Category: design
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The Home-Made Decals…Part One
Get more home-made every day. We are in the midst of a drought of decal paper in Perth. It may have escaped the attention of the major news channels, but I assure you the effects are being felt in the model airplane world. Particularly in my own little one, as I have discovered the joys…
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I Now Know…
I now know my least favourite scale modelling task: making up propellers from separate blades and hubs. I have just completed the gluing on two propellers for the Lockheed Electra Junior and am waiting for them to set. The maker decided to do the hubs in resin and the blades in styrene – so I…
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Consolidated Catalina – Part Four – Tail Sitter
I take particular care with my scale models to ensure that the aircraft sit on their wheels properly. The tail-sitters like the Lancaster and Whitley, the B-17’s and B-18’s are no problem. Something can nearly always be done to beef up even the scaliest of landing gear to take the weight of plastic. The something…
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Consolidated Catalina – Part Two – Stand Down Canso
The Academy model of the Catalina PBY-5A proved to be a delightful thing in the box. But the thinking that wanted to convert it to a Catalina I in RCAF markings was as flawed as hell. The kit is moulded in black plastic – and any attempt to throw it over to RCAF Coastal Command…
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The Point Of Conception
There has been a great deal of debate on the subject of when life actually starts – medical, legal, and religious authorities have all weighed in with their opinions and formulated laws based upon findings and calculations.There’s been a good deal of doctrine and dogma involved as well – if you think about it, any…
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Breaker, Breaker. We Have A Breaker.
Have you ever noticed that some model kits are never destined to stay together? There are certain models that have been made to such fine – or such crude – standards that they can be assembled with however much care one can muster…but will fragment continuously ever after. They are destined to fall apart repeatedly.…
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Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk V – Part Three – Subassembly Day
A day at my model building club is a short one – I get there about 9:00 AM and leave at noon. But I can accomplish a lot in those hours…drink coffee, eat cake, make bad jokes, and cement the first parts of a kit together. The amount of cementation depends to some extent upon…
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Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk.V – Part Two – I’ve Seen That Somewhere Before…
The more I looked at the AW Whitley in parts on the sprue trees, the more I got the feeling that I’d seen something like it before. The French inter-war bombers came to mind, but it was the awkward chin window that stick in my mind. Surely they didn’t think it was a good idea…Where…
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The Inaccurate Model
If you are a reader of Britmodeller or some of the IPMS sites you’ll find that there are a number of people who live in mortal fear – whether it’s fear of discovering their plastic kit is out by three millimetres or fear of discovering that it’s not – is not clear. I think the…
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Savoia Marchetti S.79 Sparviero – Part Three – Clearly…
I’ll bet you are the same as I – as you open any new kit box you approach the little sprue of clear plastic bits with fear and trembling. Trepidation. Horror and anxiety. It is the equivalent of meeting the computer date for the first time. You never know what you are going to get……
The Little World 