is likely to get you a medallion on a ribbon at the Big Local Scale Model Exhibition? I think we all know the answer to that one… But not every model is destined to be under the eye of the Judgemental Committee.…
-
Dassault Super Mystere – Part Two – Come In And Sit Down
A model aircraft cockpit can be a highlight of the build or it can be a pit of cocks. It is all dependent upon the skill of the kit moulders and their level of interest. The classic Airfix or Monogram cockpit that consisted of two posts running horizontally inside and a seat that straddled them…
-
Getting Out Of Your Comfort Zone
For the most part…don’t. Spend a good deal of your modelling time trying to locate it and when you find an entry point, crawl right in and close the hatch after yourself. Your ancestors lived largely outside comfort zones, as it happened, and spent a lot of time trying to locate them. They worked and…
-
Let Us Now Praise Famous Buildings
Particularly if they are made by obscure companies. I needed a building for a desert museum layout. I have many small structures but they all look vaguely North American or British. It was with dubious enthusiasm I rolled into my local hobby shop. As I suspected – the Superquick and Meltcalf offerings were mostly railway…
-
SE5A – Part One – Is There A Model In There?
A good question – this old Esci baggie was sitting forlorn and unbuilt – and likely to be touched for many a year until the Kit Whisperer found it. I will be frank – I deliberately seek out the most modest of kits to build. The $ 500 aircraft carrier is not for me –…
The Little World 