Category: Uncategorized
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You Can Be Sensible But No Good Will Come Of It

Not if you build scale models, it won’t. Sensible buys only the best kits at the cheapest prices and only ever builds one example of any prototype. Indeed sensible people do not build scale models at all – reserving their time for money making and hiding their sins. For the rest of us…drifting down the…
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Caudron C-445 – Part Three – The Jig Is Up

And as Lou Gosset might have it – ” and running…”. This was the first time that then new Slovakian jigs got their real trial. The Caudron was a perfect size for the WW2 pattern – though there were more adjustments to make on the rack than you’d think. The wing clamps were a little…
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The No-Stick Decal

A close cousin to the folding decal and distantly related to the ones that explode when they contact water. They are not meant to decorate our scale models – they are a practical joke that the kit makers like to amuse themselves with. They sit there in the factory with a bag of these and…
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Scale Judging – A Modest Proposal

The task of judging models at a scale model contest is far more difficult than similar events for model trains or R/C aircraft. With these, the criteria for success are so much more evident. In the case of the former exhibition all an exhibitor has to do for a medal is keep the layout going…
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Lockheed Vega Model 5 – Part One – Legacy Stash

John Evans bought this model from Stanbridge’s model shop may years ago. Unfortunately neither John, Jack, nor the shop still exist. But that doesn’t stop us from remembering them fondly. My part in this will be to build up the MPM model of the Lockheed Vega Model 5. I suspect that John planned it to…
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The 1/35th Scale Holy Grail

Or ” No glue-sniffing in church…”. I have recently joined a Facebook group associated with 1/35 scale model tanks. It’s a large group and many people send in wonderful pictures of their kits and builds. It has several members besides myself here in Perth. I sent in three posts this last week revolving around amour…
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F-82 Twin Mustang – Part Two – Czech Out The Fit

I know what Forrest Gump felt like sometimes – particularly upon opening a Czech kit. The box of czecholates that you get can have hard centres, soft centres, or centres with no positioning tabs whatsoever. You will be challenged. In the case of the Twin Mustang the fit of the cockpits was actually reasonable –…
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F-82 Twin Mustang – Part One – SOOTB Interception

I had no idea I needed it… Until I stated googling the business of North American air interception in the late 40’s. I identified an interceptor base near to where I once lived and looked over its roster. I was amazed to find the F-82 and to read that it was an effective unit. Then…
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Patience is A Virtue

Or so we are told – by people who want to get in front of us in line at the petrol station. It is also preached for the scale modeller – by makers who give you tank tracks made up of 6 plastic parts per link or sheets of infinitesimally small brass etched parts. Their…
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Bristol Beaufort Mk I – Part Six – OTU Queen

The receipt of Mk I Beauforts by the RCAF in the early 40’s must have been a sort of a mixed blessing. They had been used on North Sea and Norwegian strikes, and then later in the Mediterranean by specially-trained squadrons of the RAF…often with Canadian crew members aboard. They had their share of successes…
