Category: Modelling materials
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Iron And Steel In The Soul
And let us have more of it. The recent big local scale model exhibition had a surprise near our stand – a model steel furnace. It may have been intended as part of a model railway layout, but could equally be a stand-alone display. It was good to look at from all four sides. Built…
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Italeri F/A 18 Hornet – Part Two – The Mock-up That Doesn’t Mock
I’ve given up a lot of things in my old age: marathon running, ballet, and regular bathing. But I have not given up dry-fitting models. As a kid it was a major part of a build, with gradual dry assembly taking weeks before any cementation. I’m faster these days ( no school homework ), and…
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Understanding The Language of Modelling
And listening to what it tells you about the rest of the world. Welcome to the classroom. Every time we approach a foreign land we look first at the language it speaks. If it is not our native tongue we either try to learn enough to get by or go all arrogant and demand that…
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Quonset Hut – Part One – The Tin Of Terror
If you have ever spent time in a Nissen or Quonset hut it is subtracted from your stay in Purgatory… These Corrugated Containers Of Discomfort seem to have been erected everywhere in peace and war. Australia housed service personnel, prisoners, and migrants in them, and still has some left in bush towns. They are still…
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Getting Out Of Your Comfort Zone
For the most part…don’t. Spend a good deal of your modelling time trying to locate it and when you find an entry point, crawl right in and close the hatch after yourself. Your ancestors lived largely outside comfort zones, as it happened, and spent a lot of time trying to locate them. They worked and…
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Buildings
Particularly if they are made by obscure companies. I needed a building for a desert museum layout. I have many small structures but they all look vaguely North American or British. It was with dubious enthusiasm I rolled into my local hobby shop. As I suspected – the Superquick and Meltcalf offerings were mostly railway…
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A Little Knowledge Is A Fine Thing
Too much, and they don’t fine you – they throw you in gaol. I had been seeing the word ” washi ” for some time in the modelling press. It was mostly associated with masking tapes for model painting. This is a subject dear to the hearts of all of us – we use the…
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Catalina Mk 1 – Part Three – See What I Did There?
Lost three marks along with the wheels. My RCAF Catalina has now reverted to the first mark acquired – a patrol aircraft used off the maritime provinces. I’ve a profile book on it and it is a shame to waste such specific research and drawing. The colour scheme is very British with a little less…
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Catalina Mk IV B – Part Two – Major Surgery
In the case of this aircraft, it is going to go from an amphibian to a flying boat. The wheels are to be removed. The landing gear boxes for the PBY 5 are cemented on all sides, but fortunately the ones on this kit had escaped some of the glue. A few strokes of the…
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Sprue Goo For The Win
Call it what you like – the mixture of styrene chips and solvent is becoming the universal tool for my modelling. Not every kit fits well. Some barely meet where they touch. You can discover sinkholes, cracks, gaps and yawning gulfs. This is where the sprue goo comes in. The joy of it is it…
The Little World 