Category: Tools
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Caudron C-445 – Part Three – The Jig Is Up
And as Lou Gosset might have it – ” and running…”. This was the first time that then new Slovakian jigs got their real trial. The Caudron was a perfect size for the WW2 pattern – though there were more adjustments to make on the rack than you’d think. The wing clamps were a little…
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Beaufighter TFX – Part Two – The 50’s Revisited
The quality of the Airfix Beaufighter is actually quite good when you get to the cut and glue stage. You must imagine the insides, but then you do that when you study anatomy as well and at least the kit doesn’t smell of formalin. All seams fit well, though I suspect the silver plastic used…
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How Cheap Can This Little Bastard Be?
Gosh, I remember my mother saying that when I was a kid. Takes ya back, eh… The tool wall you see in the heading image was the result of going to Bunnings and looking at the prices they wanted for Tactix tool boxes and storage containers. These are not the most expensive items, but like…
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Jet Jig Jive
I’ve just used the second of my new Slovakian assembly jigs for a jet. It is the Tornado GR.1 from Italeri – a perfect testing piece for the tool. There are square fuselage panels to rest upon. The geometry is markedly different from the WW2 small jig – though the construction materials are just the…
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Lockdown Modelling
Put aside your politics, folks. I’m concerned with the practicalities of scale modelling when they call a lockdown in your area. If you’re at home to stay for a period of time, your best friends are not the TV or the cocktail cabinet. They are your library and your modelling stash. And possibly your computer,…
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One Tool To Rule Them All
And that is all I intend to borrow from Tolkien. I saw the movies years ago and that was all I needed. But the real topic here is that one tool. You know the one. The one that is there in your tool kit. It’s the one you had when you started model building. The…
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Are You Organised?
Are you organised enough? Or too much? Are people diving down side streets to avoid you when you ask them about organisation? Is it time for an intervention? I ask this in the wake of a day spent organising my modelling boxes. Note the plural there – it indicates that we are, as Kinky Friedman…
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Slovakian Jigs – Part Two
A hot Boxing Day is the ideal time to do a new cool kit. You are not stressed by work or family commitments and the precision that good work requires is at your fingertips. At least it is if you have not been on the turps for the last week. My Christmas had been abstemious…
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Grumman Goblin I – Part Three – Fuselage of Courage
The title of this column recognises that there is a certain stoutness of spirit required when you try to close up a fuselage, car body, or hull. The reality of what the plastic is going to do can be a lot different from the blandishments of the instruction sheet. I’ve written before about what the…
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Use the Dull Blade…
Said no modeller, ever. Yet we all do it. We use the blade until the tip breaks off and the edge has tram lines on it and we need to push it 300 times harder to get it to cut. And when it is just right; dull, nicked, and rusty, we push it over the…
The Little World 