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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…
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Westland Wallace – Part Five – Swuping Aviation Corporation
No-one who sees the Westland Wallace owned by Generalissimo Stein Kai Shek can doubt that the province of Swuping is progressive. Other areas are still under the conservative rule of the warlords and cliques but Swuping is firmly headed into the Twentieth Century. Once the minor setbacks of invasions from the Nationalists, the Communists, and…
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Westland Wallace – Part Four – Struttin’ Wid Some Barbecue
Or ” Jigging On The Spot “. The prospect of attaching eight interplane struts and four cabanes on the Westland Wallace called forth the engineer in me. Also the foam board fanatic. The basic requirement was that the struts sit straight but canted forward from the lower to the upper wing and that they allow…
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Westland Wallace – Part Three – A Life Of Their Own
Plastic models seem to take on a life of their own. And it may not be what the maker intended. I blame the restless nature of the modeller and the ready availability of the internet to supply pictures and histories. You start out with a bog-standard box designed to do nothing more than attract money…
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Westland Wallace – Part Two – In West You Build Model
In Russia, model build you! It certainly builds your basic modelling skills, as well as your stoicism. The ill-fitting parts, flash, and suspect plastic make sure of that. This kit started in 1964 as a FROG Trailblazer, and the trail has long since been lost – overgrown in weeds. Even when explored by a small…
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Westland Wallace – Part One – An Unconsidered Trifle
This model kit was an overlooked box in the estate stash that came to our modelling club. But not overlooked for long. I looked it over, and decided building it was the best way of remembering the old club mate who had relinquished it. I suspect he had plans for it as an RAAF aircraft…
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Hoothehell?
Or in polite terms, ” Who in their right mind…? “. It is a phrase that whispers to me every time I cruise the kit aisles of HobbyHell. The other part of the question is ” would ever buy this thing? “. The kits or parts or tools or toys in question are not forbidden…
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Polikarpov U-2 – Part Four – St. Ivan’s Ambulance Service
In the service of Soviet humanity… This is the second air ambulance I have constructed, and by far the most ambitious one. It was born of necessity and nurtured on the makeshift – just as well there was a solid foundation of simple airframe to support it. The use of air ambulance transport by definition…
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Polikarpov U-2 – Part Three – Time To Box Clever
When you are confronted with a complex model design – multiple wings or complex landing gear – it pays to stop and think. You need to get your sequence of painting and assembly right to avoid making hard work even harder. Or worse – to avoid the risk of spoiling vital parts. No-one likes to…
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Polikarpov U-2 – Part Two – Small Steppes
Well, they would be with a model from Ukraine, wouldn’t they… Boom Boom. The odd little slippers are not for feet – they are the over-wing gondolas that were apparently fitted to the Polikarpov U-2 to evacuate wounded Soviet soldiers. The instruction sheet shows a U-2 in winter camouflage with ski landing gear and these…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 