Category: Scale Models
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Mining The Archives
Which is a good way of making sure no-one gets into them. Be sure to keep an accurate record of the placement of the charges in case you have to reopen them… Our club has a library and a magazine rack, and all the members are free to borrow the books and magazines on display.…
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Sopwith Pup – Part Three – Anzac
Interestingly enough, this turns out to be an aircraft of the RNAS. Was it flown by someone from Australia or New Zealand? never mind – the decals are excellent and have gone on with no silvering at all. They are not so complex as to require softening solutions, either. A thoroughly enjoyable two days build…
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Sopwith Pup – Part One – Fresh In The Shop
Fresh from 1973, mind – courtesy of Airfix’s Vintage Classics range. This is fresh this week from the local shop, and at a price that seems laughably low. I have just this sense of humour, so I grabbed it and chortled my way to the till. The opening of the old-style box was not a…
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Do The Kit Makers Set Traps?
Is your favourite scale model manufacturer playing with you? Have they moulded a practical joke in their latest offering? Are they laughing at you in the lunchroom? You may be forgiven for asking this unpleasant question if you have just opened a $ 250 kit that has three parts and a decal sheet made of…
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Swedish Hampden – Part Four – The Trials Aircraft
One only – that’s all the Swedes ordered in 1935 – and it took three years to get it to Sweden. It was partly an experiment and partly a political football – the Swedish air force actually wanted Junkers bombers and eventually got them under licence. The single Hampden was never armed, but did go…
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Swedish Hampden – Part Three – What Colour Is Swedish Green?
Go ask at IKEA… Or look carefully at the greens in your paint rack and note which ones can be poured together into a bottle and shaken up. This is a good opportunity to get the last few drops worth out of stuff that needs replacement anyway. A vigorous thinner will blend them all together…
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Swedish Hampden – Part Two – Grey Is Better?
Hmmmm. I am unsure. Ask me later. The grey plastic of this Airfix Vintage Classic seems to have a different fel to it from that of the 2010 version I built. Harder, stiffer, and less warped. I have only found one shot shot and one sink and the short shot is in the perfect place…
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Casting About For A Model
Is a die-cast airplane a model or a toy? It all depends upon the person holding it. One thing – it will never be a flying model – die-cast metal is not aerodynamic no matter how hard you throw it. It will sit on a stand or on its wheels and please the eye, but…
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Israeli Phantom – Part Two – The Curate’s Egg Revisited
One does not look a gift Phantom in the intakes. However, one sometimes observes that the makers of the kits may over-reach themselves. They break up a design into mouldable parts but fail to tell their mould-makers to talk to each other at the time. There are a number of interesting points of difference in…
