Category: Scale Models
-
Short Stirling Mk IV – Part One – A Very Specific Aircraft
Many modellers build generic aircraft. A Spitfire. A Mustang. A Messerschmitt. Others build specific ones. The Spirit of St Louis. Enola Gay. The Wright flyer at Kittyhawk. I draw myself up somewhere in between. An internet search for a particular air force. Narrow down to a theatre. Then a unit or a time and I…
-
The Unaccounted
Every so often I see things in the hobby shops for which I can find no explanation. These can be on alien shelves – the gundam and anime models – the motion picture and comic book models. I see things that bear no relation to my life whatsoever. They may be good kits, and they…
-
We’re Not A Club
We’re a cult. The building of scale models is not the sort of thing that you can leave to just anyone. You have to be chosen. Who, exactly, does the choosing? You will be told in due course. If the behind-the-scenes investigation report is favourable. Do not try to hide anything – we have ways…
-
Chance Vought Cutlass – Part Four – Ensign Killer
That, unfortunately, was the nick-name applied to this fighter in US Navy service. It was not a long service life. The type was found to be difficult to land, dangerous, and of marginal performance. Better offerings came from Grumman and McDonnell. The navy knew when to fold the cards and return these things to shore-based…
-
Chance Vought Cutlass – Part Three – Bit By Slow Bit
And if you rush it, the demons leap on you out of the shadows… I have rushed it before – and I can show you the demon scars. Kits that started well and finished poorly – because I rushed a stage through. This Cutlass was not going to be one of the sad cases. The…
-
Chance Vought Cutlass- Part Two – Fit
Whether it is dry or wet, the fit of a kit is the factor that most determines our satisfaction. Or to put it succinctly – it either will or it won’t. My praise to the Fujimi people for this one – it did. Not all their offerings in the past have, but here we have…
-
The Drive-By Scale Dumping
Someone, somewhere, is dumping 1:12 scale old mattresses on the verge outside dollhouse maker’s workshops. And someone is dumping their old scale models at our clubrooms. We are slowly pulling them out of our display cabinets and subjecting them to scale scrutiny. It’s not the quality of the building that is suspect – it ‘s…
-
AVIA B.534 – Part Three – Great Patriotic Uprising
October 1944. The Slovaks rose up against the German occupation. They failed. But while they tried, they gained eternal fame, and part of that attempt was made with the Czech AVIA B.543 fighters. Biplanes against modern Messerschmitts and Focke Wulfes. You can guess what happened… I never knew this – the odd insignia on the…
-
AVIA B.534 – Part One – A Newcastle Model Kit
Newcastle model? A Newcastle model is one you encounter unexpectedly and seize upon. It is a case of never letting a chance go by…refer to Bob Hudson’s song for further instructions. This old Czech KP kit is from the 1980’s. The box had seen service, but at least protected the sprue trees, decals and instructions.…
The Little World 