Category: Uncategorized
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Curtiss Hawk Model 75 – Part Four – Painted Insignia
The business of painting insignia on full-size aircraft must be fun. Obviously a stencil situation and I’ll bet the paint crew are all frustrated car customisers. It explains some of the commemorative schemes that appear on service planes. I’ve seen it done by a number of people and they all say that it has great…
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Curtiss Hawk Model 75 – Part Three – Trench Warfare
The fit of the parts on the Revell Curtiss Hawk was very good – square, plumb, and true, but the top surfaces of the wings stood clear of the fuselage fairing by a good millimeter on both sides. If this part was subject to no stress nor expected to flex in any way, it could…
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Little Pricks
And I’m not referring to your nephews. This article is about needles. Let’s start right out by admitting that few of us like being jabbed with needles. Of course some of the readers of this column may be addicts who regularly inject themselves with expensive stimulants. Indeed, nearly all plastic modellers can be put into…
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How To Swim The Shopping Channel
If you have been awake during the last 20 years you will have noticed a new channel on television; the Shopping Channel. It is a modern day version of the old pentagram and candles that invites demons into your home. You don’t give them your soul – you give them your money. In the case…
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Beech AT-11 – Part Two – Silver Wings
I was always impressed with the US Army Air Force when they decided to strip the olive drab and neutral grey off their ships and just polish the aluminum* skins and send them over Germany and Japan like that. The period reports cite a 5 knot increase in speed occasioned by a smoother outer surface…
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Focke Wulf 190A – Part Four – Et Voila!
Voici le NC900. Produit de l’SNCAC a Cravant en France. This is a product of the S.N.C.A.C. from parts and items found in a disused chalk quarry in Cravant near Auxerre in the centre of France. These were made up after the war as an interim squadron for the French Air Force – some 20…
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Focke Wulf 190A – Part Three – The Internet Evening
When you want to build a kit straight out of the box, the first thing you do is cut the seals and open the box. When you want to build it to a different variant the first thing you do is go to the computer and open Google. It is the source of much of…
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Focke Wulf 190A – Part Two – Happy Hasegawa
I do not get a chance to build many Hasegawa aircraft – the kits are not as common on the shelves as they might have been in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I suspect his is a financial matter – they can be 25% pricier than other mainstream brands. I am not fussed – the examples…
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Shed O’ Doom
Are you a North American or European modeller this December? I want you to do an experiment for me. I want you to set up your modelling bench in your garage or in a metal shed out on the back lawn at your house. ( No apartment dwellers need apply. ) then I want to…
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Covid Painting
The year-long Covid pandemic has been so tragic for so many that it seems nearly a sacrilege to mention it in connection with a hobby – but it has led to a drought in the paint aisles of many hobby shops. Oh, there’s paint still, as not all the makers have ceased sending out their…
The Little World 