Category: Scale Models
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The Scholarly Modeller

People in the arts, sciences, and humanities will all have encountered the scholarly author or researcher – who will vastly overbear anything the average enthusiast can bring to a discussion. The scholars will have read, experimented, thought, or created their way to eminence in their respective fields and very likely have published and publicized all…
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Gloster Meteor F.8 – Part Two – IAF

And wasn’t that a clever idea, Great Britain? Selling Gloster Meteors to the Israelis and De Havilland Vampires to the Egyptians? Bit of export cash in the old exchequer, What? And a good leg in either bed, no matter who won, eh? Pip,Pip…! Looks like GB supplied Meteors to Egypt and Syria as well. Jordan…
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Gloster Meteor F.8 – Part One – Third One Out Of The Stable

Fate has dealt me three Gloster Meteor kits; a Cyberhobby F.3, an old Airfix III ( ? ) , and a new Airfix F.8. I have played the first two as best as could be – the first as an RAF plane in the 1945 conflict, the second as a corroded gate guard on a…
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When A Whim Pays Off

And I don’t mean just chasing ladies down the street… I had a whim, based upon a Christmas present. I’d received two lithium-ion batteries for the Ryobi 18+ system from the wife. They were intended to help me mow the studio lawns with an electric mower. All clear so far. Being Temu products, we decided…
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Mirage III CJ – Part Five – The Cavalry

That was the phrase used to describe the Mirage IIIC in a recent YouTube story about the Yom Kippur war. Apparently two Israeli F4 Phantoms were engaging a vastly greater number of MiGs that were trying to destroy a desert airfield. The Mirages were touted as the cavalry coming to save the Phantoms, but I…
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Mirage III CJ – Part Four – Who’s Hiding?

And from whom? Where are they lurking? Is it all just nonsense these days? I have no idea – I presume the various air forces have worked out how to hide in the air with grey paint and rubber knobs on every sharp point of an aircraft. The business of greying out national insignia to…
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Mirage III CJ – Part Three – Let’s Give The Customers Something…

What shall it be? Accurate instruction sheets? Flawless mouldings? Adequate colour information? I have it – let’s just give them trouble. It’ll be fun and cheap and we can do it by making bad decisions. Like avoiding a centre seam on the top of the Mirage fuselage that could be smoothed and polished easily –…
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Mirage III CJ – Part Two – The Approximate Cockpit

I confess myself mystified at the philosophy that spends money to mould a resin seat of truly superb quality and then cannot make adequate provision to anchor it accurately within the fuselage. I admit that it is unlikely to escape once the two halves of the thing are cemented together, but the business of deciding…
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Mirage III CJ – Part One – The Very Thing

I set myself the task of building Israeli aircraft for a desert museum airfield – this kit was sitting on the shelves of a specialist dealer when I went to look for decals. How could I resist? It shows a horrible modification of a beautiful aircraft on the box top…but the sides promise the original…
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MiG 3 – Part Four – Red Eight

Is Hero of Great Patriotic Aviation! Not loved by its pilots, not safe to fly at altitude, not effective as a gun platform….but that didn’t stop PRAVDA from advertising it as the greatest thing since sliced borscht. The model is pleasing, nonetheless – even the slightly odd-looking canopy. Considering that it was an experiment that…
