Category: Model Airplane
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Lockheed Lodestar – Part Two – Knifing A Lockheed
Those of you who have never seen me in a tee-shirt may be a little startled at the top image. I am hoping it has that effect on the owners of the construction company that used to own the Lockheed Lodestar CF-TDI…the one I am building at present. I sent them a letter yesterday asking whether…
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Lockheed Lodestar – Part One – Personal Plane
I just barely squeaked into respectability – this column was typed on the 31st of December at about a quarter to midnight. The respectable part was actually starting a kit within the year of buying it. A slow builder, not a hoarder… The Lockheed Lodestar leapt at me from the shelves of Metro Hobbies and…
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The Waiting Room
If you think time spent in a dentist’s waiting room is difficult, try waiting for a paint coat or decal application to set. You know that you should leave the model undisturbed…but you can barely resist the desire to try the next operation or apply the next coat. I was like this when made my…
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Doing A Little Jig
And ‘tis not even St. Patrick’s Day, begorrah. I’ve been watching the YouTube modellers painting their planes and cars and musing about the business of the production jig. You’ve read about this before here in the Little World as I glue together bits of foamcore board to support aircraft during the painting process. I think…
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Boulton Paul P82 – One Special Day
One special day in 1938 the Boulton Paul P82 – the turret fighter that was to become the Defiant – was rolled out onto a field for the men from the Air Ministry to look at. They had seen it without its turret nine months earlier, but this time it had teeth. It was still…
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Yakovlev-3 – Part Four – The Silver Bird
Encouraged by the silver paint coat on the Yak-3 I went ahead and added the decal stripes and stars. The decals were good – they released quickly but were not fragile and I surprised myself with how well the red side stripes went. The fact that the pre-decal clear coat was Mr. Hobby Superclear UV…
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Yakovlev-3 – Part Three – The Dreaded Instrument
I used The Dreaded Instrument on helpless victims for 40 years. Oblivious to the screams and the smell of burning flesh, I pressed onwards in a mad orgy of torture. The only thing that would stop me was the end of the day or running out of electricity. In short, I was a dentist. And…
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Yakovlev-3 – Part One – Never Slow Down Past The Kit Aisle
I was just going to Hobbytech for a pot of paint…I told myself…I noticed that my lacquer bright silver was running very low and I wanted to stock up. The paint aisle was easy – I found the Mr Color Bright Silver and grabbed it. They make a number of other forms of silver paint…
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Shall I Break It Now Or Wait Until Later?
The people in the plastic kit companies who write out the instructions and draw the diagrams are to be admired. I would accord them all honour as I tied them to the stake and bid the firing squad take aim. Because they are very talented and artistic criminals. Their chief crime, past the price they…
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Bell Iroquois – Part Three – The Local
When my friend Terry paid his bill in model helicopters I was initially going to make a yellow and red RCAF rescue – sauvetage machine of the modern era – the bright colours were the attraction. The Italeri kit is an excellent structure to do this on – it fit together with minimal trimming of…
The Little World 