Category: Scale Models
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” The Standard Of Modelling In This State…”
I must stop listening to people speaking. It leads to thought. And that leads to trouble. The recent model exhibition being a case in point. At the display hall I kept hearing people saying that they did not see as many models on display as last year and that the standard was lower… Then I…
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Mitsubishi A5M-2 – Part One – CLAUDE
I often wondered about why the WWII Allied command code-named the Japanese aircraft in the way they did. So I analysed the names – ZEKE, RUFE, BABS, BETTY, TOJO, NATE, CLAUDE, etc. and here’s my conclusion, unsupported by any research… a. The names are short. They needed to be to be spoken or telegraphed quickly.…
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Scale Model Kit Building Is Craft Beer In Styrene
Here’s two parallel experiences; buying a plastic model kit in a hobby shop and buying a six-pack of craft beer at the local Dan Murphy’s. In both cases you are basically paying out for a pig in a poke. The externals are generally confusing…the plastic model kit has either great box art or horrible writing,…
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Fairey Fulmar – Part Four – Sub-Lt. Chondomley-Smythe
” Sir? ” ” Yes, Sub-Lt.? ” ” Sir, why to the Yanks call us chinless wonders? ” ” Jealousy, Chondomley-Smythe…pure jealousy. They look upon our Fairey Fulmars with a horrible envy while they are forced to fly their F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs. Now glue your oxygen mask on with this surgical plaster and…
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Fairey Fulmar – Part Three – The Dirty Bird
The Mister Craft Fairey Fulmar is proceeding apace. There were so few pieces to assemble that the basic structure went together in a day – and the decision to use solvent-based lacquers meant that the following day saw most of the painting taken care of. So now it is sitting on the jig airing out…
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Fairey Fulmar Mk I – Part Two – Polish Precision
Those of you who read the reviews of Amodel kits from Ukraina here in the column may have formed the impression that they were clumsy things…and assumed that all the other products of the Eastern European scale moulding industry would be the same. Cheer up – such is not the case. The 1:72nd Fairey Fulmar…
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Fairey Fulmar Mk I – Part One – The Easter Airplane
I have no idea why the tradition started in our family, but every Easter I got a model airplane kit. Of course there were chocolate bunnies and candy eggs and the fun of dying hard-boiled real eggs, but the big surprise was to hunt around the living room to see what plane was there. This…
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The Different Modellers
I don’t mean the ones that come to the modelling club wearing fishnet stockings and the basque. That’s only to be expected from some English migrants…Just don’t make eye contact. No, I mean the modellers who elect to do something different with their hobby. Here’s some: a. The person who researches completely obscure equipment that…
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Fairchild Flying Boxcar – Part Five – All That Gleams
The C-119 Flying Boxcar is ready for deployment. Ol’ 102 she is, and a finer example of the type couldn’t be found. At least not locally. The decision to paint it in 1949 livery was prompted by the fact that there were no stub fins under the vertical stabilizer. That meant no side lightning stripes,…
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Fairchild Flying Boxcar – Part Four – A Little Dodgy
Actually a little Dodge truck. The box says it is a ” WC-51 Light Truck “. The Italeri moulding is fine – with too much detail for convenient building and a high-boy aspect to it that cannot be right. But as it is cargo for the C-119, it will do nicely. Halfway up the ramp…
The Little World 