Category: research
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Westland Wallace – Part Three – A Life Of Their Own
Plastic models seem to take on a life of their own. And it may not be what the maker intended. I blame the restless nature of the modeller and the ready availability of the internet to supply pictures and histories. You start out with a bog-standard box designed to do nothing more than attract money…
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Craquelure
The word is from the art world and it describes a fine network of lines or cracks in the surface of an oil painting. This is observable in most famous paintings in galleries and is not considered a fault. However, when it invades our scale model workshop it is to be deplored. We may be…
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Isuzu TX-40 – Part Three – Now You Don’t
But the Isuzu is there in full glory. And the people at Hasegawa have been thoughtful enough to provide a hand trolley and two ground crewmen to push it, plus 5 fuel drums. This has been one of the best little mojo builds I’ve encountered in a long time. Every part went on it and…
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Katyusha M13 – Part Three – Whooshin’ Rooshians
The wartime accounts of the use of rocket trucks by the Soviets are quite spectacular. Stories of mass attacks that caused whole vilages to disappear are rife. These rocket artillery pieces may have been restricted to 5-8 miles range but the effect of 16 of the rockets falling simultaneously – even if the target circle…
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Yuron – Yurown Design Bureau
This is the new decal printing company that I have started to use now that every other specialist firm has decided to pack it in. I can look at Scalemates all day and see what once was printed, but as far as being able to actually get the sheets…? I might as well be asking…
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Short Sunderland – Part Five – A Great Save!
And it isn’t even Hockey Night In Canada, Brought To You By B/A ( Canadian joke… ). This is, however an RCAF Sunderland that operated out of Northern Ireland in WW2. It was kept on Lough Erne along with other flying boats like Catalinas and sortied through the Donegal Corridor out to the North Atlantic…
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Curtiss SBC-4 – Part One – The Old Photo In The National Geographic
I used to pore over wartime copies of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. I found a trove of them in a school library in the 1960’s and read all I could. I wasn’t after pictures of native girls with bare chests – I wanted colour photos of fighter planes. NG had access to the US Navy and Kodachrome…
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Imagination Is The New Word For Lying To Yourself
If you’re a fan of Facebook or any other general social media site you’ll have seen the memes that encourage you to imagine things. Many of them will have mountain scenes or unicorns and rainbows. I came from Alberta and used to live in the Crows Nest Pass, so I can testify to the accuracy…
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Paint Pot No. 2
The business of spray can and bottle was covered in a previous post. Now it’s the turn of the choice of alcohol/water acrylics and acrylic lacquers. Like a lot of people who remembered enamels, I commenced my latter-day modelling with alcohol/water acrylics. A well-known brand that starts with ” T “. The paints worked well,…
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Yak 3 – Part Four _ Speed Is As Speed Does
When you are not bending up connecting rods from brass PE sheets for a 1/72 kit, it seems to go a lot faster in the construction. Not as liable to win Best-of-Show at the Anorak Expo, but you have to be realistic. And Hobby Boss are the most realistic moulders I know. The Yak 3…
The Little World 