Category: Uncategorized
-
Spatial Ambition
Or ” The Kit Designer Is Laughing At You “. I’m drawn to this conclusion upon seeing some of the decal sheets that ask you to reproduce a complex paint job with a two dimensional sheet of plastic film. The painters and decorators that the Air Force and Navy get in from time to time…
-
The Perils Of the Hot Box
Now we’re not talking about a broken bearing f on a railroad car – the proverbial North American ” hot box ” that leads to the failure of the axle and derailment of the train. No, our hot box is the plastic curing box that sits on top of an electric oil-reservoir heater in the…
-
When Your Little World Blossoms
The Little World is blossoming. More and more models – in this case 1:72 scale – are coming onto exhibition and more and more kits are being discovered. There are three themes current and they can all expand for a number of years. This is all to the good. It’s sad to say, but sometimes…
-
Boy, Was Flory Ever Right
And more correct than even he thought. Phil Flory is making some bite-sized videos for modellers to introduce them to basic concepts – and right at the start of this series he has advised people to sit down with the instruction book and plan out their build. Good, good advice, and something that no-one else…
-
Douglas Dauntless – Part Three – Perhaps It IS A Dountless…
Maybe they know something I don’t. In my relentless pursuit of knowledge – also known as surfing the net – I discovered that there were quite a few RNZAF Douglas SBD-4 and SBD-5 aircraft used in the South Pacific. There are a number of period photos of them in flight and on the ground in…
-
Snowball Effect
When I started writing weblog columns for the camera shop where I worked, I had no idea that it was going to be more than a flash in the pan – a management whim that would come and go as fast as a wink. Other ideas had done just that. But in the end I…
-
Things I Never Thought About
Vs things I thought about all the time… As a kid in Alberta in the 1950’s the northern horizon was a worrisome prospect. We knew that it was the closest route for the Soviets to attack Canada and the United States by air. We knew that they had multi-engine bombers that they could arm with…
-
Douglas C-47 – Part Two – Honeymoon Express
The plane I’m building has a real history – apart from being a special scheme on a set of aftermarket decals. ” Honeymoon Express ” was the lead ship on a paratroop assault on Nadzab in New Guinea in 1943 in conjunction with an assault on Lae. It is a good point of interest as…
-
The Home-Made Decals – Part Two
It is the Ancient Modeller who stoppeth one of three ” Take heed, Sirrah, to what I say Or suffer along with me…” The experiment went ahead as planned with the porous paper, the Golden Syrup ( Australian version of Karo ) and the warm oven: a. Syrup brushed on paper. Soaked right in. Paper…
-
The Home-Made Decals…Part One
Get more home-made every day. We are in the midst of a drought of decal paper in Perth. It may have escaped the attention of the major news channels, but I assure you the effects are being felt in the model airplane world. Particularly in my own little one, as I have discovered the joys…
The Little World 