Category: Model Airplane
-
Farman NC 223.3 – Part Seven – L’Éminence Grise
By the time a large scale model gets to the Mr Surfacer 1000 stage I no longer have any authority over it – the command structure is reversed. In a way, it is comforting to surrender the initiative in this way. Oh, there will be patching and sanding and other attendances but the die has…
-
Farman NC 223.3 – Part Six – Praise Courageous Me
Thank you, thank you. I fully deserve your applause – I have made propellers and engines the HARD way. Not that I had any choice in the matter. The parts were there and the instructions were uncompromising – ” Do as we say or die “. Or, in the case of the engine mounting struts:…
-
Farman – NC 223.3 – Part Five – Almost A Sailplane
Well, you could be fooled into thinking that if you just saw the fueslage and wings, couldn’t you. Angular, but sleek. No-one in the SCNAC stayed sleek for long – eventually their Gallic desire to attach a strut, a window, or a café awning and chairs asserted itself and before you knew it you had…
-
Farman NC 223.3 – Part Four – Faire Soi-Même
Or you won’t be faring at all. Scratch-building at the order of the kit maker is a strange feeling. I do not shy from it, as I scratch build many of my airport structures, but it still smacks a little of ” don’t care ” when the instructions demand it and there are no parts…
-
Farman NC 223.3 – Part Three – Sprue Goo
I have taken the – so far – free advice from Phil Flory and made up a jar of Sprue Goo. The Evergreen plastic card was from the surplus scrap bin – a little brown and a lot of white chipped up and dissolved in Supercheap Auto lacquer thinner. It was an overnight success and…
-
Farman NC 223.3 – Part Two – Short Run Need Not Be Vile
I think Forrest Gump would have enjoyed short-run Czech kits – he had a philosophy that would have coped. I may send my next Prague bomb to Tom Hanks. The fuselage halves of this angular bird could have been a disaster – no locating pins and a very long run for twists and warpage. But…
-
Farman NC 223.3 – Part One – A Packet Of French Letters
Specifically, SNCAC NC 223.3 B.N.5. Hereafter referred to as the Farman – it’s the only one in the stable so I don’t need to be specific. This Azur kit promises to be several weeks worth of advanced building – it is definitely short-run but of the better sort. There are only the vaguest of interior…
-
Is Out Of The Box Too Humble For You?
Go to a fancy restaurant. Order an expensive meal – prepared by a Michelin-starred chef. Ask for tomato sauce; see what happens… To their great credit and lasting fame, the people who organise our Big Local Scale Model Exhibition always leave a section of the entry form for people who wish to build their model…
-
Dornier Do-17Z – Part Six – Discrete Dornier
The Finnish Air Force roundels on this Post-War Dornier seemed a little small when seen in the illustration. They were also depicted this size on another modeller’s effort…so I finally had to accept them as real. The colours of this ex-Luftwaffe aircraft were very close to that of the German Air Force in the late…
-
Dornier Do-17Z – Part Five – Crewed Up
” Skipper to crew: Does anyone have the telephone number for Windscreens O’Brien…? “ Have patience, your canopy is in the preparation stage. Fortunately Monogram/Revell have moulded clear ones with pronounced frames. After-painting should be fairly straightforward. The Dornier is on her legs as well – and here the decision of the moulders to make…
The Little World 