Category: Painting
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Fokker D VII – Part Five – The Starter Kit Ended

My determination to make a starter kit in period style has resulted in a delightful model. It was not all retro-perfect. I did resort to a computer program and an inkjet printer for the lozenge-pattern decals. I did add little licks from several paint pots that Revell did not supply. And I did poke a…
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Fokker D VII – Part Four – The Sweet Lozenge

Well, I claim privilege. This is my column and my model and I can break step when I like. I stopped being 14 years old long enough to operate the computer and the printer and printed out that decal sheet you saw in Part Two. It was coated with a matt varnish and left for…
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Fokker D VII – Part Three – A Kid At The Club

True to my original promise, I started the Revell Fokker D VII as if I was an adolescent. I took it to the club and set upon it with the pots of paint supplied; one red and one blue. I also cracked three other colours from the general stock to improve the details, but the…
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Fokker D VII – Part One – I’m A Kid Again

I have decided to try the Retro Challenge. I want to see if I can be a kid again. I’m not sure if I was good at youth the first time round but I did have fun. And now I get a chance to do it again – specifically to build a kit as if…
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I’m Bypassing My Second Childhood

And I’m heading straight for my second adolescence. More money to spend, I get to stay up later, and there’ll be girls. Well, girls for later. For now I get to spend some of my allowance on better model kits. And there’ll be increased privileges and responsibilities. I am going to be allowed to have…
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Westland Wallace – Part Five – Swuping Aviation Corporation

No-one who sees the Westland Wallace owned by Generalissimo Stein Kai Shek can doubt that the province of Swuping is progressive. Other areas are still under the conservative rule of the warlords and cliques but Swuping is firmly headed into the Twentieth Century. Once the minor setbacks of invasions from the Nationalists, the Communists, and…
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Polikarpov U-2 – Part Three – Time To Box Clever

When you are confronted with a complex model design – multiple wings or complex landing gear – it pays to stop and think. You need to get your sequence of painting and assembly right to avoid making hard work even harder. Or worse – to avoid the risk of spoiling vital parts. No-one likes to…
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The Big Local Scale Model Exhibition – Part Seven – Tanks For The Memories

At one time I would have regarded armour models and military vehicles with only minor interest – I am an aviation modeller. Yet, the need for prop vehicles for my airfields, and then civilian vehicles, has meant an increased recognition of the little machines. And recently a dollar purchase of a Polish armoured car in…
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The Big Local Scale Model Exhibition – Part Four – The Mysterious Models

I use the term ” mysterious ” here in a purely personal sense. The subjects that are covered by many modellers and gamers are out of my experience, and I can only gaze upon them with wonder. I hope they will do the same for me – even if it is just wondering if I…
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Lockheed CF-104 – Part Three – Cold Lake

The pattern for 702 is a photo of an interceptor in the early 60’s parked on the hardstand at Cold Lake CFB in Alberta. This is a front-line air defence base as well as a training and exercise area. It protects the rest of Canada from Edmonton… The scheme at the time featured plain polished…
