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Boeing Kaydet – Part Three – The Hills Are Alive – With the Sound Of Cursing
How so many biplanes and triplanes are sold as model kits astounds me. Every time I encounter one I have ” a time “. All goes well until the step where you cement the struts on and add the top wing. There are rarely any mechanical aids or structures that help the biplane builder get…
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Boeing Kaydet – Part Two – A Hole Lotta Filling Goin’ On
I mentioned the sink holes and ejector post depressions last column. I didn’t realise then how many of them there were going to be. The ones in the tyres were particularly galling. No-one else has this problem. Well, after some Perfect Plastic Putty, neither did I. To their credit, Revell gave me two seats that…
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Boeing Kaydet – Part One – Older Than The Hills
I pulled the Revell baggie of the Boeing N2S-5 Kaydet out of the stash with mixed feelings. On one hand it was a pretty good looking silver airplane and on the other it was so old as to be listed by the National Trust – was I going to build it or desecrate it? The…
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“ Toy-Like “
A well-known set of modellers discuss their builds on the internet regularly and show how they apply weathering, washes, oils, staining, filters, and a whole armoury of pictorial effects to their models. The results are indeed grimy and realistic – one has to applaud them for that. Yet, they fall into a habit of describing…
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The Physics Of Plastic Model Building
a. The shape of a fuselage is arbitrary. It can be one shape one side and another thing on the opposite side. This is known as the Buda-Pest principle. As there is a front and a back it can also be different there, so that’s four parts that may have their own opinion and refuse…
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Ilyushin 4 – Part Four – Baltic Bomber
When I picked the Ilyushin off the Hobbytech shelf before Father’s Day I knew it would be somewhat of a gamble – Mister Craft kits are always that. They would be the sort of kit that Forrest Gump would buy. However, this is a Zvezda, not an old FROG, and the basic structure is perfectly…
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Ilyushin 4 – Part Three – I Give In To Zvezda
I have written before about my technique of painting the canopies of my aircraft – how I use a bow pen to add the framework at the end of the build. It is closer to my past experiences and very effective in most cases. But looking at the glass nose of the Ilyushin I knew…
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Ilyushin 4 – Part Two – Why You Do This Sergey?
Every model kit is an adventure in a cardboard box – some are the Walt Disney types and some are the Jumanji sort… In the case of the Ilyushin 4, I arrived at the wing stage and took some time out to be flabberghasted. The construction of the thing is a unique departure. The engine…
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Ilyushin 4 – Part One – Bob’s Your Uncle
My brother-in-law, actually. We have Christmas lunch at his house most years. Not a prolific model builder, but he has completed some from-the-plan models of ships and boats. He’s more of a full-size builder of houses and cars. But back to the Bob. This model of the Ilyushin 4 was part of the Father’s Day…
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Stash And Stashette
No, it isn’t a new take on Mozart’s Magic Flute characters – I am trying to quantify the pile of unbuilt kits that every modeller seems to have. If one kit is…one kit…when does a number of kits become a stashette and when does it graduated to being a full-fledged stash? I could have answered…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
