Category: subassembly
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The Perils Of the Hot Box

Now we’re not talking about a broken bearing f on a railroad car – the proverbial North American ” hot box ” that leads to the failure of the axle and derailment of the train. No, our hot box is the plastic curing box that sits on top of an electric oil-reservoir heater in the…
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IAI Kfir C-1 – Part Two – Grey Plastic Day

The first assembly day for any model can be a school in itself – the Czech and Polish kits in particular are often hard lessons. They challenge both the imagination ( Where the heck is the cockpit actually supposed to be fastened…? ) and the patience ( Is that an ejector pin or a part…
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Boy, Was Flory Ever Right

And more correct than even he thought. Phil Flory is making some bite-sized videos for modellers to introduce them to basic concepts – and right at the start of this series he has advised people to sit down with the instruction book and plan out their build. Good, good advice, and something that no-one else…
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Douglas Dauntless – Part Two – The Hissy Fit

Well, that’s not accurate – this is not a hissy fit – this kit has excellent fit. Whoever really moulded it, they have done a good job. The basic idea of the wing is Douglas all the way – see the general shape of the RCAF Nomad target tug I built earlier. Look at the…
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Douglas C-47 – Part Three – One Day

Well, it was a temperate and pleasant summer day and no-one needed me, so I just popped the top on the Italeri kit, washed the sprue trees, and got on with it. The component parts you see here laid out ready for temporary or permanent assembly were the result of about 5 hours of cutting,…
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Douglas C-47 – Part Two – Honeymoon Express

The plane I’m building has a real history – apart from being a special scheme on a set of aftermarket decals. ” Honeymoon Express ” was the lead ship on a paratroop assault on Nadzab in New Guinea in 1943 in conjunction with an assault on Lae. It is a good point of interest as…
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Brewster Bermuda – Part Seven – Ray Stevens…

Ray Stevens once had a big hit song in which he suggested that everything is beautiful in its own way. I take it that Mr. Stevens never saw a Brewster Bermuda half-way through a camouflage job. I’m building it and I rather like the Brewster airplanes but even so I think it’s as ugly as sin.…
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Brewster Buccaneer – Part Two – It Fits!

Those two glorious words… The interior for the Brewster Buccaneer is a complex thing – Special Hobby have made use of tiny little injected pieces as well as the resin and PE and it took a day and a halve to finish the flight deck. But I have to give the Czechs credit where it…
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Douglas Digby Mk I – Part Three – The Name…

I am puzzled. The name doesn’t seem to fit. When US airplanes got a name – as opposed to a model number – they generally got one that tied in with an established pattern – as a for instance, take the Boeing series of bombers – from B 17 to B-52 in four steps –…
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Douglas Digby Mk I – Part Two – The Split Herring

Well, you gotta admit the heading image looks a bit like that. I decided to show the office before I closed it up as the thing took the best part of two days to do. The club session was spent assembling big structures like wings and tailplanes but the rest of that day and all…
