Category: Model Airplane
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Making Water On The Workbench
And in cold weather, too… I needed a harbour with water – dry water – to display my float planes. No good just posing them on a glass shelf like dried cod – they needed to look like they were in their natural element. No time, and no inclination, to do the complex water-building that…
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Mitsubishi Babs – Part Three – An Observant Aircraft
It goes to temple every weekend… The Mitsubishi Ki-15 was possibly very useful to the Imperial Japanese Army – depending upon where it was sent and what was going on down on the ground. The aerial observation of enemy movements – whether that was Chinese or Soviet – could have guided the high command to…
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Mitsubishi Babs – Part Two – Just When You Thought…
Just when you thought modelling could not become uglier…I had a good idea. The camouflage patterns for many aircraft are wavy, blobby things. You can spray them freehand or mask them, but in most cases of 1:72 planes, masking is better. I’ve tried many different ways of doing it, but settled upon the putty worms…
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Mitsubishi Babs – Part One – The Name
I have heard it put forward that the designations we give to our land, sea and air models should conform to the original languages of the makers. Thus, this Mitsubishi product should be known as a Ki-15-I Karigane or Army Type 97 Command Reconnaissance Aircraft. Or alternately, the Wild Goose. All of which will bewilder,…
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Frugal Storage – Part One – Costco Croissants
The wonderful thing about Costco is that nearly everything they sell is in big lots and it is all well packaged. Thus the recent purchase of 10 croissants in a clear plastic container was actually a considered modelling decision. The fact that the pasties were heated up and consumed with strawberry jam and cups of…
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When Is Shoddy Workmanship Justified?
Never? Always? Something in between? Let us explore… The classic maxims about workmanship emphasize how you must always strive. ” Any job worth doing is worth doing well “.” A poor workman blames his tools “. ” Go west, young man “…and so forth. Stirring stuff. Makes you long for a moral Mixmaster. It has…
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FROG Stash Avenger – Part Four – Show Bird
Casting about for a role for the FROG Avenger, I came upon a series of photos taken at a recent Dutch air show. They show a Grumman Avenger painted in what I assume are authentic colours for the Aéronavale – the air arm of the French Navy. I expect the aircraft would have been a…
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FROG Stash Avenger – Part Three – The Avenger Meets The Blob
Sounds like the title of a Marvel Comics movie, doesn’t it? The problem was there to be solved – and it is one that has occurred on previous models of the Grumman TBF. The .50 machine gun needs to be installed in the turret and the turret installed in the fuselage before you close it…
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FROG Stash Avenger – Part Two – A Fine Frog
The reputation of older kits is low, but I think this can be undeserved judgement. This FROG moulding is all that one could decently want for the original cost and hits well above its weight at the stash price. The seams have met my expectations – and more importantly, the other parts they were designed…
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FROG Stash Avenger – Part One – Inadvertent Baggie
Got for a very low price in a plastic freezer bag, this FROG Avenger of 1973 is going to be a beautiful model to build. The parts photo shows some work already done at the SMCWA clubrooms: cutting and sanding plus Sprue Goo filling of numerous FROG sinkholes. The week’s interval between club dates means…
The Little World 