Category: Uncategorized
-
Bell Iroquois – Part Two – It’s ALL Insides
The new Bell Iroquois helicopter is proving to be a series of revelations – occasioned by the fact that I have not seen inside a helicopter since 1961 – and that was one with a giant perspex bubble on the front and a big piston engine. It would appear that the advent of the gas…
-
Bell Iroquois – Part One – The New Currency
Move over, Dollar. Step aside, Euro. Bitcoin, I laugh at you. I have my own medium of exchange now. I am no longer tied to your paltry numbers. I am accepting payment in model kits. Recently I took a series of portrait photographs for a friend at his request. Rather than charge studio rates to a…
-
The Advantage Of Close Focus
Close focus is a subject that I take particular interest in with my photography columns – since I make scale models, I like to take pictures of them. I have special lenses for this, and lots of sneaky photographer’s tricks to make things look bigger than they really are. But it also applies even before…
-
If You Know You Cannot Do It, Don’t Do It.
No sense jumping off the roof with cardboard wings. But if you don’t know you can’t do it…go ahead and try. I use this principle all the time in scale model building. I have built kits that were unbuildable, finished buildings that were improbable, and built dioramas with no knowledge whatsoever of what I was…
-
Can We Be Too Fussy?
Yes, we can! We’re scale modellers and fussy is what we do. If you want lackadaisical go down the hall to the Morris Dancing Club – they drink and they don’t care. Scale modellers, and their disreputable cousins, the Lego builders, do fuss a lot about little details. We want the model we build to…
-
Your Official Licence To Read
A recent look at a modelling forum site was really horrifying…not because the scale models were bad, or because the people were painful, but because the procedure to send them any pictures of your models was so complex as to defy description. Protocols and electronic permissions to the walls… We are not generally in this…
-
Lavotchkin 5-FN – Part Two – The Russian Jig
It’s like an Irish jig…but with vodka. My first impressions of the Zvezda kit were not wrong – it is well-built. The cockpit was adequate, without being overly complex, and Ivan, the pilot, fit well into his seat. Unlike Airfix aircrew, I did not have to Douglas Bader him to get him into his seat…
-
A New Superhero For The DC Or Marvel Universe
I don’t know which comic book empire is which, but I can recognise super-talent when I see it. I’m even more delighted to be able to report that it has surfaced in one of my favourite people – me. Captain Frugal. Nicknamed Cheap John. One afternoon I decided to get down to it and build…
-
The Ten Dollar Model
This time we step up the pace a little with double the amount of money in our hand. Ten bucks is a big piece of change – if you add another dollar you can buy a pint of beer in a trendy hotel. So do not disrespect the tenner. It can also buy you a…
-
The Five Dollar Model
Earlier in this column’s history I introduced the Glorious $ 5 Plan – the construction of an ICM Polikarpov Chaika in 1:72 scale that only cost me $ 5 to do. It was a one-off opportunity provided by a discard box sale at the annual WASMEX show…and you can be certain that I’m going to hover…
The Little World 