Category: Uncategorized
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Miles Magister – Part One – Cute And Clean
Every so often you need to have a change from heavily-armed warplanes or state-of-the-art jets. You need something small and simple and bright. You need a trainer. Of course the real things were all this and more and perfectly able to kill instructors and students who made mistakes…but that is not what I am intending…
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The Kiss Of Death
If you would like to destroy a commercial firm – to lay waste to its factories and plunge its former employees into miserable poverty, you must follow this simple procedure: Buy one of the products that they make. Try it and find that it is excellent. Become proficient in its use. Expect that you’ll be…
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When You’re On To A Good Thing…
Stick to it. A slogan from old Australian insecticide advertisement. We all thought it was a good idea. But what if we found a better thing? What was the slogan for that? I am minded of this by a discovery of a fresh decal setting agent in my local hobby shop. Currently I am using…
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Vought Kingfisher – Part Four – Neutrality Patrol
And armed with a couple of 100 pound bombs to enforce it. I cannot decide whether the Kingfisher as a land plane is gainly or ungainly compared to the floatplane version. The gear is not too spindly but difficult enough to assemble. It must have been quite a drag for the plane – otherwise quite…
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Vought Kingfisher – Part Two – The Inside Job
Well, if you’re gonna be inside for weeks, you might as well do airplane interiors. In the case of some of the short-run Czech kits, just a few hours can seem like weeks. But sometimes you can be fooled. When I saw this Kingfisher’s insides I could see all the Czech troubles beginning again; no…
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Keep Yer Cap On
Do you remember Andy Capp? For years he and Tony Hancock were my sole mental picture of the English…albeit of different parts of the country. Then I went to the UK and discovered other, stranger creatures. Well, Andy always wore a flat cap…much as I do in the winter here in Australia. I’ve two –…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Four – The Carioca Killer
Admire the pictures, Children – they are made with the new focus-stacking technique learned from YouTube. Nearly every part of the 1:72 aircraft in perfect focus . The technique is so simple as to be laughable. I secure the model under constant lighting ( 2 IKEA desk lamps ) and focus upon the closest part.…
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Backtracking With The Beagle Boys
The wisest anonymous tip I ever saw on YouTube was an Australian modeller telling us to look at our mistakes just after we make them – but then do something about them right away. Leave them through subsequent stages imagining that they will go away, and you are in for despair and loathing. Real errors…
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Learning Something – Part Three – Well, I’ll Be Darned, Eh?
First question – does leaving the paint to dry overnight affect the ability to remove it with a power wash? Ivan’s good green wing was well dry by this morning. I put a large colour cup on the old trigger gun, set the air pressure to 40 psi, and filled the cup with methylated spirit.…
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Learning Something – Part Two – The Mask Of Mystery
So Ivan’s wax coat was a failure. So be it. But now a different idea. I have made up a set of cardboard masks that can be laid over a model in various fashions. The material is stiff and will not conform to the smaller contours. For the first trial I took two of the…
