Category: subassembly
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Four – While The Goo Sets…
Busy your hands, to stop your mind from screaming. The engine cowlings on this model have become a standard mark in my workshop. They form the nadir from which anything else is better. I have joined the halves and lit a votive candle. The interior is bare, but surprisingly neat. It is simple, of course,…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Three – Oh, Just Grit Yer Teeth…
Pull up your Big-Girl panties, and get on with it. It’s not going to make itself. The first thing that has to go is the upper turret. Tasman have made a decent job of it, and the whitemetal gun mount will be saved for the future, but the aircraft I’m modelling has no turret. so…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Two – The Apology
At least Tasman Models are scrupulously honest. They recognised the problems of short-run manufacturing and the times when it just doesn’t come out like a Disney movie. The under-wing parts of this model apparently were consistently short-shooting at the wing tip. They realised it , modified the panel on the mould, and added two extra…
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Lockheed S-3A Viking – Part Two – Cut And Glue
And really – that is all there was to it for the day. Some jobs are too hard and some too easy. The Hasegawa Viking fell into the space between these two extremes, and I am not complaining one little bit. When surfaces fit without fettling, when there is enough space for the nose weight,…
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A Model Philosopher’s Stone
Alchemy in scale. The old concept of the Philosopher’s Stone that would transmute lead into gold never quite got off the ground – both substances defying the power of 18th century aero engines to achieve lift. Even when modern jets and rockets were strapped to freight cars full of lead and the vehicles sent down…
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Westland Lysander – Part Three – Lynx Paws
If there is one thing that defines the Westland Lysander, whether in RAF or RCAF service, it is the landing gear. Lynx paws, I call them, with enough space inside them to hold two machine guns and two landing lights. The rest of the aircraft might have the design of a cement mixer, but the…
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Westland Lysander – Part Two – Fragile Nest
I was right to wonder about the fragility of the cockpit on this Dora Wings kit. Even at the outset, some parts did not come off the sprue trees intact. Fortunately there are pieces of Evergreen plastic in the scrap box that match the profile of the broken pieces. The fact that the greenhouse is…
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Tupolev SB2 – Part Three -Guessing Game
Meetings in the design bureau of a scale model company must be interesting to attend. Are there knives? Do people disappear? Do they call in dancing girls and order pizza? I ask because some of the decisions that come from these meetings seem to be motivated by strange desires. Who would have split the fuselage…
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Grumman Hawkeye – Part Two – Filling And Filing
And not just in one stage, either. When you take on an older kit, you accept the limitations of the art at the time that it was made. You can build it with the skills of that time or with modern ones. Either way is a sort of compromise. Here we have a combination of…
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Once You’ve Done The Worst Of The Kit
You need not fear the rest of the kit. My club-mate Michael Marchant showed me the tank tracks he was working on – they were from one of those Czech productions that have multiple parts per link, and multiple links per track, and no fun anywhere. I sympathised with him but left before any of…
The Little World 