Category: Modelling materials
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Limited-Run Kit
Limited by many factors: a. How many copies we can pull out of a mould that is basically made of hardened bread dough. b. Whether we can persuade people to buy a kit with three pieces of plastic and six sheets of brass promises. c. Whether anyone wants a model of a 1936 test-bed that…
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How Far Down Do The Rabbits Go?
And I don’t mean on the internet. How far down does a scale modeller pursue the business – at what point does the quest for detail stop? How about weathering and appearance? Where does the line of diminishing returns cross that of fatigue? I think it differs with the genre and scale of the models,…
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MiG 15 Bis – Part Two – The Profi Parts
Well, you could avoid them, but then you’d be wasting your three dollars. I mean the business of using the Profi-Pack parts for an Eduard kit. The difference between the Weekend Edition and the Profi-Pack seems to be masking, decal choice, and a PE brass fret. The kit makers do provide plastic parts as alternative…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Five – Wild Blue Yonder
And off we flaming go… Someone at Tasman was enamoured of the vacuum moulding machine – the one they used for clear canopies – and of the possibilities that it presented. So they made a decision to try something that is – so far – unique in my model-building experience. They vac-formed the canopy a…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Three – Oh, Just Grit Yer Teeth…
Pull up your Big-Girl panties, and get on with it. It’s not going to make itself. The first thing that has to go is the upper turret. Tasman have made a decent job of it, and the whitemetal gun mount will be saved for the future, but the aircraft I’m modelling has no turret. so…
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A Model Philosopher’s Stone
Alchemy in scale. The old concept of the Philosopher’s Stone that would transmute lead into gold never quite got off the ground – both substances defying the power of 18th century aero engines to achieve lift. Even when modern jets and rockets were strapped to freight cars full of lead and the vehicles sent down…
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Tupolev SB2 – Part Three -Guessing Game
Meetings in the design bureau of a scale model company must be interesting to attend. Are there knives? Do people disappear? Do they call in dancing girls and order pizza? I ask because some of the decisions that come from these meetings seem to be motivated by strange desires. Who would have split the fuselage…
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Birthday Boatyard
Bob’s Boatyard, to be precise. Bob is my brother-n-law and a scale model builder as well. Rather than concentrate on plastic models, he devotes part of his retirement time to constructing wooden ship and boat models. It is rarely kit work – Bob builds from plans using wood that he cuts and shapes for himself.…
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Once You’ve Done The Worst Of The Kit
You need not fear the rest of the kit. My club-mate Michael Marchant showed me the tank tracks he was working on – they were from one of those Czech productions that have multiple parts per link, and multiple links per track, and no fun anywhere. I sympathised with him but left before any of…
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Hannover CL III A – Part Two – Tuch der Tränen
If ever you are presented with the prospect of building a WW1 German aircraft, look at the colour call-out carefully. It may have lozenge-pattern cloth used as basic covering, Prepare to tremble. The lozenge-pattern camouflage is going to be difficult – as the previous chap found out when he tried Humbrol enamel on the complex…
The Little World 