Category: Soviet aircraft
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Soviet Hound – Part Four – It Is Never Open And Shut

It used to be – in the dear old days of Airfix and Monogram. You could buy a model kit that did things. Ailerons moved. as did flaps, elevators, and rudders. Canopies slid back over cockpits and wheels retracted into wells. Occasionally a bomb bay door opened and something fell out. It was all over-scale…
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Soviet Hound – Part Three – Delicacy Rears its Ugly Head

Or is it a frugal conscience? Or just inability to mix paint right? I wondered this as I inspected the Mil 4 model this week after spraying the grey undercoat. I had run out of Base White 1000 – my preferred undercoat for models that are going to be white or yellow – and was…
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Soviet Hound – Part Two – A Day’s Work

Since I retired a second time I have been busy being idle. It is a damned hard thing – you no sooner turn around than another thing falls off the house or someone comes to the door bleeding. It is no good slamming it shut and heading for the drinks trolley – eventually they will…
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Soviet Hound – Part One – A Working Dog

The Mil Mi-4a Hound seems to have been a general-purpose worker for the old Soviet Union from 1960 until the late 70’s. It is boxed by Trumpeter in a larger scale but Hobby Boss offer it for 1:72 in a very precise moulding. Four sprue trees, a colour call out sheet for the USSR and…
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Hobby Boss MiG 3 – Part Three – Side by Side

I couldn’t resist bringing the Italeri/Zvezda MiG 3 back from the VVS shelves to compare it to the Hobby Boss version. I also wondered if the extra canopy in the HB box could replace the scratch-built part on the older kit. In the end I decided against this as the fuselages seem somewhat different dimensions.…
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Hobby Boss MiG3 – Part Two – Day One

Tuesday at the club is always a balancing act – the opportunity to speak with friends vs time to build a model. Often friends win out and a great deal of manure exchange takes place. It makes the hobby all that more fertile. It is a good opportunity to work on a simple kit like…
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Hobby Boss MiG3 – Part One – The Kiddie Shelf

For very old kiddies… I saw a brilliant series of posts on INCH HIGH GUY recently that dealt with the various iterations of the MiG fighter. He got kits from a number of different makers and compared them as he built the lot. Many were extra-detailed from his own scrap box and scratch materials. They…
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Mi-2T Helicopter – Part Three – Andrusiak Air Field

It turned out nice again, eh? I was very pleased with the result of my Hobby Boss Mi-2t Hoplite helicopter kit. I couldn’t have asked for a better fit on the parts and I’m pleased to say that the masking experiment has resulted in some of the best windows and frame lines so far. The…
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Mi-2T Helicopter – Part Two – When I’m Washi-ing Windows

Wi’ nod to George Formby… My relationship to clear plastic parts and canopy windows has changed over the decades. My original plan was to cover them with cement fingerprints and I can report that my first years in the hobby were entirely successful. Even if the Mounties in Kaslo B.C. lose my 1966 fingerprints (…

