Category: Scale Models
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AIrfix Mosquito – Part Two – The Lists…
There can be two lists connected with every scale model airplane kit; the list of things that went right and the list of things that went wrong. You’re only in trouble if the lists contain the same items…Here’s the good one for this Airfix Mosquito: It was free. I had special decals saved up for…
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Airfix Mosquito – Part One – The Free Skeeter
Is there any nicer word in the English language than ” free “?* I was attracted to this Airfix model of the Mosquito NF MkII when I saw it on the free kit table of the Model Car Spectacular earlier in the year. If you put in an entry you got a number that was…
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Vought Corsair F4U-1 – Part Four – Delivery In A Plain Envelope
Students of military aviation are very quickly attuned to the finer points of insignia, markings, and unit numbers. You have only to go to some of the more intense internet modelling forums to read people engaging in passive/aggressive arguments about the exact position of the ” No Step ” stencils on the Hurricane Mk XXXIV…
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Vought CorsairF4U-1 – Part Three – Thanks, Doc…
Thank you, Dr. Tamiya. I needed that. That slap in the face with a model kit: That fits together without sanding or filing. With an entire cockpit in 1:72 as a matter of course. With wing seams that need no putty. With the engine where all cylinders are part of the injection moulding and no…
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Vought Corsair F4U-1 – Part Two – Which Came First?
Well, which came first; the chikin or the tamago? Did Tamiya get a good reputation by building precise model kits or did they build precise model kits because they had a good reputation? At what point did they say to themselves ” We must make excellent products above all…”. Did they have a modelling adolescence in which…
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Vought Corsair F4U-1 – Part One – Birdcage
I wandered into Hobbytech for a bottle of paint. I came out with three bottles of paint and a Birdcage Corsair. This is why I’m not allowed in Bunnings or the beer shop unaccompanied. To be fair I was responding to an internet search session that showed the prototype XF4U-1 aircraft Vought showed to the…
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The Painting Stand
We need a new accessory for scale model building…as if we do not have enough already… We need a cheap, sturdy, steady, adjustable stand to hold a model while it is being spray painted. It must be capable of holding the model firmly and in balance, and the spray must be able to reach all…
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Grumman Widgeon – Part Two – Port and Cheese
I cannot decide now that the Grumman Widgeon is done and sitting on the photo floor, whether I enjoyed myself building it or not. If you go by the mis-fitting engines, nacelles, windscreen, and landing gear, it was a misery. If you looked at the wing, fuselage, and tail assemblies as they mated, it wasn’t…
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Grumman Widgeon – Part One – The Small Goose
The Sherriff’s Mini Cars shelves had some of the best and oddest kit shopping I have been able to do for some time. Stashes had disgorged treasures and/or trash and they were sensibly priced for all that. I have no idea how new the Widgeon is, not how long it may have mouldered on the…
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Why The Devil Am I Writing This All Up?
You may find yourself asking this question when you read this column – or any of the other fine bits of sticky literature* I write. The humour column, the camera column, or the commercial photo column. The last named is, of course, written for money…I’m not ashamed to get paid for typing. But what of…
The Little World 