Category: subassembly
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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…
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Spitfire Mk IX – Part Two – The Patchwork Quilt
I am always in awe of the kit builder who has every seam perfect, every wheel straight, and every panel line scribed out. Awe and horror. Awe, horror, and unreasoning anger… Well, it’s not quite that bad, but I do regard perfection with some suspicion. Fortunately the Matchbox Spitfire Mk IX is a very soothing…
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Bell P-39 Airacobra – Part Two – The Sprues Goose
There was never going to be a great deal of desperate basic modelling in the construction of two P-39’s from Hobby Boss kits from the outset. And this was just what made the idea so appealing. I know the kit to be a good one and the ease of construction is just a bonus. Doing…
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Consolidated Liberator B. VI – Part Five – The Poor Sods
I may cluck with dismay at the inaccuracies and poor fit of some of the older Airfix offerings – the re-boxed 1960’s to 1990’s models – but I do have to complement the company for one thing; they do provide enough crew members to fly the misshapen beasts. Seams and awkward fit and soft plastic…
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Batch Processing*
I have spent the last three days batch processing US Army fighters, attack planes, and bombers. It started as a whim, became an experiment, and is looking to be a darned good technique for the future. It started with an idea – in my case these may be vast ideas or half-vast ideas, but you…
The Little World 