Category: Military models
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Stash Time

We are just starting a 5-day covid lockdown and fortunately our house has toilet paper, food, and books to read. The family has the goggle box and I have a stash. There are three kits a’building at present – one for the Tuesday Soviet Mens Shed meeting, one for the fortnightly glue and talk session,…
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The Joy Of Cheap Modelling

I often write paeans to frugality, now that I’m retired. No big stream of money coming in means you must cut your coat according to cheaper cloth – and use smaller bolts of it. Fortunately I am skinny so a little covers a lot. The plastic model hobby is also a field for care. I…
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Douglas C-47 – Part One – The Gooney Bird Again

I built a Canadian Gooney Bird a last year as part of my Air World collection – a Burma Biscuit Bomber that has been preserved in the Canadian museums as a flying tribute. That should have finished my fascination with the Dakota/C-47/Skytrain/ Gooney bird for some time. Not a bit of it. I had collected…
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Brewster Bermuda – Part Four – Well, Why Not

Having decided to convert a perfectly inoffensive Brewster Buccaneer with no purpose in life into a perfectly inoffensive Brewster Bermuda with even less purpose, I am now left with a kit that silently screams for something to call attention to itself Never mind that it has a dual rear machine gun with an armoured shield…that’ll…
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US Army Ambulance – Part Two – The Bug Bear

Everyone has a sort of a bugbear in their modelling. One person will have no luck with paints. Another will continually mess up clear parts. In my case it is vehicles – I never complete one without some basic flaw. In many cases it is the basic structure that foxes me. 1:72 and 1:76 vehicle…
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US Army Ambulance – Part One – A Wander Down The Armour Aisle

I rarely wander down the armour aisle at my local hobby shop – the offerings in my scale are all big hulking things that bear no relationship to my modest airfields and everything else seems to be 1:35 scale. I am envious of all the accessories that the AFV builder can draw upon for the…
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The Rough Finish

My modelling club has a number of senior members who seem to build model armour as their specialty. I don’t know if they are former members of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps or not, though from conversations a number certainly seem to be ex-servicemen. I am envious of their kits – the modern tanks in…
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The Airfix of Old Is Dead

And from the corpse has risen a new and shining phoenix. I, for one, am delighted. When I commenced a new Airfix bomber kit – one of last year’s releases – I was blown away in just one day of assembly – the level of detail moulded into the parts was outstanding and the sensible…
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Good Morning Walter – Part 12 – Watch The Birdie…

You’re lucky, Walter. You’re young, with good eyes, and small and healthy and can bend down without any of your joints hurting. Us old guys are not so fortunate. When we lean over a lot, it sometimes takes two other people to unfold us. I mention this because I’ve been photographing the scale models in…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Four – Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Whitemetal us…or Zamac us. But no lead. You are lucky these days, Walter. Many of the hazards of the olden times are gone. No more Hitler, no more smallpox, and no more lead soldiers. I was never in any real danger from the first two but I was exposed to the last ones. And I…
