Category: Scale Models
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Nothing To Excess

This is a fine philosophy, but I wouldn’t go overboard on it… It is also good counsel for the people who make the moulds for plastic kits. I was dealing with an old Revell B-24 D kit from the late 70’s that had recessed panel lines and raised rivets. They were the size that would…
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Grumman Hawkeye – Part Three – Daya

192 Squadron IDF. This is the newest exhibit at the Schmattarim Air Force Base museum. It has been scrubbed clean of identifying marks like number and squadron insignia for security purposes, retaining only the insignia. The whole project took essentially a week and a half and has been one of the most rewarding in recent…
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Grumman Hawkeye – Part One – Never Before Considered

Some model kits can be like that – you go along in your regular rut and never even give them a thought. Then a stash sale or clean-out of the back store-room of a hobby shop brings something to light. And you wonder why you had never wanted one. However, you want one NOW! This…
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Birthday Boatyard

Bob’s Boatyard, to be precise. Bob is my brother-n-law and a scale model builder as well. Rather than concentrate on plastic models, he devotes part of his retirement time to constructing wooden ship and boat models. It is rarely kit work – Bob builds from plans using wood that he cuts and shapes for himself.…
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The Little World Sometimes Runs Along The Ground

And sometimes you can run alongside it… I have a spare table at the studio, and a spare ground cloth. And some old Kato HO track that once rimmed my RCAF WET DOG display. And some spare houses and buildings… What would be more natural than to lay an oval of HO toy train track…
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Martin Canberra – Part One – Old Italeri

I am always on the alert for Italeri kits – I find them an ideal blend of simplicity and precise moulding. This Italeri No 144 box was no exception – it was half-way down a pile of unwanted kits at a recent stash sale for the very reasonable price of $ 20. I balanced my…
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Čmelák – Part One – Oh, I Don’t Know

” I’ve never built an Eduard kit – I might as well… And here are two versions – the Profipack and the Weekend. Three dollars difference in them…but I suspect that the dearer one would have photo-etch that I hate. Why not save a few bucks? Looks like I get four choices of Czech markings…
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Bristol Belvedere – Part Three – The Mehcopter

Cue enthusiasm…reboot…reboot. I think this is the first of the Airfix Vintage Classics that has disappointed. It is undoubtedly what it was in the original release, but like the original Blackburn Buccaneer, the Hovercraft, the Fairey Rotodyne, and the prototype Harrier, it strangely fails to please. Perhaps Airfix were precipitate in issuing something that was…
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Bristol Belvedere – Part One – Dire Warnings

And why I never heed them… This kit appeared in my local hobby shop before I read a review of it. It was reasonably priced, a Vintage Classic, and a type I had never built before. I forked over the cash and took it home. The review was not mealy-mouthed; it said this was the…

