Category: Polish models
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Following The Instructions…

To your doom. I’ve written before about the Czech, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Chinese instruction sheets that we get with our kits. I won’t repeat the sly digs at the Chinglish, Czechlish, or other dialects involved – suffice it to say that we should be grateful for the kit and not be such English language…
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The Expert Review Vs The Actual Experience

If you read my column thinking that you’ll get cutting-edge expertise and the very latest technical reviews, you are in for a sad time. I am not a master modeller. I may be an expert tease, but the only cutting edges around my Little Workshop are generally biting into my fingers and thumbs when I…
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Fairey Fulmar – Part Four – Sub-Lt. Chondomley-Smythe

” Sir? ” ” Yes, Sub-Lt.? ” ” Sir, why to the Yanks call us chinless wonders? ” ” Jealousy, Chondomley-Smythe…pure jealousy. They look upon our Fairey Fulmars with a horrible envy while they are forced to fly their F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs. Now glue your oxygen mask on with this surgical plaster and…
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Fairey Fulmar – Part Three – The Dirty Bird

The Mister Craft Fairey Fulmar is proceeding apace. There were so few pieces to assemble that the basic structure went together in a day – and the decision to use solvent-based lacquers meant that the following day saw most of the painting taken care of. So now it is sitting on the jig airing out…
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Fairey Fulmar Mk I – Part Two – Polish Precision

Those of you who read the reviews of Amodel kits from Ukraina here in the column may have formed the impression that they were clumsy things…and assumed that all the other products of the Eastern European scale moulding industry would be the same. Cheer up – such is not the case. The 1:72nd Fairey Fulmar…
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Fairey Fulmar Mk I – Part One – The Easter Airplane

I have no idea why the tradition started in our family, but every Easter I got a model airplane kit. Of course there were chocolate bunnies and candy eggs and the fun of dying hard-boiled real eggs, but the big surprise was to hunt around the living room to see what plane was there. This…
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Piasecki HUP Retreiver – Part Five – The Droop

I am alternately delighted and saddened by my first Piasecki. Delighted that it could be made as a Canadian aircraft and in a service that I have not yet explored – the Royal Canadian navy. Delighted that the lacquer paints turned out so well. Delighted that the tiny details of the landing gear actually worked…
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Piasecki Army Mule – Part One – Buy Me, Boss…

Trolling the aisles of Hobbytech recently I was feeling discouraged – they’d had a big Christmas and sold off a lot of goods – but there weren’t many small kits left that fit my criteria; cheap, simple, and a western prototype in the propeller or early jet eras. I wasn’t able to spend big on…
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Yakovlev-3 – Part Four – The Silver Bird

Encouraged by the silver paint coat on the Yak-3 I went ahead and added the decal stripes and stars. The decals were good – they released quickly but were not fragile and I surprised myself with how well the red side stripes went. The fact that the pre-decal clear coat was Mr. Hobby Superclear UV…
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Yakovlev-3 – Part Three – The Dreaded Instrument

I used The Dreaded Instrument on helpless victims for 40 years. Oblivious to the screams and the smell of burning flesh, I pressed onwards in a mad orgy of torture. The only thing that would stop me was the end of the day or running out of electricity. In short, I was a dentist. And…
