Category: Scale Models
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Repairing Our Mistakes

If we repair our mistakes we gain a great deal of control over our modelling. And it can make us better workers. a. We recognise a mistake. This is better when we do it before we commit it…sort of dry-fit your way out of danger – but even if we have gone all the way…
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Piper J3 – Part Five – The Universal Cub

The best thing about the Piper J3 Cub is it is so darned cute. The second best thing is that it is ubiquitous. It can sit on the tarmac of any of my airports or air museums from the 1930’s onward and be perfectly at home. The kit has proved to be a beauty –…
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Piper J3 – Part Four – The Irish Jig

Faith and begorrah, and here’s to the Auld Sod. I mean the one who invented jigs to assemble airplanes. I have reviewed all the commercial aids for assembly – the plastic, wood, and metal jigs that are touted on the modelling sites. Also the ones that appear in catalogs from places that will not ship…
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Piper J3 – Part Two – Inky, Winky, and Dinky

I don’t think I would be able to build things in smaller scale than 1:72 unless they were of very big prototypes – the parts would be too small. As it is I curse the nonsense of PE and resin details. The heading image shows a pretty good result for the interior of the J3…
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Piper J3 – Part One -The Household Word

Hoover. Not Herbert, you herbert. Hoover like in vacuum cleaner. The brand name. Except, in England it isn’t a brand name – it’s the name of a class of product – the vacuum cleaner. People don’t vacuum the house, they hoover it. Losing that capital letter was the greatest piece of industrial and advertising good…
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Junkers Ju52 – Part Two – The Four-part Fuselage

The Potez bomber that Mister Craft boxed up from a Heller mould had a distinctive four-sided fuselage that lent itself to IKEA construction. So does the Junkers 52 – as long as you get the elements in registration it all goes very well. But that doesn’t mean that you can wipe round the edges, clap…
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Junkers Ju52 – Part One – Vanilla, Please…

What? Straight out of the box? No complicated build? No sheet of arcane decals? No aftermarket resin kit? Just the thing you bought off the shelf? What sort of a monster are you? A tired one. Tired of the bullshit of trying to re-make every single kit into something weird. Tired of having to second-guess…
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Grumman Goblin I – Part Six – Ol’ 340

Ol’ 340 is finished and will take her place on the main runway of RCAF WET DOG, Students of aviation may wish to adopt the methods of Sherlock Holmes; observe and then make deductions. The basis for the decision to build this plane this way came from Harold Skaarup’s vast collection of Canadian airplane pictures.…
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Grumman Goblin I – Part Five – The March To The Gallows

You can only put off unpleasant things for so long – eventually you have to face up to them and either conquer or be conquered. In my case the dread arose because of the cabane and interplane struts of this aircraft. True to their past form, the short-run moulders had made hardly any provision for…
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Grumman Goblin I – Part Four – Ugly Bug Ball

There is a certain point in your wife’s beauty routine that you should not see. Lovers may never see it, if their lady is careful. Husbands will inevitably happen upon it at some stage of the game. The shock will be severe. It may lead the man to blurt out a cry of dismay. This…
