Category: subassembly
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Revell Sopwith Camel – Part Three – Putt Putt Putty
If you are averse to the plastic arts you would do well never to panel-beat a motor car, plaster a wall, or build an old Revell kit. Because at some stage of the game you are going to be sitting there with a bricklayer’s towel and half a hundredweight of plaster, bog, or Mr White…
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Revell Sopwith Camel – Part Two – Those Were Apparently The Days
And I was just the right age -14 – to fail to appreciate just how awful the Revell kits were at the time. I had built Revell planes and ships since the 1950’s and they were a sort of base standard upon which other maker’s efforts were judged. Aurora was worse, Monogram was better, Eaglewall…
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SAAB Tunnen – Part Three – Not Scot Free
As you can see in the heading image, the SAAB Tunnen has not gone scot-free from the need for filler. The culprit is the optional piece for the underside of the nose – it is either a cannon-armed fighter like this or the photo-recon version with camera windows. You are faced with a curved seam…
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SAAB Tunnen – Part Two – Spacious Swede
Nearly all tricycle-gear planes need some sort of nose weight to prevent them sitting on their tails. In some cases it can be a geometric nightmare trying to find enough space at the front of the fuselage to accommodate that weight. You are asking for trouble if you try to do it with lumps of…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part Three – Close Enough For Jazzski
And there I was, getting along so very well…and then winter set in. I knew it was winter because the snow started drifting into the gaps between the wing roots and the fuselage on this Avis model. I was delighted, as it obscured the giant trenches that had appeared. But come spring, the ruse would…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part Two – The Soviet Engine
I might not have been paying attention in the past to the details of aero engineering…but I do now that the kit makers are making much more detailed efforts. For instance, I always built the Airfix and Monogram fighters with radial engines that fit inside cowlings. In many cases they were just engine fronts inside…
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True Scale Issue 5 – January 2023
Here is the 5th issue of TRUE SCALE – the newsletter of the Scale Model Club Of Western Australia. It marks a new calendar year and a fresh experiment in presentation. Prior to this, the pages that make up the newsletter were passing through several mechanisms to get here – some of which softened the…
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PZL P.11c – Part Two – Volte Face
Ahem. This may be difficult. I need to change my mind without giving the impression I was ever wrong. I mean, I don’t want to rend the fabric of the universe, now do I? But I need to change my mind about the Polish model moulding business. I once was of the opinion that the…
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Oh Ye Of Little Faith
Draw Nigh And Listen Unto Me. Cement it twice and glue it three times. For that is the only way that thou wilt be able to keep the pissy little landing gear legs in their position, or the canopy on firmly. Or indeed the fuselage halves together. Add another layer of cement or glue and…
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Fiat CR.32 – Part Three – Subassemblies
The call-out and the box art for this Italian/Chinese fighter show sub-assemblies bolted onto the basic structure. The pictures provide a valuable clue that the instructions fail to show; you need to pre-paint the assemblies before you attach them – or you’ll never get clean demarcations. So, emboldened by the Slovakian jigs, I tried a…
The Little World 