Category: frugality
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Science To The Rescue – Part One
Having recently made a batch of bad decals, I determined to investigate the problem before printing the next sheet. The surface of the previous ones was cracked and broken – and I reasoned that it was the brittle nature of the Tamiya Gloss Lacquer spray that did it. I looked out all the bottles of…
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Northrop Gamma – Part One – Inter-war Special
Newcastle Song Day. And I didn’t let the chance go by. This was the first time I had seen a Williams kit – though I had read about them in Scalemetes. The impression I got was that they were rather garage-kit like. This vanished when I opened the box at the club’s stash sale and…
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Triumph Herald – Part Four – The Non-Rolling Chassis
Despite appearances, I have grown up. I no longer build scale models with working parts. I can accept fixed wheels. Particularly when they are dependent upon thin plastic axles and cemented suspension parts. I have too many experiences with 1:72 landing gear legs to be sanguine about engineering in styrene. The Herald chassis is square…
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Triumph Herald – Part One – Well, It Seemed Like A Good Idea
At the time. Buy a cheap old English sedan and do it up. How hard could it be? People who have experienced Austin, Morris, Triumph, and Hillman vehicles in their lives fell into two groups – those who never opened the bonnets, and those who never closed them. Some came to their fate through fond…
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If You Were Asked To Pick…
Your favourite airplane, or ship, or car, or tank…you would spend hours going over the possibilities. Then you could spend more drinking time debating it with other modellers. What a great idea! Now suppose the discussion turned to the favourite model making company… and here the discussion was serious. Exacto knives would be drawn and…
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The Things I Never Knew…
Are probably only half the things that I don’t know yet. This has never been the case so much as in scale modelling, and particularly in the adhesives. Until I started adult modelling I had no idea of the possibilities for success or failure of PVA glue when I tried to use it on a…
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Kawanishi Norm – Part Four – A Powerful Flop
From all accounts great things were expected from the Kawanishi reconnaissance float plane. And then the contra-rotating propellers and jettison-able float proved problematical and the service missions undertaken with the type were failures. So it was quietly shoved back into a training role. The appearance of the aircraft in the box art was what attracted…
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Kawanishi Shiun – Part One – A Norm By Any Other Name
If you are scandalised by the use of Allied code-names for Japanese aircraft of WW2, make sure you check back later when I use NATO reporting names for Soviet planes. This is officially the E15K1 but not again in this column. It is a Norm. A very special plane and welcome in the collection. I…
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The Hobby Room
I have a hobby room that has accommodated any number of pursuits – yet I am still chasing perfection. And it is still elusive. The first use of the hobby room – the 5th bedroom in a house that has only three sleepers – was as a photographic darkroom. It was the days of film…
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F-16A – Part Three – In Every State Except…
In every state of the Union and nearly every country of the world, the heading image would raise little interest; it’s a toy airplane with a lead weight glued in the nose. In California, I suspect, it would cause sirens to wail and lawyers to leap from their kennels. Lead! A known carcinogen! A dangerous…
The Little World 