Category: subassembly
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Gun Or Brush? That Is The Question
Whether ’tis nobler to load up the airbrush with two drops of paint or grasp a hairy stick and muddle over the part. To paint, perchance to drip. As a young model builder my choice was no choice. if I had paint and a brush, on it went. Enamel paint, never thinned. Brush cleaned out…
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Gloster Meteor – Part Two – The Wrong Road
I would be the first person to admit my mistakes – at least the ones I cannot hide under the rug. Or blame on other people. This kit prompted a mistake. I thought that I was going to make an Israeli Meteor to be displayed in 1956 colours at my air museum at Schmatterim. The…
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Strutting Around The Workshop
With my clothes on, I hasten to add… There comes a time in any modeller’s life when they are faced with the difficult decision; do I build a biplane with cabanes and inter-plane struts or do I run amok with a dagger in the mall? I can’t tell you how many times I have faced…
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CAC Boomerang – Part Three – Let’s Take Stock
The start of this build was unpromising. The cardboard box from Tasman Models had all the appeal of a damp surgical appliance and the instruction sheets looked like a practical joke. A Kiwi practical joke at that. It was the sort of kit that you sold on eBay if you were lucky, or bought on…
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CAC Boomerang – Part Two – Wrong
Cicero famously said that any man may be wrong but only a fool persists in error. I wish to state now that I was wrong in my judgement of the Tasman Models Boomerang kit and wish to change my mind. I thought it was going to prove an unbuildable thing – a mere box of…
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The Curse of the Were-Decal
A modeller’s Halloween horror story… I had just gotten to the decal stage for a new model – a tiny little Academy 1:72 Sopwith camel. Lovely model, with interplane and cabane struts that just fell into place. And a simple colour scheme for mine – the RAF museum plane at Hendon; khaki and linen. The…
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Sopwith Camel – Part Four – Marking The Territory
And the next time I do, it will be with an incontinent dog. The colour scheme chosen for the Academy Sopwith Camel is the closest I could come to the preserved example in the RAF museum at Hendon. Working on the assumption that if any knew what a Camel would look like it would be…
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Sopwith Camel – Part Two – The Bagatelle Trap
How many times have you dismissed something as too minor to much concern yourself with? And how many times have you been proved wrong? The casual builder of this little Academy kit may well miss some of the joys of the universe if they take a flippant attitude. Admittedly, the cockpit is nothing at all.…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Five – A Pit Of Cocks
Settle down class. Stop giggling. You in the back, too. The cockpit on the BT 1 had every chance of being awkward – PE rudder pedals and control knobs and such Czecherie – but I refused to let it daunt me. I have already made a Douglas SBD-4 and I am dauntless… The green colour…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Four – The Donkey
And I spent a morning pinning the tail on it. No blindfold. Czech and other short-run airplane kits have many flaws, but one of the most worrying is the fact that they often provide no way of attaching the tail securely. If there is a tab and slot it is rudimentary, clogged with flash and…
The Little World 