Category: design
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The Weak Link
In every chain they say the weak link will break first. So with every scale model. It changes with each type that you build. Do a few and you’ll know what to expect. You can fortify yourself against the troubles if you get in first. a. Aircraft are weakest in three areas; landing gear, antennae,…
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Mess With Their Minds
Scale model builders are in an enviable position; they are considered harmless and childish. This is ideal cover from which to snipe at passers-by… a. Build a perfectly standard kit of a common airplane. Perhaps a Spitfire, Mustang or Messerschmitt. Pick an average kit, and it need not be an expensive one. Assemble the fuselage…
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Grumman Guardian – Part …Well… The Only Part
I confess. I got greedy. I started building and just couldn’t stop. I didn’t even take build photos. But in the end, I fell back exhausted and satisfied. I had scored a definite win in the game of scale modelling. I had contemplated this model kit for a year at a local shop. The emotion…
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The Easternisation Of the Hobby
When I first started building plastic models in the 1950’s there were few Soviet-bloc models to be found. A few oddities, like the Aurora MiG 19 which proved to be totally imaginary…or the Airfix MiG 15 which was somewhat better. And a lone copy of the Bison bomber that Revell put out in the 60’s.…
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How Do You Know When To Get A Divorce?
Not a divorce from your spouse. Heaven Forbid. You married, and you have no right to demand happiness now. If you are a scale modeller you have other resources… No, I mean when do you decide that a kit in the stash is never, ever going to get built, and decide to sell it or…
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Westland Wallace – Part Four – Struttin’ Wid Some Barbecue
Or ” Jigging On The Spot “. The prospect of attaching eight interplane struts and four cabanes on the Westland Wallace called forth the engineer in me. Also the foam board fanatic. The basic requirement was that the struts sit straight but canted forward from the lower to the upper wing and that they allow…
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Westland Wallace – Part Two – In West You Build Model
In Russia, model build you! It certainly builds your basic modelling skills, as well as your stoicism. The ill-fitting parts, flash, and suspect plastic make sure of that. This kit started in 1964 as a FROG Trailblazer, and the trail has long since been lost – overgrown in weeds. Even when explored by a small…
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Hoothehell?
Or in polite terms, ” Who in their right mind…? “. It is a phrase that whispers to me every time I cruise the kit aisles of HobbyHell. The other part of the question is ” would ever buy this thing? “. The kits or parts or tools or toys in question are not forbidden…
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The Big Local Scale Model Exhibition – Part Four – The Mysterious Models
I use the term ” mysterious ” here in a purely personal sense. The subjects that are covered by many modellers and gamers are out of my experience, and I can only gaze upon them with wonder. I hope they will do the same for me – even if it is just wondering if I…
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The Big Local Scale Model Exhibition – Part Two – More Visitors
Well, that was better. Sunday, the hall was full of visitors, and we even had more to the build-a-kit section. This meant the people nearest the table needed to help with the youngsters – under the supervision of their parents. Sprue cutters were lent out; sandpaper sticks as well. Most of the really young ones…
The Little World 