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Bell AH-1 Z -Part Three – The Viper Vinished
I really should have taken more pictures whilst building the Viper, but it was a Club Day build and went ahead by leaps and bounds. The final product has proved yet another lesson for me; one may be pleasantly surprised as readily as be dismayed. I’ve experienced the latter enough times with eastern European kits…
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Bell AH-1 Z – Part Two – A Pleasant Surprise
I was prepared for the little Marine attack helicopter kit to be two things; crude and unshapely. It may be the latter but it certainly is not the former. The plastic from which it is moulded is a little more brittle than Airfix but not by much. It sands and cuts well, and the feed…
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Bell AH-1 Z – Part One – Freak it
Sorry, that should have read Free Kit. This is a donation from Kevin, who is a master modeller in his own right. He does marvellous things with larger aircraft…and people who know him donate kits. If they are like this unprepossessing Hong Kong helicopter he donates them right on again. It is a kit maker…
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The Swiss Army Varnish
My workshop has a shelf in it for varnishes. Read that again. A whole shelf. I call it the Swiss Army Shelf because it has something of everything there – like a Swiss Army knife. And like the famous tool from the Alps, I suspect that about 89% of what’s on the shelf is useless.…
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Marcel Bloch MB 152 – Part Two – Minus Two
If you are a little put out that you only get to see the start of this build and then the finished product, remember that this is a very simple Heller kit repackaged by the Poles. There is not all that much to see during the building process – it just cemented together in one…
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Marcel Bloch MB 152 – Part One – Marcel…
I kid you not…there really was a Marcel Bloch and he really did design airplanes. And he used his own name, which is pretty damn brave. Around the people I know there would have been an immediate reaction. This model from Mister Craft is, of course, a rebox or remould of a Heller kit. That…
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Too Many/Not Enough
Our club has a vast library of old model magazines and other publications. I’ve no idea what the oldest model magazine held there is, but I do know what it is bound to contain: a complaint from someone in the UK that a particular model has errors. The writer may not have built the kit,…
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Curtiss Helldiver – Part Seven – Shangri La
As this is the first Curtiss Helldiver I have built, I could approach it with a fresh mind. The history of the type seems to have been a mixed one – initial failures and disappointments and then solid success against the Japanese fleet. It had its time and place and filled it well. I must…
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Curtiss Helldiver – Part Six – A Pot To Peer In
Or into, as the case may be. A pot of paint. 10 ml of potential heaven or hell. A liquid mistake waiting for you to make it. I am a 10ml paint pot guy – Tamiya, GSI Creos, or AK Real Colours are the ones that sit in my paint rack. I’ve experimented with others,…
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Curtiss Helldiver – Part Five – Jackson’s Art Supply
Jacksons Art Supplies – or Drawing Supplies, if you prefer, is a dangerous place to visit. Like Officeworks, Bunnings, or Dan Murphy’s you are surrounded by too many temptations to resist them all – you inevitably succumb to buying something and there’s the food money for the week gone. The kids will just have to…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 