Category: subassembly
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North American Mitchell – Part Four – The Tail Gunner
Every good bomber needs a tail gunner – the chap who sits at the back and is the first one to get killed. And every model airplane build needs a tail gunner as well – but for a better reason. Unfortunately the model of the B-25 I am making is one with no rear gun……
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North American Mitchell – Part Three – Cementing A Friendship
The world seems to be divided into two camps – those who don’t care about Brexit, and those who don’t care about Justin Trudeau. There are a few of us who have sought to bridge the gap and heal the rift by not caring about both subjects at the same time. Given a cup of…
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North American Mitchell – Part Two – Sparring For My Attention
The Airfix company are pursuing a theme with their latest moulds of multi-engine aircraft. They are giving us far more detail than ever before and the walls of the fuselages and the wings are becoming thinner. When we see the edge of a window or an opening it is far more in-scale than the old…
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McDonnell Banshee – Part Three – The Paint Call-Out
At a certain point in the construction of the McDonnell Banshee in Royal Canadian Navy livery I needed to consider the paints required. I took to the Academy instruction shoot and looked at their colour call-out chart. It confirmed what I already knew from looking at internet pictures of the plane ( I had never…
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McDonnell Banshee – Part Two – The Body On The Rack
My new building rack was ready when I was working on the fuselage of the Banshee. The heading image shows the bare thing taped down to the rack with cheap masking tape. Note that I have standardised upon the Bear brand painter’s tape from Bunnings for most non-critical tape jobs They do a very low-tack…
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Canadair Sabre – Part Two – Basic Airframe
Well, I will tip my hat to Airfix – this is one lovely build. I am almost going to get away with no putty, and if the Mr. Surfacer can be coaxed to thicken up by letting it evaporate a little, I can paste it on instead. There was only one little bit of fettling…
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Vought Vindicator – Part Three – The Yellow Arrives
I am starting to formulate a style in my model building – in fact a number of styles, depending upon the scale and type of model under construction: a. Large model buildings are done from sketches and photographs with a fair degree of leeway in the design. I stick to simple lines and art deco…
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Vought Vindicator – Part Two – The Czech To Progress
I have written before about Eastern European short-run kits and their peculiarities. The first experience was bad, then good, then bad, then gradually better and better. It is very much a mixed bag of sweet and sours when you build Czech, Pole, or Ukrainian. The Vought Vindicator is actually quite on the sweet side. To…
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Grumman Martlet Mk IV – Part Three – A Long Way
It is said to be a long way to Tipperary but it cannot be much further than the distance between the modern Airfix kit and the 50¢ baggie of my childhood. Today’s work on the Grumman Martlet emphasised this to me as I undertook the delicate job of closing the fuselage. It required the subtle…
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Grumman Martlet Mk. IV – Part Two – Well Done Airfix
There is a fine line in scale aircraft modelling…and if you’re not careful you scrape it right off with an Xacto knife… No, there’s a fine line between not enough detail and too much. ie. the French Mach 2 for the former and the Czech Special Hobby for the latter. With the Chinese Hobby Boss…
The Little World 