Category: subassembly
-
Progressive Cementation

Sounds like a political party that’s going to lose their deposit, eh? Well, it’s a good idea for scale modelling when the makers of our kits decide to care less about them than we do. When they mould things too fast and the plastic warps out of the blocks. When the parts only fit where…
-
Sherman Tank – Part Four – Aha, A Flaw!

And I did not think I would find one in this Zvezda kit. One of the mufflers is missing. The plastic stock box yielded a bit of Evergreen tube and its end was sealed with Milliput. Simple. Every other blessed part fit perfectly – and spending a day making the bogies was a real pleasure.…
-
Sherman Tank – Part Three – Batch Processing

” Batch processing ” is the term we use in photography for editing one image perfectly, then commanding a computer program to make all the rest in the job the same. It saves an immense amount of post-processing time. ( Working with really lousy images is known as son of a batch processing…) It is…
-
Another Bronco – Part two – Dry Fit For The Win

You can get a pretty good idea early on with a scale model kit – whether it is going to be kind to you or slash your face. The OV-10 is one of the former. Here is the thing after one afternoon in the library cutting and painting. The wing has been cemented together, as…
-
Potez 540T – Part Two – Two Days Later

My faith in this old Smêr kit is being vindicated at every stage. The paint came off – the parts came apart – and the reconstruction began. The windows are still running on the original cementation, so they got masked for the internal re-spray. The FF company harkened to their pre-war colour with a very…
-
Foam Core For The Win Yet Again

Using foam board is now becoming the new trend around here. We’ve stopped using sheets of pasta when we make lasagne – it’s foam board instead. It also makes pretty good non-lethal ninja stars, if you’re into sex games… It also solved a problem in the decaling of a new fighter plane. I built an…
-
RAF Wellington – Part Three – Bow Pen For The Win

If you do not have one, get one. Get two. Get several. You can never have enough bow pens. I have three – one from a drafting set my Grandfather used – one from a set my Father used, and one from a cheap eBay buy. The first two are best, the last adequate. Whenever…
-
RAF Wellington – Part Two – The Inside Job

I am starting to model in four dimensions. Outside for length, width, and height. Inside for detail. Of course the general viewers will never know what’s inside, but I will. I will treasure the vision of a jewelled interior telling intriguing stories. And I will have beaten the old Airfix/Revell/Aurora monster of the hollow fuselage.…
-
Bellanca Pacemaker – Part Four – PE P/O

Or what to do when you cannot get your hands round the throat of the person who designed the kit. I make no complaint about the mould-cutting shop. Or the injection plastic line. The design department are mostly blameless as is the decal office. My venom is reserved for the acid-pocked faces of the photo-etch…
-
Bellanca Pacemaker – Part Three – Seams We Need To Fill Something

If you paid more to read these posts, the jokes would be better. The fuselage on the Dora Wings is a model…of course it’s a model…of sturdiness. Once the sides and top come together with some liquid cement and dry for a night the whole is greater than the parts. But there is a discrepancy…
