Category: Scale Models
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Convair 440 – Part Six – Methinks They Doth Protest Too Much

Well fresh from the debacle of a failed paint job and the recovery of spirit when the paint job was partially saved, I decided to launch out on a voyage to the New World of Mach 2 kits – I finally hauled the Convair 440 out of the stash and started to work on the…
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Convair 440 – Part Five – Good Customer Service

Those of you who have read the previous episodes of the Convair 440 might have thought me prejudiced about it. I hope not, because I have just had a wonderful example of good business behaviour. One of the propellers of the kit was a short-shot – the plastic did not go out into one blade.…
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Convair 440 – Part Four – When Life Gives You Lemons…

That meme and its associated parodies running through the brain, I’ve been doing a little research on the Mach 2 Convair 440 kit that I bought. It seems that there are a number of variants of it that share the plastic but change the decals, and a number of companies that have produced custom decals…
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Convair 440 – Part Two – How Much For That Busted Box?

When I was engaged in retail trade in cameras and photographic goods we would occasionally receive a shipment of equipment that had a tough passage. External cardboard cartons might have been roughly handled by the shippers and ended up dented or breached. We rarely had evidence of tampering or pilfering, but it was possible. Trucks…
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Convair 440 – Part One – The Visitation

I went to a new hobby shop – Hobby Mania. It was up a flight of stairs and shared premises with an accountant’s office. No-wonder – the accountant has the shop as a personal hobby venture. He must be doing well enough – he had an employee there to show me the room of stock…
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Planning Permission Not Needed

Did you realise that when you are the creator of your own Little World that you do not need to admit others to your counsel? That you can act as sole dictator and arbiter of all disputes? It is a sobering thought that can make anyone feel drunk. I experienced it recently while laying out…
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The Artillery

Occasionally I take a break from making 1:72 scale airplanes to make other models; houses, service stations, tanks, greasy spoon cafés… It is not so much a case of abandoning my theme as of refreshing the palate with a different taste. I return to the tarmac quickly enough. One thing that my Air World needs is appropriate…
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I’ll Bet You’re Sorry Now…

a. Now that you’ve left me. You’ll ever get to watch me sit in front of the television swearing at a kit full of resin parts. You’ll miss stepping on gun turrets in the shag pile. You’ll never know how the Matchbox Privateer turned out. b. Now that you’ve switched from 1:12th scale supercar models…
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De Havilland Mosquito Mk II – Part Eight – The Colour Lab

When I set myself the task of finding an effective workflow, I decided to make it as realistic as possible. So I cut 16 MDF board tablets to 2 x 3 inches and sprayed them with standard Tamiya primer. Some grey, some white, and some red oxide. The Tamiya product in a can has always…

