Category: Scale Models
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Matchbox Helldiver – Part Three – The Hubley Kit
If you are from North America you’ll recognise the name Hubley. They were a die-cast toy maker of the 40’s and 50’s who made larger size offerings. I owned a Hubley Bell telephone truck with working winch and pole trailer – surely an odd choice of prototype even for the times. I observed other kids…
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Matchbox Helldiver – Part Two – Wing It Or Sling It?
Here’s a dilemma. I’ve pictures of the prototype SB2C with folded wings. And the Matchbox kit has folding wings. But they are folded on the toy principle and look bloody awful. I have low standards but every now and then something shows up that undercuts them. I have built folded wings on an Airfix Devastator…
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Matchbox Helldiver – Part One – Progressing Backwards
I already own two Curtiss SB2C models – one a US Navy version and one a USAAF A25 Shrike. They were respectively a Sword and a Dragon kit. Both characteristic of their countries of origin – the Czech one a challenge of approximation and the Hong Kong one a masterpiece of precision. But two were…
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How Many, Oh Lord?
How many Messerschmitts can people buy? How many do they need? What are they doing with them? I asked this in grey desperation as I cruised the kit aisle of three of Perth’s hobby shops searching for cheap new models of interesting subjects. I saw kits from what must be two dozen various makers and…
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Lockheed CT-133 Silver Star – Part Four – Moose Jaw, Here We Come
The real 261 is flying the Canadian air show circuit , to judge from the photos found on the internet. I was delighted to see it as it combined the features I love; RCAF prototype,simple colour scheme, decals I could duplicate. That, BTW is the big one. I use inkjet printing and have a few…
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Lockheed CT 133 Silver Star – Part Two – You May Have Noticed…
You may have noticed that the box art shown in the first episode refers to a T-33A aircraft – a Shooting Star. Well by the time the RCAF got their Canadian-built variants of this US trainer, it had become the CT-133 Silver Star. There were a few modifications; a different thickness of perspex in the…
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Smorgasbuilding
One of those, and one of those, and one of those… And you won’t build that sort again, because they’re icky. And there you are, in the aisle of the local HobbyHell Supastore looking for a small bottle of paint – or a large box of tank. And you see a rack full of packets…
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Mirage F.1C – Part Four – I Must Build More
a. More French aircraft. b. More jet aircraft. c. More Hasegawa aircraft. d. More varied operators. The completion of the Moroccan Mirage F.1C has been a real pleasure – a kit that had few flaws to trap me. Of course I made mistakes but I made them early and easy. And this is the point…
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Mirage F.1C – Part Two –
I am not a naturally suspicious person. I do not see conspiracies in every coup, assassination, or Disney movie. I regularly send money to Nigerian princesses. Yet I suspect every tricycle-geared airplane that they build…they are all tail-sitters just waiting for us to have a moment’s lapse of attention. I regularly weigh and balance planes…
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Mirage F.1C – Part One – Stash Build
And it turned out to be part of someone else’s stash. These things come to you. There’ll be a bring and buy sale at a model exhibition or a swap meet at the local club. If you are told of it in time you can prepare yourself by rummaging in the wife’s purse or the…
The Little World 