Category: Modelling materials
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Sprue Trees – The Movie
May the Swarf be with you… Modellers get a bad rap in movies. We are seen as small-scale weirdos – harmless at best but psychotic at worst. It all started with Marilyn Monroe’s ” Niagara ” of 1953 when the husband of Marilyn is seen as a shell-shocked loser addicted to building plastic car kits.…
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Swedish NA-16 – Part Four – Pinning Your Hopes
When all else fails, reach for the drill… Sorry, old habits die hard. Actually that should be reach for the forceps and slide that bucket over here. Open wide. The butt joint wing or tail surfaces are the easy way out for many short-run kit designers. They imagine you will square up the fitting surfaces…
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Swedish NA-16 – Part Two – The Plastic Mangler
I would have written ” wrangler ” but you wouldn’t believe this kit. The fuselage halves are two different sizes. Not by much, but by enough. I reduced them somewhat upon a sandpaper sheet taped to a flat surface, and then attacked the thicker half with a Dremel tool, The centre seam doesn’t fit, but…
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Swedish NA-16 – Part One – The Beechnut Models Company
You’ll want to remember that name – in case you are ever faced with one of their kits. If so, you have choices: a. Buy it, spend days of your life coping with its awful nature, and eventually turn out a masterpiece. Then die. b. Save time. Fall to the floor grasping your chest. c.…
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Really Good Water Is Hard To Find
And not just in the Sahara – you’ll be struggling if you search in your local hobby shop. I’ve wanted it for several projects but rarely found a good representation. Were I a dedicated ship modeller I would find the problem to be central to my builds. i suppose this would either drive me to…
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If You Didn’t Build It Then
Build it now. If you couldn’t afford it then, but can now – build it. If you can’t afford it now… Build something else. If you tried to build it then, and failed…if it was a bad kit then…if you were worried that people would think you were just a geek… Build it now. If…
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Ansaldo SVA 5 – Part Three – And There It Is…
The sting. The bit where the kit bites back. The inter-plane struts that look so promising lure you on to fasten them to the bottom assembly and then offer up the top wing – only to have your hopes dashed. I do not mind parts that fit where they touch, but that argues that they…
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Hawker Hunter FGA 9 – Part Four – Clearing The Air
Or ” Glossing Over All Problems “. Hey, it works for federal politicians – it should work for me. However, it can sometimes be harder to do than you’d think. I have invested in more types of varnish than you’ve had hot dinners. From bottles of clear lacquer to gloss coats in alcohol solution to…
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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,…
The Little World 