Category: Uncategorized
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Airspeed Oxford – Part Four – The Central Flying School

The third partner in the Training Trio. My BCATP airfield: RCAF WET DOG – has struggled on for years with an Anson, a Harvard, and a Crane – all good trainers. Of course there is a Tiger Moth and a Grumman Gosling as well, but up until now the Airspeed Oxford has eluded me. Now…
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Airspeed Oxford – Part Three – The Soothing Hand

In this case the soothing white hand – not a racial thing – just white undercoat. It is in preparation for RCAF yellow – a colour that is thin enough to require several coats before it evens out. The white allows it to show clearly under most illumination. In the case of this all-over scheme,…
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The PE Pests

No, I’m not talking about the people down the club who can make perfect PE parts every time and cement them on with no problems. I admire them. I’m talking about the Bohemian types who dream up the extra-thin parts on the PE sheets and expect you to be able to manipulate them into components.…
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We Can Retro Better than You Can

If you are a collector of mid-century modern furniture, or fashions, or cars you can pay a small fortune for junk. It’ll be up to you to repair and maintain it, and make yourself think you’re doing a good thing. For the scale model builder, we can do the same thing, but with a bit…
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How Fast Should You Go?

Is there a ” 40 Kph Men Working ” sign at your modelling club? Is someone always looming up behind you and asking ” Are you done yet? “. Perhaps you are out of synch… Phil Flory nailed it some time ago – and I suspect he has a pretty good handle on most of…
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SERIOUS Modelling

Here in Australia we have Yahoo Serious. He is not an internet server….but he has served us well over the years as a comedy actor. Serious laughter is a Serious matter… In the scale modelling hobby we can also encounter a spectrum of involvement that goes from the Terribly Serious to the Delightfully Comic. I…
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English Electric Lightning – Part One – Sad Box Special

Yet another orphan of the storm – a tattered, neglected box at the back of a shelf. An old decal sheet. An outdated model. Just my meat. The inner plastic bag was sealed and every part was there. And I have never built a Lightning before. This is a one of the classic early series…
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The Third-Party Direct Hearsay Evidence

That you read once, but can’t remember where. You know, the absolute shining truth that is too good to repress… The sort of tale that you tell to the other modellers around the table as they cut and glue, enhancing your status as the expert who has seen it all. With a bit of luck…
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The Profiteer’s Stash

The very word ” profiteer ” is a red rag for certain political minds, and has been used to justify no end of malice in the past. It has been heard to crop up in the scale model world, as well. Yet, every one who buys and builds kits has to recognise that there is…
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Art Thou Too Fussy, Friend?

Is thy hobby becoming a fiend upon thy shoulders? Should thee push away the PE fret and stop fretting? Is there happiness in a flat cardboard box? In short, are you taking it all to seriously? Have you gone past the fun and arrived at the work…and paid a swingeing price for it? I have…
