Category: Modelling Club
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The Peculiar Model

The oddity. The kit that everyone else avoids. The scratch-built model that no-one has ever heard of. In other words – just down your alley. I have been the recipient of numerous models that fit into this category – and I’ve gone out and spent actual money on others. Not a lot of it, mind,…
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The Determined Modeller

I admire determined and steadfast people. As I write this there is a Mort Kunstler print of Ulysses S Grant on the wall facing me. He is raising his hat to celebrate his victory at Vicksburg. The accounts of his trials and his character have always been an inspiration, though I would not follow his…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part Two – Dia uno

First club day working on the Academy Polikarpov and the job is flying along! There are fewer parts to this aircraft than the ICM 1:72 version but the contours are much the same. It is odd to find such a large scale ( for me ) with so little cockpit detail. But then again, so…
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Do Not Start Too Small

I met a chap re-entering the hobby recently who was trying to choose his kits to build skill before he tackled the one he really fancied. I thought this was sensible thinking, but I suspect he made a bit of a problem for himself by selecting a 1:144 scale plane. It was charming, but too…
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The Royal Noranda Pensioners

A fine body of men… The British Army has an institution for broken-down old soldiers in the London suburb of Chelsea – the Royal Hospital. It provides accommodation, clothing, food, and care for those who have served for many years and have no better place to go. The Légion étrangère does the same at Aubagne…
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Gloster Gladiator Mk I – Part Two – One Day’s Work

Every fortnight or so I visit a private home for a friendly scale modelling session with a group separate from my normal modelling club. The experience can be quite different. I enjoy the routine of each experience, but I keep them separate in my mind. Oddly, one of the other participants in the home sessions…
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Be Prepared To Be Wrong

Those of you who are married will find it a familiar feeling… But making mistakes in scale modelling is slightly different from the errors experienced during marital bliss. For one, they are quieter… And less permanent. You can paint something wrong, or badly, and realise it…and never do it again…without having to hear about it…
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De Havilland DH2 – Part Three – Wing Day

Well there is no point in putting it off and just sitting in the club rooms drinking coffee. Glue the bastard together or go home. 12 struts – reasonably formed for all that. 4 cabanes and 8 inter-plane ones. Socket dimples in fuselage and wings, but everything’s separate. The only saving grace is that all…


