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Douglas Skyhawk – Part One – The Experimental Craft
Never mind your Bell X-1 – your Douglas Skyrocket, X-3, or X-15. I’ve got a real experimental airplane. One on which I intend to try out new things, hell, Hay, or bust. The canopy of the A-4D was missing from the kit. I needed to make a new canopy shape so that I could weather…
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Open The Lightning Rods, Igor! – Part Three
And they called me mad! MAD, I tell you! Now let them see who’s mad…! More soaking, more decaling. More thoughts on the process. a. Revell. 45 seconds soak and slid off beautifully. A dip did no extra good. b. Walthers. An old US model train firm. Fragile, friable decals, but they could be soaked…
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In The Laboratory – Part Two
Well, the experiment was a success. We can now create artificial life in the zombies at the SMCWA clubrooms. The only difficulty will be telling it from normal behaviour. I set up a standard soaking bath for the decals I wanted to test. There were plenty of unused ones from various makers so I carefully…
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Science Mystery Theatre – Part One – The Evans Effect
You can learn a great deal from John Evans if you listen. Occasionally you have to feed him fruitcake but you do get results. However you have to listen carefully. I didn’t and learned a lot. John advised me on how to decal effectively early in my attendance at the club. He told me to…
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Genug
Genug ist genug. And when you have arrived at that point with your model build, it’s time to stop. One bite more than enough pie makes the dish nauseous – one minute more of the best conversation risks hearing or saying too much. The same applies to kit building. There is a point at which…
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Macchi Saetta MC. 200 – Part Two – Achoo!
Gesundheit. Thank you. I had a bit of a sniffle just then and when I sneezed a Macchi came out. Pass me a tissue. The completion of the Saetta came as a surprise as I did not seem to be doing anything at all in the shed over the past couple of days. Yet, there…
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Macchi Saetta MC 200 – Part One – The Revell Ship
Readers of this column will remember that I built a Hobby Boss Macchi MC 200 in Italian Co-Belligerant colours a couple of years ago. A very pleasing aircraft and the blotchy camouflage came out very well. Now I am embarked upon construction of another example of this plane – but this time a 50¢ baggie…
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The Collection
Do you have a collection of scale models? Congratulations. Whether they are your own production or the result of careful shopping and buying, they should be a real source of pleasure to you. If you are fortunate enough to be able to display them you gain another source of pleasure – the interest others may…
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Fairey Barracuda Mk II – Part Five – The Whistler
The Fairey Barracuda that I built bears a nose name of ” Hell’s Bells “. Even the FAA has a sense of humour, as well as a considerable mess bill. I call it The Whistler – because of the number of aerials, masts, racks, and protrusions that dot the fuselage and wing. I’m sure they…
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Fairey Barracuda Mk II – Part Four – Dark Slate Grey
The Fleet Air Arm and Coastal Command aircraft in WWII were painted in many cases with Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey on top – and either Sky or White underneath. I find it a particularly attractive combination but have struggled heretofore – the EDSG is easily got in bottles but the Dark…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 