Category: Uncategorized
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Ural Starter Truck – Part One – Packed To The Gills.
I rarely look at YouTube videos centred around unpacking new equipment. It is a genre of the medium that saddens me – but then I saw so much of it in retail trade that I recognize fan-boy symptoms right away. I used to dread them as I knew that they would fixate upon their purchase…
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Whirling Or Non-Whirling?
Decide the section in which you wish to be seated. The business of the propeller on a scale model kit can be a painful one. Some makers mould them with fine detail but flimsy construction – expect to have to straighten them repeatedly. Some are just hubs and blades and these can be horrible to…
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There Is No Such Thing As A Free Launch
Just ask down at the boatyard… Whenever you are enjoying what you think is a freebie, look carefully about you and see what it has cost. There are money trails leading everywhere and down them cash flows ceaselessly. In most cases it is away from you. If you are allowed to use a public room…
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You Really Do Need Two Pairs Of Cutters.
I should have laughed at myself for writing that header a few years ago. I had just re-started in scale kit building and had purchased a Ustar tool kit with knife, cutter, sandpaper blocks, etc. I still have most of it and most of it still works. What more could you want? Well, you could…
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Waiting For The ROBERT E LEE
And waiting a long time. I once built a Pyro model of the steamboat ROBERT E LEE. It was a gift at Christmas and possibly the largest thing I’d tackled at the time – the sort of model that a rural shop might stock but not hope to sell. I’ll bet the shopkeeper breathed a…
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It Must Have A Little Challenge
It cannot be entirely Shake ‘n Bake. Easy-build kits are a blessing. I welcome the opportunity to whack together a classic air-frame in a day. It gives me a chance at the airbrush and decal printer next morning ( I love the smell of lacquer thinner in the morning. It smells like victory….). I can…
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The Makers Of The Kits Do Not Make Them For Your Pleasure
They make them for your money. Anything downstream of this is just an extra. Remember this when you look at the Verell kit that costs $ 35.00; the 1:53.5 scale one that has “ 1951 ” moulded inside the wing. It has been returning cash to the pockets of Verell for 75 years and pretty…
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Is Your Scale Being Scaled Back?
Is it getting tougher to find a new kit in your preferred scale on the hobby shop shelves? Here are some reasons why: a. The various wars around the world are interfering with trade enough to keep the plastic warships and planes away from us. b. The hobby shops are running lean in their buying.…
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French Lancaster – Part Four – The Flying Bribe
I’ve been reading about the donation of WU 16 – a Lancaster patrol aircraft of the Aeronavale to Australia in 1962. The story is detailed elsewhere so do go google it up. It seems to have a number of amusing elements; requests from the local RAAFA for a time-expired Lancaster – refusal by the French…
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French Lancaster – Part Three – Strut…
Alors! As soon as you see a good idea – then a better idea – all the ideas prior to it become bad ones. Students of model kit design are particularly sensitive to this, because we pay high prices for our education. Remember the old model airplane kits you bought that had a slot on…
The Little World 