Category: Utility Models
-
Revell Sopwith Camel – Part Two – Those Were Apparently The Days
And I was just the right age -14 – to fail to appreciate just how awful the Revell kits were at the time. I had built Revell planes and ships since the 1950’s and they were a sort of base standard upon which other maker’s efforts were judged. Aurora was worse, Monogram was better, Eaglewall…
-
Of Course It Doesn’t Fit
It never fit in 1959, when the kit was released. It didn’t fit in 1989 when Revell bought the mould and re-issued it. It will not fit when someone east of the Urals finally gets the worn-out blocks and injects reindeer poo into them to claw back some rubles. It’s not about fit. It’s about…
-
” I Don’t Like It “
Some people sing a song that goes on for an entire lifetime. Happy, sad, welcoming, or disdainful…it becomes their theme, regimental march, or daemon ear-worm. The main thing you need to do is detach yourself from it all, so that even if the noise continues for a whole lifetime, at least it isn’t your lifetime……
-
The Barnacle
AKA the shelf queen. The styrene albatross. The kit that has sat on the hobby shop shelf ever since the place opened. The Unsold Undead… It may be worse than this. There are items in stock in many retailers that have been delivered from other shops that have previously failed; I saw it several times…
-
Are We Having Fun Yet?
When that question comes up, the answer is never ” Yes “. Yet it could be… I do things that are pointless and expensive and embarrassing. And fun. I’m not going to tell you what, but you can let your imaginations run wild. As this is a scale model column, wild is likely to involve…
-
Mess With Their Minds
Scale model builders are in an enviable position; they are considered harmless and childish. This is ideal cover from which to snipe at passers-by… a. Build a perfectly standard kit of a common airplane. Perhaps a Spitfire, Mustang or Messerschmitt. Pick an average kit, and it need not be an expensive one. Assemble the fuselage…
-
Canadair CT-116 – Part Three – Cold Lake Toy Fighter
All Good – after several false starts and a few execrable errors, the Cold Lake CT-116 is ready for the apron. I patterned the build after an internet image of a 116 over the Alberta tundra. The in-flight shot was perfectly exposed and opened all the markings up beautifully. The model could be measured and…
-
Beaufighter TFX – Part One – The Alternate Version
I built an Airfix Beaufighter model a year or so ago – the modern kit – and was extremely pleased with the result. It was completed as an RCAF model with a famous pilot in it. This Beau is a very much older version of the plane from Airfix. Scalemates tells me it is a…
-
I’m Bypassing My Second Childhood
And I’m heading straight for my second adolescence. More money to spend, I get to stay up later, and there’ll be girls. Well, girls for later. For now I get to spend some of my allowance on better model kits. And there’ll be increased privileges and responsibilities. I am going to be allowed to have…
-
Alphabet Modelling
Or, how to classify your hobby. Nathan Robinson, the schoolteacher on the Flory forum, mentioned an idea several episodes ago that is interesting and valid. He was counselling Flory forum members not to become discouraged in their modelling when they encounter problems that are going to affect the outcome of the build. He said that…
The Little World 