Category: Scale Models
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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Me 262 – Part Three – Shinee!

I am starting to see why a friend of mine is so attracted by shiny objects. I have just glossed the Messerschmitt and it is all I can do to stop myself from touching the surface! I know it needs time to cure, but so does my infatuation with the gloss. I wish someone had…
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Me 262 – Part Two – How Wrong I Was

When I saw the flash flooding around some of the Revell parts for this jet fighter I though that I was in for an epic of cutting and sanding. As it is, there has been little fettling needed and by the time it has progressed from dry fit to cementation, no filler gaps are to…
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Me 262 – Part One – Another Childhood Ambition

As a child, I had many model aircraft kits – but one that always eluded me was the Airfix baggie of the ME 262 jet fighter. I have since seen them as Hobby Boss and Czech kits, but never gave it much thought. Then a Revell kit called to me through a fog of disinterest…

