Category: subassembly
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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…
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Caproni C 311 – Part Three – Civilian Conversion

The conversion of old military aircraft to civilian mode was quite a thing back in the late 40’s and early 50’s. There were a great many spare aircraft left over from the conflict – despite the fact that so many were shot down and wrecked. Careful buying by Ruritanian agents in Europe brought a number…
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Caproni C-311 – Part Two – FINALLY!

Finally I figure out a way to stop being clumsy. I build a great many kits, and find that I like to keep busy in the various stages by doing sub assemblies and finishing them before they are added to the main airframe. It is much the same as was done with wartime factories and…
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Boeing X-Plane – Part Three – Big Donk

This is the biggest small piston engine in my collection – until I locate a 1/72 B-36… The four-row piston engine – 28 cylinders and I suppose 56 spark plugs – was a massive effort to put more power into the air. It was so powerful that it needed to be split between two contra-rotating…
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Boeing X-Plane – Part Two – Mind The Gap…

I was greatly encouraged while during open stage of fuselage construction by the fact that the two halves fitted together almost perfectly. And the big, sturdy wing halves did the same – even the wing tips had minimal ledging. This can be a real problem for some kits as there is little to fill or…
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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…
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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.…
