Category: Uncategorized
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Bristol Belvedere – Part One – Dire Warnings

And why I never heed them… This kit appeared in my local hobby shop before I read a review of it. It was reasonably priced, a Vintage Classic, and a type I had never built before. I forked over the cash and took it home. The review was not mealy-mouthed; it said this was the…
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No Box Art

No colour call-out. No decal sheet. No safety instructions. No history of the prototype. Just sprue trees and a basic diagram. If this describes a lot of the kits you buy, congratulations – but only if you got them cheaply. If you paid full price you deserved all the added extras. What good would a…
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We Get What They Got

And if they don’t have it, neither will we. Shopping at the local hobby shops is a good idea. It gives business and employment to local people and keeps vital supplies available to us year-round. Except when it doesn’t. Shops can run dry of all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons – and…
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Airfix Junkers 87 – Part Four – By The End Of The 27th

This year I did not holiday on a coast; neither Gold, Rainbow, Iron, or Mosquito variety – stayed home. And built my AIrfix Christmas kit – as a proper person would. You have turkey, Santa, and Airfix – do not try to better a winning combination. By the end of the 27th the kit was…
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Airfix Junkers 87 – Part Two – Inside The Office

Approaching an aircraft build with trepidation is always disheartening. But some kits beg it – the Czech short-run ones or the Russian re-pops often have too much inside or nothing at all. We have all seen the pilot figure stuck to a post from one side of the fuselage – or worse; nothing whatsoever under…
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Out Of Stock

But always in the catalogue. Sitting there on-line, sneering at you…the kit you want but will never be able to buy. You have no way of knowing whether it is only gone for a week, a month, or a millennium. And you have no indication whether its absence stems from the factory, the wholesaler, the…
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What Did You Make?

Or – if you are still cutting and gluing – what are you making? Is it a little airplane from a kit? A ship? A doll house? A working railway? Good – all you different makers, would you be surprised to realise that you are all making the same thing? What? You are making yourself…
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Hannover CL III A – Part Three – Auferstehung

And not a zombie, either – a good-looking model for the collection. The Hannover CL IIIA was apparently a success. It could function as an observation or ground attack aircraft and a number of them were successful as fighters when newcomers on the Allied side pulled up behind one, thinking it was a single-seater. The…
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Hannover CL III A – Part Two – Tuch der Tränen

If ever you are presented with the prospect of building a WW1 German aircraft, look at the colour call-out carefully. It may have lozenge-pattern cloth used as basic covering, Prepare to tremble. The lozenge-pattern camouflage is going to be difficult – as the previous chap found out when he tried Humbrol enamel on the complex…
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Hannover CL III A – Part One – Zwei Waisenkinder

Orphaned by the demise of a modeller. And left in a sad state. partially-built, partially painted, and partially missing parts. The fortunate thing is that there is enough plastic between the two to recover the loss. Paint removal first – with alcohol and Q-tip scrubbing for the fuselage and a soak in Easy Lift Off…
