Category: Scale Models
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Fokker D.XXI – Part One -SOOTB Fighter
I have so few Dutch aircraft in my collection that this stash buy is a real asset – Let us hope the kit is up to MPM standards. New MPM standards, I hasten to add. The canopy is clear injection and there is only the wretched resin propeller boss and separate blades to gloom the…
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The Commander Of Leftover Air Base
The home of the 103rd Tactical Kit Boxes. Our motto: ” What The Heck Is This? “ It is a heavy responsibility to be the grate at the bottom of the scale modelling drain. To be the hobbyist that follows the parade of kits with a broom and a shovel. To be the person under…
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Grumman Tracker – Part Three – A Bonnie Aircraft
Bonnie, but not magnificent… The Idea Model Company Grumman S2F-1 model that came to me at a low price has proved to be an excellent bargain. It might not have the precision of a Hasegawa or Tamiya product, but it is here, now, and has built up to a good stand-off model. The Royal Canadian…
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Grumman Tracker – Part Two – Do You Goo?
Yes, I do – particularly when I am making Idea Model, Minicraft, Mistercraft, or Novo kits. It is a natural reaction to the sight of gaping crevasses. I should be a quivering mess in Antarctica. At my workbench I am just barely controlled. It was not always thus. As a child builder I would have…
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Grumman Tracker – Part One – The Started Kit
Kits that have been started by another modeller are traditionally lower priced than pristine ones. I suppose this would be reversed if the original builder was Leonardo da Vinci, but so few of his plastic models seem to have survived the Reformation… I got this aircraft kit from the clearance of a legacy stash and…
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Buy Two Kits For Next Year’s Competition
And buy identical ones. Build one the best you possibly can. Use all the techniques and care that will make it look good. Lavish PE and resin and brass gun barrels as much as you wish. Bring copies of the reference material for the judges. Bring paint samples for the ‘raks. And bring the second,…
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The Experiment
I have had a hint that the next big local scale model exhibition this week will see a trial of an interesting sales experiment. A table will feature built-up models for sale. Kits that have been completed by modellers who no longer wish to keep them. They will pay a modest fee to have them…
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Curtiss H16 – Part Six – Long Yellow Wings
And a remarkable scale model. The history of the Curtiss H16, as well as the British-built Felixstowe types, is available on the net. They were patrol birds in the WW1 period and undoubtedly endured very hard service over the waters. It is not surprising that so few have survived to become museum exhibits. This Roden…
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Sprue Trees – The Movie
May the Swarf be with you… Modellers get a bad rap in movies. We are seen as small-scale weirdos – harmless at best but psychotic at worst. It all started with Marilyn Monroe’s ” Niagara ” of 1953 when the husband of Marilyn is seen as a shell-shocked loser addicted to building plastic car kits.…
The Little World 