Category: Uncategorized
-
Buy Two Kits For Next Year’s Competition
And buy identical ones. Build one the best you possibly can. Use all the techniques and care that will make it look good. Lavish PE and resin and brass gun barrels as much as you wish. Bring copies of the reference material for the judges. Bring paint samples for the ‘raks. And bring the second,…
-
The Experiment
I have had a hint that the next big local scale model exhibition this week will see a trial of an interesting sales experiment. A table will feature built-up models for sale. Kits that have been completed by modellers who no longer wish to keep them. They will pay a modest fee to have them…
-
What Do You Do With The Leftovers?
If they are corned beef or meatloaf I embark on a glorious week of sandwiches. If they are scale model kits or model paints there are other procedures. Check me out against your own workshop. a. The parts of a kit that are not used – the extra canopies, wheels, snow skis, or armament –…
-
When The Rest Of The World Gets it…
And you don’t… You’re either a Puritan or from Perth. Puritans didn’t see the point of the jokes and Perth people don’t see the new kits on the shelves. You may be as overjoyed as you wish about the release of a new scale model kit – I was about the the July promise of…
-
The Odd Modeller
This will be a delicate subject. Give me a moment to put on my hob-nail boots. Firstly, let me say that I realise there are scale modellers with mental and emotional challenges. I sympathise with them and hope that they get adequate professional care to help them cope with life. Secondly, I am not the…
-
You Can’t Do That
Because, because… a. It isn’t done that way. b. It isn’t done. c. I can’t do it. And there we have it, children. The gatekeeper, scale model authority, icon, legend, club ‘rak who would bar you from carving your own Spitfire from a bar of laundry soap has spoken. You must obey. Or… You salute…
-
Curtiss H16 – Part Five – Wing Walking Without A Safety Net
With my heart in my mouth and my underwear screwed up tight… I set out to put 12 inter-plane struts on the lower wing of the Curtiss – all 12 upright and at the same angle. The way I did it was to use three old foam-board shapes I had made when doing an Airfix…
-
Curtiss H16 – Part Four – Donks Are Shön
With my sincere apologies to Wayne Newton… These two donks have been the most complex engines I’ve yet seen in a 1:72 kit. The fuel pipes and cooling assembly alone should have frightened me away, but I was too foolish to run. Over a couple of weeks the constituent parts have been cemented on –…
-
Curtiss H16 – Part Three – Complexosity
Or should that be confusediousness? English is sometimes so inadequate… The Roden people are nothing if not determined. – possibly to drive me blind or mad. They have moulded many tiny parts so that I can assemble them into slightly larger parts. These can then be lost down the back of the workbench. No modeller…
-
Curtiss H16 – Part Two – Subassembly Weeks
And sometimes it feels like months… Any Rodin kit is complex. That is the mindset of the Ukrainian designers, if not of the entire modern plastic model industry. I see it at my scale model club as other members start to assemble plastic tank tracks from individual links with individual guide horns and pinned couplings.…
The Little World 