Category: design
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SAAB Tunnen – Part Three – Not Scot Free
As you can see in the heading image, the SAAB Tunnen has not gone scot-free from the need for filler. The culprit is the optional piece for the underside of the nose – it is either a cannon-armed fighter like this or the photo-recon version with camera windows. You are faced with a curved seam…
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SAAB Tunnen – Part Two – Spacious Swede
Nearly all tricycle-gear planes need some sort of nose weight to prevent them sitting on their tails. In some cases it can be a geometric nightmare trying to find enough space at the front of the fuselage to accommodate that weight. You are asking for trouble if you try to do it with lumps of…
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Scale Modelling And Interpretive Dance
Or ” It’s My Party, And I’ll Glue If I Want To. “ A. Are you a bold and original individual? Are you a trend setter? Have some of the trends you’ve set gone off in your face prematurely? Well join the Queens Own Scale Modellers and we’ll make it All Right. The first thing…
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PZL 23b Karas – Part Two – L’Airfixe
At least that is what it seems. And I am not complaining at all. The mould quality of the Heller kits seems to be of a piece with the better Airfix of the times. Of course there was a period when the two companies were aligned for business reasons but then went their separate ways.…
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Whether or Not…
To weather. Is it better to slosh muck over your model or leave it gleaming? Only you can tell – but be aware that others will want to tell you what to do. So listen to me… I presume you are engaged in the hobby of scale model building. If I am wrong – if…
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PZL 37a – Part Two – Club Time
This PZL bomber was reserved for a club time build and missed out on some of the workshop photos that other builds get. But in the end it came out well. The frontal view of the aircraft tells a unique story – the dual wheels set onto the landing gear legs. It is the first…
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PZL 37a Los – Part One – Heart In Hand…
Or mouth, as the case might be. I plucked this Mister Craft bomber off the hobby shop shelf as part of a Christmas present…wondering if I was going to get another dud. Mister Craft can mould some real curate’s eggs… In thus case I was not too dismayed by the sprue trees, but I did…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part Three – Close Enough For Jazzski
And there I was, getting along so very well…and then winter set in. I knew it was winter because the snow started drifting into the gaps between the wing roots and the fuselage on this Avis model. I was delighted, as it obscured the giant trenches that had appeared. But come spring, the ruse would…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part Two – The Soviet Engine
I might not have been paying attention in the past to the details of aero engineering…but I do now that the kit makers are making much more detailed efforts. For instance, I always built the Airfix and Monogram fighters with radial engines that fit inside cowlings. In many cases they were just engine fronts inside…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part One – Out Of Left Field
The rise of the eastern bloc modelling industry is a blessing and a curse – the former because it gives us good models to build and the latter because it chooses some of the most obscure prototypes. At least they are obscure to a modeller in Western Australia. They might be household names in Minsk.…
The Little World 