Category: subassembly
-
The Masked Man – Part Four – The Leap Of Faith
Every model kit build has a point that I hate – in the case of the R/C ships a half-century ago, it used to be the carving of the hulls. Now its the masking of the canopies and the cockpits on small airplanes. The tasks were and are small but the daunting is big. As…
-
The Cockpit – Part Three – The Pen Is Mightier Than The Canopy
You’ve read before in this column about using a drafting pen as an instrument to paint the frames of a model airplane canopy. It is a perfectly valid technique – and one that I use all the time. If I am going to attach the canopy later with PVA glue, I can sit with it…
-
Do Not Cock Up Your Pit – Part one – Wear A Mask And Talk Dirty…
Or ” Keeping the windows clean in a shit storm “. If airplanes were built like army tanks ( and some, Like the A-10 Warthog – are…) we modellers would have an easy time of it. Indeed if pilots were not such wusses and kept on insisting that they needed to be inside out of…
-
Caudron Renault 714 CI – Part Two – Flip Her Over, Maurie
Well, she’s got pretty good seams on the top and bottom of the fuselage, and the wing roots are no worse than an Amodel or RS kit. But oh, Lord the ailerons… It looks as though the mould that was supposed to close up for that portion of the wing shifted in the machine. There…
-
Tupolev SB2 – Part Two – In Russia Model Make You
If I had been in any doubt looking at the crude plastic on the sprue runners, it was dispelled when I got to the ” Made In USSR ” stamped into the plastic. I was relieved. Up until that moment I had been worried that this kit was an elaborate practical joke and that Alan…
-
Hawker Seahawk – Part Two – Ess Bend Aviation
Now that the contract for refurbishing aircraft has been let out to Ess bend Aviation in Alberta, Stein’s Air World can concentrate upon preparing museum displays rather than spreading an aircraft over an entire shop for years. This is what happens when in-house restoration is undertaken. Here are a couple of pictures of the work…
-
AIrfix Mosquito – Part Two – The Lists…
There can be two lists connected with every scale model airplane kit; the list of things that went right and the list of things that went wrong. You’re only in trouble if the lists contain the same items…Here’s the good one for this Airfix Mosquito: It was free. I had special decals saved up for…
-
Vought CorsairF4U-1 – Part Three – Thanks, Doc…
Thank you, Dr. Tamiya. I needed that. That slap in the face with a model kit: That fits together without sanding or filing. With an entire cockpit in 1:72 as a matter of course. With wing seams that need no putty. With the engine where all cylinders are part of the injection moulding and no…
-
De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Three – Do Not Decal
At least do not decal when you can paint. I am in awe of modellers who can make a decal panel lay down over an undulating wing or fuselage and have it come out taut and flat with no silvering or air bubbles. Even more so when the decal involves several panels abutting each other.…
-
De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Two – Voila
No apologies for going from the bare kit parts to the glued-together carcass…it has been a busy two days. The model building club’s rooms have air conditioning and so does my computer room – I have repaired to them to escape the 40º plus heat in Perth. My workshop goes far above that on a…
The Little World 