Category: Utility Models

• Republic Thunderjet – Part Three – Polish-ed Silver

  

  They said it couldn’t be done. They said it shouldn’t be done. But I did it. Now tell me why I did it…because I am not that  convinced that it was a good idea. I have completed as much work as I intend to do on the Mister Craft Republic F-84G Thunderjet. It is stand-off…

  Dick Stein

  June 14, 2020

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, Decals, Hobby Shops, Miniature Philosophy, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, Utility Models

  Mister Craft, Republic Thunderjet

• Republic Thunderjet – Part Two – ” Warsaw, We Have A Problem…”

  

  When I introduced this Mister Craft model last post you may have gotten the impression that I was making fun of it. Nothing of the sort. I am coming to the conclusion that there is no fun to be made with any part of it. The good news is the wing top and bottom halves…

  Dick Stein

  June 13, 2020

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, finances, Model Airplane, Polish models, Scale Models, subassembly, Uncategorized, Utility Models

  Mister Craft, Republic Thunderjet

• Republic Thunderjet – Part One – Polish Thunder…

  

  Grom, Grom, Grom… I set out this morning to find a Hobby Boss kit of the F-84 Thunderjet to build as a companion to the Boeing KB-29B tanker that is taking shape. Inspired, as usual, by a Squadron profile book that showed just this combination linked together in flight. I’d researched the HB kit and…

  Dick Stein

  June 12, 2020

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, Colour Schemes, Decals, Miniature Philosophy, Model Airplane, research, Scale Models, Uncategorized, Utility Models

  Mister Craft, Polish model, Republic Thunderjet

• Ilyushin Il-10 – Part One – The Beast

  

  I normally pass by the Russian planes in the kit shelves – they are not a subject that I have much knowledge of and the examples of the later ones are not common as museum pieces in the West. However, anything that is known as ” The Beast ” has got to be interesting.  The…

  Dick Stein

  March 17, 2020

  1:72 scale, Decals, Model Airplane, Polish models, Scale Models, Soviet aircraft, Uncategorized, Utility Models

  Ilyushin, Mister Craft, Polish model

• Grim Reality Vs Grim Fantasy

  

  I am often puzzled at the selection of model kits on the shelves of my local hobby dealers. They’re good dealers and I love them dearly – just as I love the dealers in the eastern states when I visit them. Every one is different but they all have a certain feel to them that…

  Dick Stein

  March 4, 2020

  Civil aircraft, Miniature Philosophy, Model building club, Modelling Supplies, Scale Models, Toys, Uncategorized, Utility Models

  kits, peaceful airplanes, warlike toys

• Boeing B17 – Part Five- The Fat Lady From Wenatchee

  

  Well, it has been a week. The Fat Lady From Wenatchee is finished and I am delighted – so much so that I will now deliberately seek out other aircraft that can be made into civilian service aircraft. There were severe forest fires in Washington State and British Columbia in the 1970’s and a number…

  Dick Stein

  March 2, 2020

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, Colour Schemes, Lacquer, Model Airplane, Painting, research, Scale Models, Uncategorized, Utility Models

  B17, Boeing, civil registration, fire tanker

• Tupolev SB2 – Part One – Katyuska

  

  I was on tenterhooks when my daughter came back from Japan recently – I had tasked her with getting me a nice 1:72 model aircraft kit that we couldn’t get here in Australia. She obliged by searching out both a major and a minor hobby shop in Tokyo and bringing back 4 models – all…

  Dick Stein

  February 12, 2020

  1:72 scale, Hobby Shops, Model Airplane, Modelling Supplies, Russian models, Scale Models, Soviet aircraft, Utility Models

  Leonardo’s, Novo, Soviet model

• If You Build A Barber Shop, They Will Comb…

  

  If you wish to give yourself a treat – for about $ 40 a throw – go down to the hobby shop and look at the OO/HO building kits. You’ll find them for British, North American, and European buildings, and there is hardly anything that you can imagine that cannot be bought. If you stray…

  Dick Stein

  January 20, 2020

  Dioramas, Miniature Philosophy, Modelling exhibitions, Museums, Organisation, research, Scale Model Buildings, Uncategorized, Utility Models, Workshop

  model town, scratchbuilding, SIngapore

• Grumman Widgeon – Part Two – Port and Cheese

  

  I cannot decide now that the Grumman Widgeon is done and sitting on the photo floor, whether I enjoyed myself building it or not. If you go by the mis-fitting engines, nacelles, windscreen, and landing gear, it was a misery. If you looked at the wing, fuselage, and tail assemblies as they mated, it wasn’t…

  Dick Stein

  January 18, 2020

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, Colour Schemes, Lacquer, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, Utility Models

  Airfix, Grumman Widgeon, Portuguese Navy

• Grumman Widgeon – Part One – The Small Goose

  

  The Sherriff’s Mini Cars shelves had some of the best and oddest kit shopping I have been able to do for some time. Stashes had disgorged treasures and/or trash and they were sensibly priced for all that. I have no idea how new the Widgeon is, not how long it may have mouldered on the…

  Dick Stein

  January 17, 2020

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, Civil aircraft, Colour Schemes, Miniature Philosophy, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, Utility Models

  Airfix, flaws and faults, Grumman Widgeon, old kit