Category: subassembly
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Quonset Hut – Part One – The Tin Of Terror

If you have ever spent time in a Nissen or Quonset hut it is subtracted from your stay in Purgatory… These Corrugated Containers Of Discomfort seem to have been erected everywhere in peace and war. Australia housed service personnel, prisoners, and migrants in them, and still has some left in bush towns. They are still…
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Grumman F3F – Part Three – The Toy Shop

Well, at this stage of the game it looks like this aircraft has been made by Mattel or Fisher-Price. Solid bright colour and basic shapes. But all is well – a careful evening was spent getting the struts to join the wings in a decent fashion. Czech kits have little markings on the wing surfaces…
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Nakajima Ki-27 – Part Two – Sitting On The Wing

Because that’s what it looks like the pilot of this fighter is doing. The curved structure of the wing continues inside the fuselage. Not a feature seen anywhere else, in my experience. I bow to ICM’s superior knowledge, however and build as they direct. The options provided in the kit are simple enough – wheels…
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Dassault Super Mystere – Part Two – Come In And Sit Down

A model aircraft cockpit can be a highlight of the build or it can be a pit of cocks. It is all dependent upon the skill of the kit moulders and their level of interest. The classic Airfix or Monogram cockpit that consisted of two posts running horizontally inside and a seat that straddled them…
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The Determined Modeller

I admire determined and steadfast people. As I write this there is a Mort Kunstler print of Ulysses S Grant on the wall facing me. He is raising his hat to celebrate his victory at Vicksburg. The accounts of his trials and his character have always been an inspiration, though I would not follow his…
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Catalina Mk 1 – Part Four – Flat Out

Not so much like a lizard drinking- just flat out like thin paint. The two colours of the Coastal Command upperwoirks are now down on the Cat – both courtesy of the fine set of paints gifted to me. The experiment of using Rapid and Regular Gunze lacquer thinners on the Model Master paints seems…
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Catalina Mk 1 – Part Three – See What I Did There?

Lost three marks along with the wheels. My RCAF Catalina has now reverted to the first mark acquired – a patrol aircraft used off the maritime provinces. I’ve a profile book on it and it is a shame to waste such specific research and drawing. The colour scheme is very British with a little less…
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Catalina Mk IV B – Part Two – Major Surgery

In the case of this aircraft, it is going to go from an amphibian to a flying boat. The wheels are to be removed. The landing gear boxes for the PBY 5 are cemented on all sides, but fortunately the ones on this kit had escaped some of the glue. A few strokes of the…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part Two – Dia uno

First club day working on the Academy Polikarpov and the job is flying along! There are fewer parts to this aircraft than the ICM 1:72 version but the contours are much the same. It is odd to find such a large scale ( for me ) with so little cockpit detail. But then again, so…

