Category: Scale Models
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Five – Wild Blue Yonder
And off we flaming go… Someone at Tasman was enamoured of the vacuum moulding machine – the one they used for clear canopies – and of the possibilities that it presented. So they made a decision to try something that is – so far – unique in my model-building experience. They vac-formed the canopy a…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Four – While The Goo Sets…
Busy your hands, to stop your mind from screaming. The engine cowlings on this model have become a standard mark in my workshop. They form the nadir from which anything else is better. I have joined the halves and lit a votive candle. The interior is bare, but surprisingly neat. It is simple, of course,…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Three – Oh, Just Grit Yer Teeth…
Pull up your Big-Girl panties, and get on with it. It’s not going to make itself. The first thing that has to go is the upper turret. Tasman have made a decent job of it, and the whitemetal gun mount will be saved for the future, but the aircraft I’m modelling has no turret. so…
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I’m Starting Up My Own Model Kit Company
And I aim to cater for all those modellers who have embraced masochism. The Far King Orville Model Company will be an extremely short-run venture dedicated to producing garage-quality kits in a carport. No cut will be too short to take and no design too unsuitable for our kits. Have you seen our Mucus Canopy?…
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Definition Of A Hobbyist:
Person who does dumb things, pays over the odds for them, and then waylays everyone around to show how they turned out in the end. Stop blushing. No matter what your hobby is, this is true. And God bless you. You are often the last repository of happiness in a miserable society. You can smile.…
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Lockheed S-3A Viking – Part Three – I990’s
The chief raison d’être for the S-3A was hunting Soviet submarines in the 1970’s and 1980’s. With the 1990’s and the Reds beaching most of their fleet. the plane was reconfigured for surface surveillance and attack and garnered war honours in several conflicts. The ability to haul bombs and rockets as well as targetting gear…
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Lockheed S-3A Viking – Part One – Price?
So Why So Cheap? How come a perfectly good Hasegawa jet is about half the price you’d expect to pay? Perhaps I am looking a gift horse in the molars, but I do puzzle at some of the pricing in some of the shops. The Hasegawa S3A Lockheed Viking was under $40 in a rack…
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A Model Philosopher’s Stone
Alchemy in scale. The old concept of the Philosopher’s Stone that would transmute lead into gold never quite got off the ground – both substances defying the power of 18th century aero engines to achieve lift. Even when modern jets and rockets were strapped to freight cars full of lead and the vehicles sent down…
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Merely A Model Builder
And old eccentric. Trapped in a second childhood. A harmless weirdo. Or so it would seem from a recent detective novel I read. Written about a modern-day serial murderer in Somerset and the detective work that catches her, it takes more than a passing swipe at model railway enthusiasts – and railway hobbyists in general.…
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Westland Lysander – Part Four – Rockcliffe, Ontario
On January 23rd, 1940. Not sure what time of day. The image that served as pattern for this model was taken at the Rockcliffe station near Ottawa on a snowy day. The tarmac is all white, though I note no skis were fitted to the Lysanders lined up for RCAF trainee pilots. Interestingly, while there…
The Little World 