Category: Model Airplane
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Slovakian Jigs – Part Two

A hot Boxing Day is the ideal time to do a new cool kit. You are not stressed by work or family commitments and the precision that good work requires is at your fingertips. At least it is if you have not been on the turps for the last week. My Christmas had been abstemious…
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Doing The Slovakian Jig – Part One

I cannot say when my new jig kits were shipped from the port of Pressburg, but presumably it was before the Covid shutdown. My wife was able to order them from BNA in Melbourne a week before Christmas and they arrived in time to sit under the tree. I spent Boxing day with a new…
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Yakovlev 6 – Part Five – A Flying Fin

Not a flying Finn – unless the Finns captured a few of these in the Winter War. The fin is the price that this Encore model cost. And I think it has proved a sterling investment. The green you see here is a lightened and blued form of the Russian Green. The scale effect, perhaps,…
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Yakovlev 6 – Part Four – Jayne Mansfield

Nothing whatsoever to do with this Yak 6 utility aircraft, but Jayne liked the colour pink as well. She would have appreciated the big nacelles… Now that your mind is sabotaged for the day, we will continue. The Amphibious Twins have been painted and are installed in their little bare cockpit. Fortunately the glazing over…
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Yakovlev 6 – Part Three – The Beauty Within

The crude nature of some kits is so overwhelming that many people just cannot bring themselves to build them. This is the result of the continuing development of the hobby over the last 70 Years. We in the west have benefited tremendously from the initial efforts of the British, American, and French firms that took…
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Yakovlev 6 – Part Two – The Amphibious Twins

Pavel and Sergei – the crew of the Encore Models Yak 6. I recognised them – they used to work for FROG in the 60’s, and flew nearly everything that company produced. It was hard work – the long hours wore them down so much that their faces fell off. I suspect that the two…
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Yakovlev 6 – Part One -The Orphan

I discovered this Yak 6 model sitting forlornly under a pile of junk in the storage room of the model club. There are any number of derelict kits in there – some abandoned half-built, and some just unwanted. The simple ones could be turned into basic trainers for young modellers, but the dreadful short run…
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The Non-Brush Brush-Off

There is a name for brushes; hairy sticks. Because that is what they are. And they do very basic hairy things… There is a current phrase – ” hairy stick ” – used to describe paint brushes – that is both humorous and accurate. Because that’s what the wretched things really are. Oh, there are…
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How To Make A Small Fortune At The Big Local Model Exhibition

Start with a large fortune and go there to sell model goods. Well, you knew that punchline was coming when you started reading. You should have stopped then. Too late, you have to finish reading this article now. Going to the Big Local Model Exhibition at Cannington Central with goods to sell is a sure-fire…
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Do Kit Designers Hang Upside-Down In Caves?

I ask this because I have noted some of the priorities they assign to their kit designs. In the case of the beer, pretzel, and borscht bureaux, the decisions they make about the level of photo-etch to include in a cockpit area vs the basic fit of the thing into the fuselage hints at it.…
