Category: subassembly
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Canadian Valentine Tank – Part Two – Semi-Detailed
I am alternately delighted and dismayed when I see the interior of a model kit. It may be anything from fully-detailed to absolutely bare, and even the walls of the cockpit or interior of the tank or car may be problematical. There are moulds that concentrate their ijector pin towers right where you are looking.…
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General Dynamics F111 – Part Two – Library Day
Every fortnight I repair to the Cambridge Library in Floreat for an afternoon of modelling, coffee, and chocolate biscuits. As it is a public place there is no booze allowed, and I drive home clear-headed. Except if there has been a lot of cementing and painting. Fortunately 1/144 involves very little of either and the…
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Bristol Type 130 Bombay – Part Three – Is It Mistrust Or Distrust?
The dictionary isn’t clear on the distinction. Either way, when I look at the design of some kits – particularly the butt joint of a thin horizontal stabiliser – I start to get sceptical. My experience of adhesives tells me that there are all too many instances when they don’t. I would not ask long…
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Bristol Type 130 Bombay – Part Two – The Inside Job
I’ve learned to do as I’m told…mostly. I do pay attention when the makers of a kit instruct me to build the aircraft cockpit first. Dropping one in after the fuselage is joined is very rarely an option. It can be done with some Soviet fighters where there is a large opening at the wing…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Three – Wings Over The Workbench
I walk in awe of the people who build scale model biplanes and then rig them. They have condemned themselves to the sort of stage act that used to involve Chinese jugglers, bamboo poles, and spinning bowls…and then added the sort of things that would make a spider burst into tears. I don’t know what…
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The Prefab Model
You might justifiably say that all plastic model kits are prefab. If something is moulded and needs no shaping it is the factory modelling – not you. But we all realise that there is a great deal of re-shaping in most kits before any assembly can be contemplated. The sprue tree – that basic component…
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McDonnell Douglas Phantom – Part One – The Iconic Fighter
As a young person I was as susceptible to hype as anyone – including that put out about modern aircraft. The jet fighter that seemed to get most of it was the McDonnell Douglas Phantom. For a while I confused it with the older McDonnell Phantom – a late 1940’s straight-wing jet. But it was…
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Grumman Albatross – Part Two – Shipmates Stand Together
Don’t give up the ship. Or the kit, for that matter. My first club morning with this kit went very well - the dry parts fit was excellent for a period piece and I was ready to work on the interior by the time I left for home. I did paint the inside and started to…
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Supermarine Swift FR.5 – Part Two – The Inside Job
And a lovely job it was, too. The modern Airfix kit will please and delight the builders of cockpits as a great deal of effort has been put into this first stage. Gone are the days of a lumpy pilot figure plugged into a plastic rod from one side of he fuselage, or a bare…
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Airbus 320-200 – Part Two – A Curate’s Egg
And parts of it are excellent. So far the only cavil is a few lumps in the line of the engine mounts and a short-shot in a trailing edge. Sprue Goo takes care of the latter and a filing stick the former. The fuselage sides are a commendably close fit, and the clear cockpit windows…
