Category: Miniature Philosophy
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Specialise, Generalise, Or Traumatise…

This was my choice when I was entering dental practice – I’d completed undergraduate training and was certified enough to be let out into the community to exercise the results of my training for profit. Or I could re-enter the university circus tent, sweep up after a different set of elephants for another three years,…
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Please Note, Facebook Accounting Department

Guys and gals…I do not do this for money. I do not build model aircraft for money. Nor do I write about them for it, nor take photos of them for it. I do not deny that I find money useful, and would like more of it to play around with, but I realise that…
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Avia S-199 – Part Six – A Messer By Any Other Name

As soon as I saw the photographs of the Avia S-199 in Czechoslovakia and then later in Israel I knew someone was fooling with me. The propellor gave it away. It was a cartoon propellor from a Daffy Duck movie. I mean, who would put as big a prop on a plane like that…? Well…
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Avia S-199 – Part Four – Ol’ Stripey Tail

I appear to have learned something from my past experiences with Israeli fighter planes. This time I did not attempt decals for the rudder, electing instead to paint the 101 Squadron stripes. They have been very successful, and tempt me further to try to paint the rest of the ID stripes and Magen Davids rather…
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Grim Reality Vs Grim Fantasy

I am often puzzled at the selection of model kits on the shelves of my local hobby dealers. They’re good dealers and I love them dearly – just as I love the dealers in the eastern states when I visit them. Every one is different but they all have a certain feel to them that…
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Tail Feathers

I have always been curious about anything connected to the decoration of aircraft. Look out your picture book of WWII aircraft and turn to the RAF section. Note the insignia applied to the average fighter or bomber: a. Two upper wing roundels in red and blue – in some cases quite dark but quite large.…
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Boeing B-17 – Part Four – Bombing A Different Enemy

As soon as I asked Google to show me B-17’s in Canada I got all the old RCAF pictures I had already seen, plus lots of USAAF shots. And then down at the bottom of a long search something new started to pop up. The civilian B-17. A few had been converted to private planes…
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Boeing B-17 – Part One – Why Do I Buy Famous Airplanes?

Why indeed, if I don’t intend to build the famous version? Because the famous versions are what sell to other people and that’s what the kit makers manufacture. The best I can do is look at the basic structure of the thing and see if it conforms to my plans …or can be modified enough.…
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The Plastic Casino

Are you an inveterate gambler? Are they always hauling you out of casinos and racetracks and putting you on 12-step anti-addiction plans? Well cheer up – you can put the cards down, throw the dice away, and say farewell to the horses. I’ve got a new outlet for your mania and it’s all legit. Betcha…
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Caudron Renault 714 CI – Part Two – Flip Her Over, Maurie

Well, she’s got pretty good seams on the top and bottom of the fuselage, and the wing roots are no worse than an Amodel or RS kit. But oh, Lord the ailerons… It looks as though the mould that was supposed to close up for that portion of the wing shifted in the machine. There…
