Category: Lacquer
-
I like Being An Escaped Idiot

It lowers people’s expectations and allows me to wear comfortable clothes. No-one asks me to pay for the next round of drinks and I can say pretty nearly anything I like. Occasionally the canvas waistcoat chafes at the back, but. I am a little dismayed when it overlaps into my hobby time – when folly…
-
Boeing KB-29A – Part Two – The Decision Taken…

The agonising decision of which version of the ’29 to build, I started to gather decals and to paint parts on the sprue trees. Of course I didn’t take the easy option. I mean, this is me, after all. The idiot without a village. I chose to do the KB-29A version with the extra parts…
-
Miles Magister – Part Three – Yellow And Silver

The Miles Magister will join my club of planes that look like they can fly right – sweet, sleek craft that give confidence in their aerodynamics and do not depend upon brute force to heave themselves off the ground. Aircraft that swoop, not lurch. I do like some of the cruder planes as well, but…
-
Keep Yer Cap On

Do you remember Andy Capp? For years he and Tony Hancock were my sole mental picture of the English…albeit of different parts of the country. Then I went to the UK and discovered other, stranger creatures. Well, Andy always wore a flat cap…much as I do in the winter here in Australia. I’ve two –…
-
Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Four – The Carioca Killer

Admire the pictures, Children – they are made with the new focus-stacking technique learned from YouTube. Nearly every part of the 1:72 aircraft in perfect focus . The technique is so simple as to be laughable. I secure the model under constant lighting ( 2 IKEA desk lamps ) and focus upon the closest part.…
-
Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Three – Underwear

Under where did you want me to spray? I am getting good value out of my Mr. Hobby Procom single-action spray gun – the one I bought with funds raised by selling off unwanted photo gear. The gun is a big chunky thing with just one giant adjusting knob and an equally large finger button.…
-
Backtracking With The Beagle Boys

The wisest anonymous tip I ever saw on YouTube was an Australian modeller telling us to look at our mistakes just after we make them – but then do something about them right away. Leave them through subsequent stages imagining that they will go away, and you are in for despair and loathing. Real errors…
-
Learning Something – Part Two – The Mask Of Mystery

So Ivan’s wax coat was a failure. So be it. But now a different idea. I have made up a set of cardboard masks that can be laid over a model in various fashions. The material is stiff and will not conform to the smaller contours. For the first trial I took two of the…
-
Bristol Beaufighter – Part Three – The Principle Of Opposing Forces

Relax. This isn’t a political philosophy book. It’s still about plastic airplanes. The warped Airfix Beaufighter fuselage has been tamed. It took all day to do what might have been accomplished in a half hour, but we were on lockdown and time was elastic. The warp in the fuselage also warped the perception of how…
-
MiG23 – Part Three – Ivan Seryy

The Academy kit went together really well, though it felt a little weird to not do a cockpit at all and to close in all the open bits. Academy models are always rewarding – probably because they used to be Hasegawa models and they were also rewarding. Ivan has several special features incorporated to perform…
