Category: Model Airplane
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Build Simply
Or, in the case of the stash maniacs in the readership – simply build… Today’s posts on my other two weblog columns has centred around simplicity – in living and purchasing. It can also be applied to our hobby of scale modelling. Not every kit or model needs to be super-detailed to be super fun.…
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The Rise Of The Decal
Once upon a 1950’s time, when all good boys deserved models, there were large airplanes with small sheets of decals. Then times changed and the proportions reversed. As a 1:72 builder I am dealing with the small end of the market…small as to individual size but large as an overall genre. It is ideal for…
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Foam
I have a theory about the Universe: If it cannot be done with foam-core board, it cannot be done. And I think I have Adam Savage to thank for that. He was seen on a YouTube feature constructing an architectural model of a house with foam-core board and hot glue. The facility with which he…
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General Dynamics F-16 – Part Three – Surprisingly Handsome
I view some modern NATO aircraft with trepidation – there are so many variants that every time I glue on a bomb or a tank, I’m sure it’s in the wrong place. But what can you do in the absence of a concrete example parked at the local air museum? Well, you can start down…
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General Dynamics F-16 – Part Two – Having A Grey Fit
Like a pink fit, but more gentlemanly. You can clip a Hobby Boss kit together at nearly any stage of the build. I’d painted the wheel wells on the F-16 prior to trying the ordnance onto it and was curious to see whether there would be much filling and sanding needed. None at all if…
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General Dynamics F-16 – Part One – The John Plane
Making friends with other model builders is a good idea – they sometimes have large stashes of kits that they bought a long time ago…but have forgotten. They may have changed scales in the meantime. Then they remember you and the scale you build. And make you a wonderful present of an unbuilt kit or…
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Why No 1:64 Planes, Then?
If you were a kid in North America in the 50’s you basically had a choice of three scales for electric trains: 1:48 Lionel, 1:64 American Flyer, and 1:87 HO made by Varney, Athearn, and lots of smaller firms. The 1:87 HO has stayed with us – just as 1:76 has stayed with the British…
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The Box-Scale Kit
We’ve all seen them and we’ve all built them. And at one stage of the game they were the norm. The box-scale kit that was accurately drawn from official government plans and moulded in 1/60 or 1/94 or 1/287… We were captivated by the box art…or the fact that it cost $1.49 and we had…
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There Is No Time Like The Present
And there never was. That is the nature of time…it moves forward. Pity some of the plastic model moulding firms are so stuck in the past. This is particularly ironic when you consider that these firms want to make a profit in the future by moulding models of things that vanished a century ago…and they…
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Convair F-106 – A NORAD Quickie
I have taken to an amusing game when I photograph dancers at their concerts or for portraits – when they ask me the cost of the finished files or videos I tell them about my model airplane hobby. I ask them to pay their bill by purchasing a 1:72 scale model airplane kit that I…
The Little World 