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Vought Kingfisher – Part Two – The Inside Job

Well, if you’re gonna be inside for weeks, you might as well do airplane interiors. In the case of some of the short-run Czech kits, just a few hours can seem like weeks. But sometimes you can be fooled. When I saw this Kingfisher’s insides I could see all the Czech troubles beginning again; no…
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Vought Kingfisher – Part One – Amos And Andy

An’ if you don’t keep on reading , you gonna get a nasty letter from de Kingfish…an a phone call too. Those of you old enough to know what that was all about will smile. The younger readers will not. But some of them never smile anyway. Movin’ right along, the AZ model of the…
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Keep Yer Cap On

Do you remember Andy Capp? For years he and Tony Hancock were my sole mental picture of the English…albeit of different parts of the country. Then I went to the UK and discovered other, stranger creatures. Well, Andy always wore a flat cap…much as I do in the winter here in Australia. I’ve two –…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Four – The Carioca Killer

Admire the pictures, Children – they are made with the new focus-stacking technique learned from YouTube. Nearly every part of the 1:72 aircraft in perfect focus . The technique is so simple as to be laughable. I secure the model under constant lighting ( 2 IKEA desk lamps ) and focus upon the closest part.…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Three – Underwear

Under where did you want me to spray? I am getting good value out of my Mr. Hobby Procom single-action spray gun – the one I bought with funds raised by selling off unwanted photo gear. The gun is a big chunky thing with just one giant adjusting knob and an equally large finger button.…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part Two – The Subassemblies

Or, in the case of the PV-2…the sub-hunter assemblies. Because remember that this patrol bomber in the hands of the US Navy and the Brazilian Air Force did sink U-boats. And anything else in the small ship line that it encountered. For an airliner it made a pretty mean warplane. The interior is SMS lacquer…
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Vega PV-2 Harpoon – Part One – The Mistaken Assumption

I am subject to misapprehensions from time to time. They generally don’t result in disasters, but they can mean that I miss out on good things. I can remember several occasions as a young man when I did not read the signals correctly and passed lonely Valentine’s Days. It all worked out perfectly in the…
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Backtracking With The Beagle Boys

The wisest anonymous tip I ever saw on YouTube was an Australian modeller telling us to look at our mistakes just after we make them – but then do something about them right away. Leave them through subsequent stages imagining that they will go away, and you are in for despair and loathing. Real errors…
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Learning Something – Part Three – Well, I’ll Be Darned, Eh?

First question – does leaving the paint to dry overnight affect the ability to remove it with a power wash? Ivan’s good green wing was well dry by this morning. I put a large colour cup on the old trigger gun, set the air pressure to 40 psi, and filled the cup with methylated spirit.…
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Learning Something – Part Two – The Mask Of Mystery

So Ivan’s wax coat was a failure. So be it. But now a different idea. I have made up a set of cardboard masks that can be laid over a model in various fashions. The material is stiff and will not conform to the smaller contours. For the first trial I took two of the…
