Category: design
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Martin B10 Bomber – Part Four – If I Want A Pretzel…
…I’ll go to the bakery. The production of a complex fuselage is…well…complex. And sometimes the strange shape must cause the final product to come out of the mould a little distorted. I suspect this was the case with the Martin B 10. There was enough of a warp to render it impossible to set all…
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Martin B10 Bomber – Part Three – A Split Personality
And split on the horizontal plane, not the vertical. This form of model design is not as common as the vertical, but in this case I think it is perfectly logical. The Martin B10 has a sinuous body – and the proportions remind you of the Handley Page Hampden or the Dornier Do 17-K. The…
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Martin B10 Bomber – Part Two – Parts Not Needed
The advent of the multi-build kit these days is both a boon and a curse – particularly if you are a fussy sort of modeller who wants to get the thing just right – the particular mark or serial number. The maker may have given you just the pieces to do it with, but they…
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Reaching For Occam’s Hammer
I’ve written before about Occam’s Razor as it applies to scale modelling – the topic at the time was producing rust, and it’s been getting rustier ever after. Today it is Occam’s Hammer. The old chap will forgive me taking his name in vain, but I intend to treat the principles he espoused with affection.…
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The Ten-Month Gestation Period
I am about to start an experiment to see if I can remained focused over a ten month period upon one theme. It was suggested to me at a model meeting and after consideration I decided that it really was a good idea. It’s not often that you do get this much clarity in what…
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Bell AH-1 Z – Part Two – A Pleasant Surprise
I was prepared for the little Marine attack helicopter kit to be two things; crude and unshapely. It may be the latter but it certainly is not the former. The plastic from which it is moulded is a little more brittle than Airfix but not by much. It sands and cuts well, and the feed…
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Bell AH-1 Z – Part One – Freak it
Sorry, that should have read Free Kit. This is a donation from Kevin, who is a master modeller in his own right. He does marvellous things with larger aircraft…and people who know him donate kits. If they are like this unprepossessing Hong Kong helicopter he donates them right on again. It is a kit maker…
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Too Many/Not Enough
Our club has a vast library of old model magazines and other publications. I’ve no idea what the oldest model magazine held there is, but I do know what it is bound to contain: a complaint from someone in the UK that a particular model has errors. The writer may not have built the kit,…
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Curtiss Helldiver – Part Four – Euclid Was Never A Scale Modeller
Because he could never get the geometry right… I look fondly on equilateral triangles and acute angles – many of my friends can best be described as angular and obtuse – and I like to see the geometry of the model airplane come out well. I wish this was the case with every short-run kit.…
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Lockheed RT 33 – Part Two – Do they Drink At Lunch In Prague?
I’m willing to bet they do – it would explain a number of the design decisions that are found in Czech short-run kits. Not that I should complain, but I am slightly puzzled as to why basic components cannot be moulded as parts of the main fuselage or wing sections. They obviously have the skill…
The Little World 