Category: Scale Models
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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…
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De Havilland Mosquito Mk II – Part Six – A Day of Challenges
The markings day has become a day of challenges. Of mistakes and discoveries. It has seen the finishing of the model, but not quite in the way that I expected. a. The markings for the squadron code were nowhere to be found in my stash of decals nor in our local shops. T,W, and Z…
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De Havilland Mosquito – Part Five – Can I Make A Mess?
Or can I what? Here are the in-progress shots of the Great Masking Adventure as it unfolded. Since it was entirely new ground, I cannot be sure whether I was doing it right. But the fact that nothing caught fire has to count as something good… Here’s the overnight result – surprisingly successful, with only…
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De Havilland Mosquito Mk II – Part Four – The Mask Of Comedy
Or of tragedy. I cannot be sure which it is to be until tomorrow when the paint has cured…Here is the tale of too much coffee and too much time to think. The painting of a British camouflage pattern on a model of a WW II aircraft was always easy when I was a child.…
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De Havilland Mosquito Mk II – Part Three – Subassembly
I was right about the quality of the Tamiya kit – the first encounters at the dry-fit stage were excellent. No flash whatsoever, and small casting gates. In most cases the precision shears were all that were needed to separate the parts with no additional mangling. The cockpit has a great deal of detail without…
The Little World 