-
Kawanishi George – Part Two – No Colour Known To Man
I am always intrigued by the colours of the styrene plastic that kit makers choose to mould their little fighter airplanes. I’ve seen silver in early Revell kits, red, blue, oliveish-green from Aurora, and a vile yellow from Monogram. Matchbox outdid them all choosing greens, browns, and greys for their kits. And even went so…
-
Kawanishi George – Part One – A Fin
It was the modelling club AGM and a notice had gone out telling people to bring models for sell or swap. Like a fool I did not remember this and rocked up for the AGM barbeque with hardly any money in my pocket. These virus days we pay for most things with credit or debit…
-
Landing Gear
I’ve just re-glued some landing gear on a Grumman Guardian. It was cemented yesterday but I guess i put weight on it before it was entirely set – the joints gave way. it’s a Ukrainian kit and the fitting surfaces are Soviet-era. To be fair, Grumman asked the gear legs to do a lot with…
-
Boeing P26 – Part Three – Honourable Aircraft
The Boeing P-26A kit by Revell might have been finished in the original USAAC colours had I access to modern decal sheets ( this would be the case if I had bought one at the local hobby shop. But I got mine for free with very old decals. The trade-off is significant. ) But modern…
-
Boeing P26 – Part Two – My Eyes!
Okay, I get it to some extent. If you’re making plastic model kits that you want to sell in the hundreds of thousands to little kids, you need to take into account that they will not be painting them. Heck, the littlest ones won’t even be decalling them – they’ll just go from box to…
-
Boeing P26 – Part One – Two Shameful Confessions
I have two painful confessions to make in regard to the Boeing P-26 peashooter fighter plane. The first was in 1961 when I was in the 9th grade. I formed a friendship with a kid in my grade at school who was also an enthusiastic model airplane builder. He introduced me to matte paints –…
-
Is Unseen Unknown?
Welcome to Scale Model Philosophy 101. You may take notes but remember that there is no exam at the end. Instead we have a sponsored argument. When we see a scale model for the first time it can be an electrifying experience. – particularly the older 240 volt versions with the cloth wiring. You have…
-
The Next Big Thing
Is the next small thing. Right now people who went to the recent WASMEX show are planning their next build. The serious have already cut styrene off sprue trees. The real hard core are applying undercoat… Part of it will be inspiration – people have seen lovely models on display and want to emulate the…
-
Play With Their Minds
If you visit museums, exhibitions, and toxic waste disposal sites you can have a lot of fun by playing with the minds of the people who run the places. The organisers, curators, and assistants are scholarly, dedicated individuals who deserve everything that happens to them. Try one of the following: a. Locate a German WW2…
-
Don’t Just Enter A Comp Once A Year
My recent visit to the WASMEX show was a lot of fun and I was impressed with the models that the hopefuls entered into the competition. A lot of them won prizes in the various divisions. ( There were a lot of divisions…). Yet some of the entires might only be seen that once –…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 