Category: subassembly
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Curtiss Model 75 A-4 – Part Two – Interior Precision

I am not a fan of super-detailed cockpits. They seem to be too much trouble for too little reward. But I do admire the AML company for the all-resin cockpit tub produced for this fighter plane. I has popped together with a precision that is rarely seen. Not without effort, I might add. Resin parts…
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Bristol Mk32 Superfreighter – Part Three – Who Was That Masked Whale?

Balance it up in your mind – whether you trust the decal makers to put a product out that will look like a painted surface, or whether you can make a painted surface look like a decal. If you can fold a 2-dimansional sheet of plastic paint to conform to a 3D surface with convex…
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Bristol Mk32 Superfreighter – Part Two – Bristol Box

Just seeing the kit parts in the cardboard box doesn’t prepare you for the shape of the Bristol 170…it is too unbelievably boxy to exist. Yet, it did. And my wife was a passenger on a number of flights on Bristol 170 air ferries between Lydd and Le Touquet. So the RCAF conversion has been…
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Hurricane Night Fighter – Part Two – Saturday To Monday

King’s Birthday long weekend and I had something better to do than go to the Royal Show. The basic structure of the Hurricane went together on Saturday afternoon. The undercoat and then the black sprayed on Sunday. The clear gloss was Monday. This kept me home – off the roads and safe from the double-demerit…
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How Complex Is Enough?

Engaged in building a Christmas present kit, I was surprised to see how simple it was. A modern jet fighter in 1/72, with smooth lines and little external hardware, the build was nevertheless satisfying. The after-market enthusiasts would have a ball, but there are no ready sources of this that I know – and I’d…
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VVS Tupolev SB2 – Part Three – Freehand

Not a choice I frequently make – I am a mask and spray person. In this case the photos of an SB2 in the Winter War were pretty thin on the ground ( and that was covered in snow,…) and the delineation of the two areas of colour in the monochrome pictures is poor. Not…
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MiG-29 Fulcrum – Part Two – Thinking Behind

Thinking behind is opposite from thinking ahead and has different rules. a. You are not meant to feel good. b. You are not going to do a good job. c. The language is different. Shorter and sharper… My second lesson in second thinking came when I had closed up the fuselage of he MiG-29. It…
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Heinkel He-111c – Part Four – What’s Pink And Sticky?

Your answer will depend upon your character and level of maturity. In my case both are low, but I still think of ” sprue goo ” in answer to this question. I make it for pennies from discarded plastic sheet and lacquer thinner, and am starting to make it in three distinct consistencies. It may…
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Heinkel He-111c – Part Two – The Elsan

You may not have a lot in life, but as long as you have a pot… This is the type of thought that I deal with every day – no wonder the in-laws avoid me at parties. In this case, the Roden kit of the He 111c brought it to mind again as I commenced…

