Category: Model Airplane
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Take It Off
Take it aaaaall off… If your mind replayed the music of Dave Rose – ” The Stripper ” – you are a reprobate. I am ashamed to be seen with you. This morning I have to strip paint from an old Airfix kit to get enough parts to complete a stash build. I have rejected…
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Me 262 – Part Three – Shinee!
I am starting to see why a friend of mine is so attracted by shiny objects. I have just glossed the Messerschmitt and it is all I can do to stop myself from touching the surface! I know it needs time to cure, but so does my infatuation with the gloss. I wish someone had…
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Me 262 – Part Two – How Wrong I Was
When I saw the flash flooding around some of the Revell parts for this jet fighter I though that I was in for an epic of cutting and sanding. As it is, there has been little fettling needed and by the time it has progressed from dry fit to cementation, no filler gaps are to…
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Me 262 – Part One – Another Childhood Ambition
As a child, I had many model aircraft kits – but one that always eluded me was the Airfix baggie of the ME 262 jet fighter. I have since seen them as Hobby Boss and Czech kits, but never gave it much thought. Then a Revell kit called to me through a fog of disinterest…
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Know When To Fold ‘Em
Kenny Rogers’ good advice to scale model builders. We all know the virtues of perseverance and hard work, having had it drummed into us by parents, schools, and employers. What has been missing is the virtue of quitting while you are ahead. Kenny Rogers’ gambler knew it, and it is time we did too. You…
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The Burgeoning
It is like ” The Quickening ” only it takes longer. It also takes more money, time, and space. The Burgeoning is the process by which scale model kits get bigger and more complex. It steers the scale model hobby into new areas of expertise while it clutters up display cabinets worldwide. It’s not hard…
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Potez 63-11 – Part Four – The Fishbowl Of Sadness
I refer to this rather sleek French aircraft in this way as it was witness to the failures of its own armies in the spring of 1940 – from an elegant vantage point. The design is deliberately biased toward the primary mission – reconnaissance – with the pilot up above like a hansom cab driver…
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Potez 63-11 – Part Three – The Problem
Solved. Until the next one crops up. The fuselage, wings, and tail of the Potez observation aircraft are together and the amount of filler is absolutely minimal. I have undercoated and smoothed it, and could not be happier. In the intervals of waiting for things to set or dry I tackled the engines, wheels, landing…
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Potez 63-11 – Part Two – Having A Fit
A tight fit. The Azur model of the Potez 63-11 is probably fairly old in the Czech modelling world. I think the firm that makes these models has retired the name in favour of their ” Special Hobby ” marque. This one is from the multi-media days of styrene/resin/brass. So far the fit of the…
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Potez 63-11 – Part One – Smooth Potez
As opposed to lumpy Potez. The designs of interwar and early-war French aircraft form a fascinating subdivision of aeronautical insanity. From the angular designs of the late twenties and early thirties to the sleek over-designs of the forties, they seem to have decided to over-run the buffer stops every time they drew up to the…
The Little World 