Category: Scale Models
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Landing Hard – Part One – Spindly Is As Spindly Does
And if you occasionally collapse onto the airfield in a welter of tin tubes and screaming passengers…well, that’s British engineering. Also French and Russian aero design. For people too cheap to build proper airports with runways, they seem to have had a propensity for iffy landing gear. Thin legs splayed at impossible angles guyed up…
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Big Pinch – Little Pinch
A gripping story… The best tool I ever purchased from Stanbridges was a set of clamps by Xacto. The buy was in 1974 when Stanbridges was Stanbridges and Xacto was Xacto… The clamps are made of metal, though I often wonder which one. I would have guessed aluminium but lately I’m not so sure. Originally…
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Israeli Bell 47 – Part Three – A Bubble In The Desert Sun
It cannot have been much fun to climb into a Bell 47 bubble in the desert sun of the Negev. Even on a cold day, it would have been hot in there and the overhead fan would not have helped if you had the doors shut… The Italeri kit has proved as good as it…
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Israeli Bell 47 – Part Two – Production Lines For The Win
The idea of serial building is working out, but there is still a place for sub-assembly lines in the scale model factory Even with modern super-glues there is still time required for re-enforcement to set, and of course the drying and setting times of the various paint coats. So there is a real advantage to…
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Israeli Bell 47 – Part One – Legacy Build
My friend, Warren Hughes, gave me four 1:72 scale kits in the months before he died. He knew he would not get to them, and it was my honour to complete three of them before his passing and show him how well they came out. We were both pleased with the results. This last kit…
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Make At Least One Little World
No matter what the size. The Little World is a fun column to write. I draw on the individual scale models I build and sometimes get to expand to several at once. Then I get to arrange them in dioramas and eventually into layouts. I’ve been fortunate to have enough space to do this, though…
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Swiss Ju-52 – Part Three – Iron Annie In The Alps
The discovery of an unbuilt civilian version of the Ju-52 by Italeri in a legacy sale meant it could join the other post-war airliners at Flugplatz Strelsau. The Lufthansa colour scheme was tempting, but I could see the problems that might arise trying to get large block letters to snuggle down into the corrugations on…
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Swiss Ju-52 – Part Two – The Inside Story
I have beetled on before about how I like Italeri kits. I particularly like their multi-engine jobs that have interior fittings. Whether they are civilian or military, the inclusion of inside bits always makes for a more satisfying build. Oh, I know the old argument about no-one seeing in there after you are done, but…
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Swiss Ju-52 – Part One – Straight Out
Of the box. This one is a tribute to a club mate who left a large uncompleted stash. I’ll confess that it is not the first Ju-52 I’ve built – one was a Heller kit repopped by the Czechs, and one was a slightly later Italeri offering. Of course this Lufthansa plane will be the…
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De Havilland Beaver – Part Four – Bluebell Bay Belle
Kootenay Lake in British Columbia is long, wide, and very deep – and hemmed on every side by mountains. Perfect flying water for an air taxi. Thus was born the idea of providing an air service connecting Kuskanook, Kootenay Bay, and Kaslo – with stops at Riondel. Balfour, and Lardeau. The perfect vehicle is the…
The Little World 