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Belt And Braces

And a bolt and a rivet and MIG welding and a big bracket. I like my models to stay together. The increasingly scale appearance of some models demands increasingly fine attachment points for some parts. The shafts, brackets, and pivots that might once have been fitting into thick plastic sockets and pins are now just…
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Albatros D.III – Part Four – Red But Not Barren

An internet site claims that Manfred v. Richthofen flew a red, yellow-tailed Albatross D.III at some stage of his career. I have no idea if this is true. However, I like the idea of breaking up the all-red of the Revell kit’s scheme so this was as good a choice as any. I recognise the…
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Albatros D.III – Part Three – Little Pink

Which, if I recall, was the title of a Damon Runyan short story….and nothing to do with today’s topic. Some months back, in the midst of the viral shortages at our hobby shop, I was reduced to purchasing a pot of Mr. Surfacer 1200 in pink..my normal buy – Mr Surfacer 1000 – being off…
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Albatros D.III – Part Two – Sleek

There only seem to be two types of WW1 aircraft – the impossibly sleek and the improbably bulky. This Albatros fits the first category, as would Pfalz and Roland machines. The second type is represented in my mind by the Bristol fighters and the Russian bombers. Brought about by different design bureaux comprised of different…
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Albatros D.III – Part One – The Competing Baggie

When I looked at this 50¢ baggie that my friend Paul gave me, I wondered if it was a remould of a previous Airfix product. No, apparently – the old Albatros I built in 1959 was a D.V and this one is a D. III…at least dating from 1963. The look of the thing is,…
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I Learns A Waluable Lesson…

In undoubted proof that you are never too old to learn, I have. Learned, that is…the old just comes with the territory. Shooting my scale model reports for this column, I follow a regular pattern. An introduction with the kit’s box, instructions, sprue trees, and decal sheet, then a number of building stages, then a…
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Bright Or Blight?

Are the colourful liveries spoiling us? If you are a scale hot rod or custom car builder, just quit reading now. This column has nothing to tell you. If you are an armour person, you can also go make a dark brown cup of coffee with flakes of rust in it. If you are an…
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Highly Desirable

And highly detailed. And highly priced. And highly unavailable. Hi-lee-hi-low. Hi-lup-a-pup. And that’s another magazine down the drain. I used to buy modelling magazines when I was a kid. For cars to begin with and later for scale models or military models. Model boats kept me going for years. I would read the how-to-do it…
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Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 – Part Five – Three Cheers For The Transport Service

And their new SM.81 general service aircraft – set to deliver the liquid products of Ruritania as far away as Switzerland and Holland. The converted 1930’s Italian bomber that has just joined the RRAAF in the Transport Service started life with 6 machine guns and two bomb bays. It now has two bottle bays (…

