Category: subassembly
-
Israeli Phantom – Part Three – Library Day

The IAF Phantom was ready for decals within 5 days of starting it – fruit of the new serial building program. The secret of successful decals is the gloss surface upon which they rest, of course, and I have learned that by a long series of neglectful errors. And as with many modellers, I’ve gone…
-
Israeli Phantom – Part Two – The Curate’s Egg Revisited

One does not look a gift Phantom in the intakes. However, one sometimes observes that the makers of the kits may over-reach themselves. They break up a design into mouldable parts but fail to tell their mould-makers to talk to each other at the time. There are a number of interesting points of difference in…
-
Short Skyvan – Part Four – Progressive!

If I were still in Canada I would probably be a Progressive Conservative. As it is I am in Australia and have become a Progressive Cementer. I assemble the fuselages of my model aircraft with a great deal less dash than I used to exhibit; I am cautious and careful and rarely glue myself to…
-
RAF Puma – Part Two – Seats

” You know what, Bob? We’re not flying a helicopter…” Well, what are we flying? ” A bus. We’re flying a bloody bus. Look at that row of seats aft and tell me we’re not just bus drivers. God, I dread it when school comes back…” And so it goes in the RAF helicopter trade.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Mirage 2000C – Part Two – The Gaps

Not a BBC series about a family in the marshes – this is a the business of dealing with Italeri kit fit…that doesn’t. I will be fair – the overall fit of the Italeri Mirage 2000C is superb – most of the panels abut each other perfectly. The only horrors are on the leading edge…
-
Queen Mary – Part Two – Club Afternoon

I frequent two hobby clubs: The One You Admit To and The One You Conceal. To be fair, I change the designations around from month to month so that everyone can feel uncomfortable… The heading image is the amount accomplished at one 3-hour session. Airfix were precise and sensible when they wanted to be; you…
-
Hawker Typhoon 1B – Part Two – Scratch

Even if you don’t itch. It’ll be good for you. The bare tunnel between the open radiator grill and the open cockpit on this model are extreme – even for the early days of moulding. Airfix and Matchbox at least gave you a pilot, even if he was attached to the fuselage side with plastic…
