Category: Scale Models
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F-15 Eagle – Part Two – Flaps, Gaps, And Traps

I used to think traps were for the unwary. Then I found myself carefully sticking my fingers in to get the cheese and reaping a snappy reward. There are also traps in the Academy F-15 kit – mainly slight sinks in the intakes and screeching big troubles between the top and bottom halves of the…
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Paint Pot No. 2

The business of spray can and bottle was covered in a previous post. Now it’s the turn of the choice of alcohol/water acrylics and acrylic lacquers. Like a lot of people who remembered enamels, I commenced my latter-day modelling with alcohol/water acrylics. A well-known brand that starts with ” T “. The paints worked well,…
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Yak 3 – Part Four _ Speed Is As Speed Does

When you are not bending up connecting rods from brass PE sheets for a 1/72 kit, it seems to go a lot faster in the construction. Not as liable to win Best-of-Show at the Anorak Expo, but you have to be realistic. And Hobby Boss are the most realistic moulders I know. The Yak 3…
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Yak 3 – Part Two – There’s An Hour Of My Life…

Well-spent, as it happens. The Yak 3 basic structure is cemented together with the cockpit painted already. You can see why I like Hobby Boss products – particularly in a case where there is a time constraint. I don’t want to turn out a shoddy model, but I don’t have time for Boola-Boolavarde stops, as…
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The Kit Whisperer

We are to have our scale model exhibition in a few months and I will be there showing some of my builds and taking pictures of other people’s efforts. I’ll also browse the trade stands and the second-hand sales that go on. Of the two, I think I’ll have the most fun with the junk.…
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Where Does The Money Trail Go To?

When we buy a model kit, or a pot of paint, or a roll of masking tape, where does the money we pay go? I shop at a local dealer who has a good stock – I occasionally go to rival firms if they have special goods. In all the shops, I pay my money…
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North American Yale – Part Three – Canadian Peculiarities

It’s a nation that pours tree sap on its food. That eats strawberry jam pies. That considers chips in gravy and cheese to be healthy. Peculiarity is in the air. This also extended to the products of Canadian Car Foundry and the training airfields. Hence the odd hole in the side of the engine cover…
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North American Yale – Part One – Exact Fit

When you find a pair of shoes that fit exactly – and they are on special sale – and you have the money – you owe it to your feet to buy them. And the same applies to model kits. I know I’m preaching to the choir here – I mean it’s model kit builders…
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Using Up The Mashed Potatoes

When you open your refrigerator are you faced with shelves full of Tupperware containers? And in each one of them there’s a portion of something you ate earlier in the week? And none of the containers hold enough of anything for a feed? What do you do? Why you tip everything into a fry pan,…
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Hillson Praga Air Baby – Part Four – It Was A Good Idea At The Time…

Plywood wing, tube-frame fuselage, tiny 4-cylinder engine. What could possibly go wrong? Well you have to hand it to Hillson Praga. They were stylish. The little Air Baby looks good from many angles, and if the history of the type in Australia is to be believed, the three examples that got here were successful. Part…
