Category: Scale Models
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Know When To Fold ‘Em
Kenny Rogers’ good advice to scale model builders. We all know the virtues of perseverance and hard work, having had it drummed into us by parents, schools, and employers. What has been missing is the virtue of quitting while you are ahead. Kenny Rogers’ gambler knew it, and it is time we did too. You…
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Our Years Of Confinement
We all served a year of confinement in 2020-2021…even if we were guilty of no crime. Disease is an unfair judge. Most of us are as free to travel now as before, if you factor in the extra costs, the current wars and dangers, and the deterioration to our welcome as tourists. Even those of…
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Potez 63-11 – Part Four – The Fishbowl Of Sadness
I refer to this rather sleek French aircraft in this way as it was witness to the failures of its own armies in the spring of 1940 – from an elegant vantage point. The design is deliberately biased toward the primary mission – reconnaissance – with the pilot up above like a hansom cab driver…
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Potez 63-11 – Part Three – The Problem
Solved. Until the next one crops up. The fuselage, wings, and tail of the Potez observation aircraft are together and the amount of filler is absolutely minimal. I have undercoated and smoothed it, and could not be happier. In the intervals of waiting for things to set or dry I tackled the engines, wheels, landing…
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Potez 63-11 – Part Two – Having A Fit
A tight fit. The Azur model of the Potez 63-11 is probably fairly old in the Czech modelling world. I think the firm that makes these models has retired the name in favour of their ” Special Hobby ” marque. This one is from the multi-media days of styrene/resin/brass. So far the fit of the…
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Potez 63-11 – Part One – Smooth Potez
As opposed to lumpy Potez. The designs of interwar and early-war French aircraft form a fascinating subdivision of aeronautical insanity. From the angular designs of the late twenties and early thirties to the sleek over-designs of the forties, they seem to have decided to over-run the buffer stops every time they drew up to the…
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US Navy Carrier Deck – Part One – Building The Stage
This kit was a stash buy – Otherwise I would never have contemplated getting one. But I can readily see the usefulness – particularly for a small-scale photographer. I am hoping there will be enough surface area covered by this kit to let me take usable shots. And it will be a matter of a…
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Koolhoven Fk 58 – Part Four – Quick Change Artist
Sharp-eyed readers will notice something unusual about this small Dutch fighter of 1939. It is undressing… Or rather, it is caught in between one set of colours and another. The real planes were delivered to the French air force from the Rotterdam plant of Koolhoven just prior to war with the diplomatic ruse of painting…
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Koolhoven Fk 58 – Part Three – When Disaster Strikes
Don’t roll over – Strike back. Firstly, don’t panic. Nothing that you can do to a plastic model kit will kill anyone or bankrupt you. You can lay the worst result down in the rubbish bin, walk away from it, and go with new knowledge that could not be got any other way. It’s like…
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Koolhoven Fk 58 – Part One – One Of The Few
Not the RAF Few – the Dutch few – few made and few supplied. An export order from France. This Azur kit has fallen into my eager hands through a stash sale and is everything that the proper Czech short-run kit should be; obscure, and composed of styrene plastic, acetate, brass and polyester resin. The…
The Little World 