Category: research
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Peas And Carrots – Part One – Haunting the Shops
And paint mules. A fine dinner combination, but you have to be trained up to the taste. Today has been another day spent in the Lawrence Liverwurst labs, experimenting with finishing materials. I have seen intriguing advertisements for different clear coats and decided to see if they were indeed the El Dorado of painting. I…
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1931 Ford Model A – Part Two – When Art Becomes Burlesque
Relax – no sex here. And surprisingly, not a lot of sex at the burlesque shows either…but that is another tale. The business of making a jalopy or rat rod is quite fashionable today. I see them at hot rod shows all the time and like to look at the details. For vehicles made by…
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Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIX – Part One – So Why This One?
For that matter, why any of them? What’s the factor that impels us to choose one particular plastic model over all the others there in the hobby shop – impels us strongly enough to get us to spend money buying it, and time researching and building it? I think it can be many things: a.…
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The Wrong Light
When I used to sell Epson inkjet printers in a camera store I was frequently asked about colour management. It’s a topic that makes or breaks photographers and more often causes tears than smiles. Fortunately at the time when some manufacturers introduced even more complex methods of operation, a few saw the need for a…
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Hangar Time
The second week of being in the hangar with my right wheel off is just finishing – though I am happy to say that I am not having antibiotics flushed through the hydraulic lines this week. You have no idea how awkward it is to go to the can when you have to drag a…
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Vultee Vengeance – Part Three – How Green Was My Vultee
If the fumes from the paint don’t kill me, the bad puns will. Probably through the agency of enraged listeners seeking me out to stop them. Actually, I am very proud of this one, as it involves real thinking and research. As I am building a Vultee Vengeance in RAF or RAAF service ( not…
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There Is No Humour In Scale Model Building
I do not mean to suggest that the activity cannot lighten the heart – that people cannot devote their spare time to it and come away happier. Many of us do, and want the good feelings to continue…in spite of the unwise purchase of kits that have gotten very bad reviews. No, what I mean…
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Convair 440 – Part Eight – Out Past Where The Buses Run
Those of you who are Kinky Friedman fans will know this phrase. It applies to a lot of the work on the Mach 2 Convair 440. Not the least being the choice to eschew the kit decals – big troublesome designs for an airline I do not know – and to paint the thing as…
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” It Says So Right Here “
See? There’s even a three-way view of the plane. And you can see the pink lace curtains in the waist gunner’s position. And the snorkel and the chicken coop. It has to be true. Otherwise it wouldn’t be here in the book… I have read my fair share of small illustrated books on aircraft, vehicles,…
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De Havilland Mosquito Mk II – Part Seven – Challenges Must Yield To Science!
Part Six of the DH Mosquito Mk II saga showed the dull and sad paint job that I ended up with after failing to think properly about what I was doing – I sprayed a matting acrylic too heavily and cured it under too high a temperature. I regarded the result as a failure on…
The Little World 