Category: Painting
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Grumman F6F Hellcats – Part Three – The Flying Bomb

I wonder if the bright spark who numbered the US Navy drones used in the Korean War deliberately ran them on from V1 to V8? I’ve seen two authentic pictures of V6 being launched off USS BOXER from one of the catapults and it has the V number clearly painted on either cheek of the…
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Grumman F6F Hellcats – Part Two – The FAA

The Fleet Air Arm has always been a thing unto itself. Not quite the Royal Navy but certainly not the Royal Air Force. Attached to the stuffiest of the traditional services but trying to operate the newest of the weapons. While not always given the newest of the weapons. Sort of the ” special ”…
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Wait. What? Chapter 2…

Got a definitive answer on the Testor’s question. The shops here are selling out of their stocks because Testors refuses to ship to Australia. Too far? Too high a cost? Too small a market to justify keeping staff busy? Advice from some new MBA in the accountancy department? Boss had a bad experience in Queensland…
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Vickers Wellington Mk 1C – Part Six – Don’t Touch Me…

I’m clean. And socially isolated. And I want to remain this way for at least five minutes… There probably never was a clean Coastal Command Wellington. Or Liberator, Sunderland, Digby, Whitley, or Hudson…or anything else that started life as white on the underside. Think about it. Underneath is where things run to when they leak,…
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Vickers Wellington Mk 1C – Part Five – A Whiter Shade Of Pale

A confession – I was courting when ” A Whiter Shade Of Pale ” was new on the charts and I tried to be cool by dancing to it. It goes on longer than a Methodist sermon but without the jazzy language or uptempo beat… I hated it then and I hate it now. The…
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Vickers Wellington Mk 1C – Part Four – Mr Ghost

Are we ever ready for the undercoat in our lives? Probably not…but when we make model kits there comes a time when we are definitely going to have to reach for the spray. I say that as an airbrush user, but I think the rattle can people are in much the same boat. I have…
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Vickers Wellington Mk 1C – Part Three – Lemme Up Youse Mugs!

I’ll murdalize ya! Just lemme up! The building table was well in use in our heading shot as I sought to get the tailplanes level and even on the Wellington Mk 1C. The fuselage had been cemented with Humbrol Poly tube cement due to an article I found featuring a build of this same plane.…
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Who Do You Believe?

Not about religion or viruses or the economy. These things cannot be determined by debate or belief – they just have to be fought over with artillery. I mean who do you believe about paint colours? Specifically, the paint colours printed on call-out sheets in model kits. Every kit has something that pretends to dictate…
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Ilyushin Il-10 – Part Four – The Beast Built

Well, another Mr. Craft aircraft is built. While not as precise as the Fairey Fulmar, the Il-10 has come out well on the side of good. Whatever the makers intended has been achieved. Other reports of this ex-KS kit have pointed out the crudities of the armament, the haphazard fit of the canopy and the…
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Ilyushin Il-10 – Part Three – Sleeker Than You’d Think

My stable of Soviet fighter planes of WW 2 is very small – one Yak and one Lavotchkin. Not even a MiG yet. But they all seem to share a similar look – the look of fighters that have been developed by people who don’t quite know what the shape should be. Oh, they are…
