Category: Scale Models
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Boeing X-Plane – Part Four – Long Range Bird On Spindly Legs
I wonder what the US Navy might have nicknamed this Boeing fighter/bomber if it had ever proceeded into service? There had been few Boeing fighters before this – I can only think of the P26 ” Peashooter ” that the Army flew. Not a very prestigious name but fairly apt considering the tiny size of…
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Boeing X-Plane – Part One – The Nearly-Rans
I am no great fan of ” what-if ” modelling. Much of it is speculative and not a little disturbing. I see attitudes in the builders that are not supportable in real life. But I will admit aircraft and other items that were actually built to try to win government contracts. Even if they did…
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There’s No Such Thing As A Biggest Model
There’s only the biggest model…yet. For everyone, whether they be manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer, or builder, there is never an end point in the progression of the scale model kit. The factory may start out making 1:144 scale models of Piper Cubs, but if these sell they will be onto the next larger prototype for the…
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Progressive Cementation
Sounds like a political party that’s going to lose their deposit, eh? Well, it’s a good idea for scale modelling when the makers of our kits decide to care less about them than we do. When they mould things too fast and the plastic warps out of the blocks. When the parts only fit where…
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MiG21R – Part Three – 006 On The Line
Along with my reputation, which is also a tarnished relic. I don’t mind – it saves a lot of fussiness. The real Mig 21 that was pinched got a thorough working analysis from the IAF before being consigned to Hatzerim. It wore several liveries after the Syrian brown camo was scraped off – some of…
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Mig 21R – Part Two – I’m Gonna Sit Down
And shut up. The judgement that I made about the Condor people making agricultural models is all taken back. They do good work. The basic structure of any kit is…well…basic. I have purchased kits that have been moulded with dismay and disappointment in every seam. Fortunately the seams are also moulded so wide open that…
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Nieuport-Delage 622 – Part Three – On A Wing And A Half
If you don’t have enough materials to make a complete lower wing, just shrink it a bit and no-one will notice… The sesqui-wing is a much-maligned design. I count several in my collection and they are nearly all sleek things. They lower wing is functional to some extent – much like the small wing that…
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Nieuport-Delage 622 – Part Two – Canadian Club
I have chosen this title because of the shape of the Nieuport-Delage 622’s fuselage and sesquiplane lower wing. It reminds me of a baby seal. Coming from the Frozen North as I did, some things are ethnographic… Stop shuddering. If you can eat Vegemite on toast within the sight of decent people, you can stand…
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AI And The Contest Judge – Part Four – You Lose Points
The scale modeller who seeks love by looking in the wrong places – ie a scale model contest – will be particularly ill-served by AI. The ordinary run of contest modelling is hard enough: A. The business of conceiving a new model based upon the bias of the judges – analysing what they rewarded in…
The Little World 