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The Perils Of the Hot Box
Now we’re not talking about a broken bearing f on a railroad car – the proverbial North American ” hot box ” that leads to the failure of the axle and derailment of the train. No, our hot box is the plastic curing box that sits on top of an electric oil-reservoir heater in the…
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IAI Kfir C-1 – Part Four – Clean And Neat Lion Cub
Pardon any typographical errors in this post, but I have just finished two days of decalling and I am now waiting by the side of the road for the wagon from the asylum to pick me up. I shall send the bill for treatment to Cartograf. The Italeri Kfir is ready for the clean section…
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IAI Kfir C-1 – Part Three – Camouflage
Camouflage in two shades is easy – just paint the lightest colour first, mask it off, and then paint the darker shade. Do the demarkation line as you like – hard or soft, and pay attention to whether the prototype wrapped any of its colours past a natural contour. Move to three colours and you…
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IAI Kfir C-1 – Part Two – Grey Plastic Day
The first assembly day for any model can be a school in itself – the Czech and Polish kits in particular are often hard lessons. They challenge both the imagination ( Where the heck is the cockpit actually supposed to be fastened…? ) and the patience ( Is that an ejector pin or a part…
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IAI Kfir C-1 – Part One – The New Lion Cub
My success with the diorama shelves for my IKEA bookcases has inspired me to expand my aero museum theme. I have two shelves set out as Schmattarim Museum and am busy finding Israeli and related middle eastern aircraft to fill them. I suspect I’ll be able to add a couple more before the theme is…
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When Your Little World Blossoms
The Little World is blossoming. More and more models – in this case 1:72 scale – are coming onto exhibition and more and more kits are being discovered. There are three themes current and they can all expand for a number of years. This is all to the good. It’s sad to say, but sometimes…
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Boy, Was Flory Ever Right
And more correct than even he thought. Phil Flory is making some bite-sized videos for modellers to introduce them to basic concepts – and right at the start of this series he has advised people to sit down with the instruction book and plan out their build. Good, good advice, and something that no-one else…
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Douglas Dauntless – Part Four – Old No. 18
Well, the Dountless is done. And a nicer kit I could not have asked for. As the firm that kitted it also makes an Avenger and several other planes, I shall return to the shop where I bought it, chloroform the lone staff member, and run away with them. It’s handy having a source of…
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Douglas Dauntless – Part Three – Perhaps It IS A Dountless…
Maybe they know something I don’t. In my relentless pursuit of knowledge – also known as surfing the net – I discovered that there were quite a few RNZAF Douglas SBD-4 and SBD-5 aircraft used in the South Pacific. There are a number of period photos of them in flight and on the ground in…
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Douglas Dauntless – Part Two – The Hissy Fit
Well, that’s not accurate – this is not a hissy fit – this kit has excellent fit. Whoever really moulded it, they have done a good job. The basic idea of the wing is Douglas all the way – see the general shape of the RCAF Nomad target tug I built earlier. Look at the…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 