Category: design
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Pinkish Semi-High Intensity Green-Brown
Or The Colour That Time Forgot. The most accurate recreation of something that never existed outside a paint designer’s cheese dream. It has no FS number but that’s okay – IPMS approves of it. The question of the right shade of puce to paint a Percival that has pancaked in Portsmouth has always been a…
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Legendary Scale Modelling
The dictionary says a legend is someone or something that has been written about*. It doesn’t specify that there has been any truth, or proof, or goodness involved the deal – just that it’s been recorded. That being the case I think we can look at legendary scale modelling… a. The kit that was just…
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Hillson Praga Air Baby – Part Four – It Was A Good Idea At The Time…
Plywood wing, tube-frame fuselage, tiny 4-cylinder engine. What could possibly go wrong? Well you have to hand it to Hillson Praga. They were stylish. The little Air Baby looks good from many angles, and if the history of the type in Australia is to be believed, the three examples that got here were successful. Part…
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Hillson Praga Air Baby – Part Two – The Human Dimension
Or perhaps that should be human dimensions. The small size of people reflected in the small size of aircraft. You wouldn’t think that with a lot of kits – the fighters, bombers, and transports of WW2 are a level bigger than their counterparts in the interwar period – and these again bigger than the WW1…
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Hillson Praga Air Baby – Part One – So Niche
Okay. Beats Me. Who in Prague has ever heard of Australia? Well, someone did. They sent out three of these little light planes before WW2 – probably because they had a manufacturing deal going with Manchester. The kit is on two sprue trees – one clear and one silvered. A tiny rime of flash but…
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The Valid Decision
If you want to drown in Official-Speak, go to Google and start looking up ” valid decision “. I often go and see what poking the bear will do before I write these things. In this case I have been preceded by academia, politics, and the sort of management that can close down a successful…
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When I Am In Trouble
When I am in trouble I hesitate to ask for help. Not that I fear it would be denied – quite the opposite; more advice would be tendered me than could be acted upon. It would come from all sides and in many cases would be diametrically opposed to itself. I should be hard-pressed to…
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Ruritania Poste – Part Five B – RT-AFR
Purists amongst the aviation game may wonder at the slight anhedral exhibited by RT-AFR …the new SM.79 that Ruritania Poste has added to the African mail route. The answer is simple. The Savoia Marchetti is depressed. Wartime service for the Italians and now having to fly over cannibals and savage lions of post-war Africa …and…
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Ruritania Poste – Part Four – Sprayin’ Weather
I never used to take the slightest notice of Advice To Mariners. It could be blowing a gale round Beachy Head…or Bayswater for that matter…and I couldn’t have cared less. That was before I got an airbrush and a bad habit. The habit is spray painting model aircraft, so don’t be judgemental. The business of…
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North American F-100 – Part Three – Dry Fit For The Win
I have taken to adding a new stage to my regular builds – I try to get a mock-up of the basic flying aircraft fitted dry before I reach for the cement bottle. This means taping parts together or even using the Micro Scale temporary adhesive. The benefit of doing it is I catch incipient…
The Little World 