Category: Scale Models
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When You’re On To A Good Thing…

Stick to it. A slogan from old Australian insecticide advertisement. We all thought it was a good idea. But what if we found a better thing? What was the slogan for that? I am minded of this by a discovery of a fresh decal setting agent in my local hobby shop. Currently I am using…
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Vought Kingfisher – Part Four – Neutrality Patrol

And armed with a couple of 100 pound bombs to enforce it. I cannot decide whether the Kingfisher as a land plane is gainly or ungainly compared to the floatplane version. The gear is not too spindly but difficult enough to assemble. It must have been quite a drag for the plane – otherwise quite…
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Vought Kingfisher – Part Three – Clean

My friend Warren and I have often remarked to each other that an airplane that looks good, flies good. That isn’t to say that the rule cannot be violated. The Brewster Buccaneer/Bemuda looked well but was so underpowered as to be a menace. Ditto a number of Italian aircraft. The same might be true of…
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Vought Kingfisher – Part Two – The Inside Job

Well, if you’re gonna be inside for weeks, you might as well do airplane interiors. In the case of some of the short-run Czech kits, just a few hours can seem like weeks. But sometimes you can be fooled. When I saw this Kingfisher’s insides I could see all the Czech troubles beginning again; no…
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Vought Kingfisher – Part One – Amos And Andy

An’ if you don’t keep on reading , you gonna get a nasty letter from de Kingfish…an a phone call too. Those of you old enough to know what that was all about will smile. The younger readers will not. But some of them never smile anyway. Movin’ right along, the AZ model of the…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Four – The Carioca Killer

Admire the pictures, Children – they are made with the new focus-stacking technique learned from YouTube. Nearly every part of the 1:72 aircraft in perfect focus . The technique is so simple as to be laughable. I secure the model under constant lighting ( 2 IKEA desk lamps ) and focus upon the closest part.…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Three – Underwear

Under where did you want me to spray? I am getting good value out of my Mr. Hobby Procom single-action spray gun – the one I bought with funds raised by selling off unwanted photo gear. The gun is a big chunky thing with just one giant adjusting knob and an equally large finger button.…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Two – The Subassemblies

Or, in the case of the PV-2…the sub-hunter assemblies. Because remember that this patrol bomber in the hands of the US Navy and the Brazilian Air Force did sink U-boats. And anything else in the small ship line that it encountered. For an airliner it made a pretty mean warplane. The interior is SMS lacquer…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part One – The Mistaken Assumption

I am subject to misapprehensions from time to time. They generally don’t result in disasters, but they can mean that I miss out on good things. I can remember several occasions as a young man when I did not read the signals correctly and passed lonely Valentine’s Days. It all worked out perfectly in the…
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Bristol Beaufighter – Part Four – EE-U

It is not often I get to build a model of a different real aircraft. Of course the makers of the kits pattern them off real ones that they find in museums – and these can be built from the box. But if you do, you are just building what everyone else who has purchased…
