Category: Uncategorized
-
Dornier Do 27 – Part Four – Dror
Hebrew word for ” freedom ” or ” sparrow “. I favour the latter meaning when applied to this little Dornier observation aircraft. They were active in the IDF between 1964 and 1981 – a very active period. The internet says they were initially attached to the delightfully-named ” flying camel ” squadron. Observation, liaison,…
-
Is There A Permanent Museum Of Scale Modelling Anywhere?
I’ve been fortunate enough to see scale models of different things in military museums all over the world. I suppose there were a few in North America when I was a kid, but most of the ones I remember have been seen in Britain and on the continent. There are a few here in Australia,…
-
What Do You Call That?
I call it finished, friend. It’s a scale model kit that I bought with my birthday money. I got all the paints I needed for it, read the instructions, and planned the paint scheme. I consulted the internet to see if it was reasonably accurate, but in the end I more or less made it…
-
The Aisle Of Nothing
Nothing new, nothing exciting, nothing doing. The saddest aisle in the hobby shop – yet you had so many good times here before. How can it be so dreary? Well, you’ve built most of the kits on the shelves, and it will be a few months before the next order from the wholesaler hits the…
-
Mureaux 117 – Part One – The Bargain Heller
Again a good opportunity to build a by-gone kit has come my way – a legacy kit being cleared out at a very low price. Part of that may have been prompted by the appearance of the box – squashed and scuffed, and of a Heller era that seems crude to our eyes. It debuted…
-
Disaster In The Cabinet Room
No politics – this is the story of a collapse in a scale model storage cabinet. In finitely more distressing than anything that happens in Canberra. A call at my studio discovered the bad news – a glass shelf in one of my IKEA cabinets had dropped on one end and crushed to scale models.…
-
Painting With Perceived Wisdom
Or painting with rumour, advice, lies, advertisements, and blind faith. Pardon – that should be blind, stumbling faith. What could possibly go wrong? Painting white is tough. Painting red is tougher. Painting yellow worse. Painting silver worst of all. Woe is us, woe and wailing. And particularly if we listen to everyone else’s advice. And…
-
Respect.
I am not sure I’ll ever deserve it, but I have certainly met people who do – and some of them have been in my scale modelling club. I write ” have ” because time rolls on and removes people from time to time. The respect you may have formed for them when they were…
-
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…
-
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,…
