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Spitfire Mk IX – Part Four – Is This A Decal Or A Tarpaulin?
I spent one morning recently decalling airplanes – a simple but delightful exercise in cut and paste. The surfaces of the planes were a clear smooth gloss and the first two decal sets – from Hobby Boss – were all that you could want. They were not pretentious markings – just stars, numbers, and a…
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Spitfire Mk IX – Part Three – The Grey Ghost
I am currently working with three bottles of undercoat paint – but not because I need to. Any one of the three choices would be fine…except I cannot resist trying new brews as they appear in the hobby shop. I am perfectly satisfied with Tamiya undercoat in the spray can and have used up many…
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Spitfire Mk IX – Part Two – The Patchwork Quilt
I am always in awe of the kit builder who has every seam perfect, every wheel straight, and every panel line scribed out. Awe and horror. Awe, horror, and unreasoning anger… Well, it’s not quite that bad, but I do regard perfection with some suspicion. Fortunately the Matchbox Spitfire Mk IX is a very soothing…
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Spitfire Mk IX – Part One – Never Look A Gift Kit In The Box
I was at dinner with a group of friends in Sydney when one of them pulled out a couple of old 1:72 kits from a shopping bag. They were historic remainders from his teenage stash…and as he’s distanced from that somewhat, they are truly historic. One’s a Matchbox Spitfire and one’s an Airfix Buccaneer. I…
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Blu, White, Or Yellow?
Tack, I mean. Which stickum do you prefer? I’ve been googling about BluTac just now and apparently the formula is non-toxic, rubber based, and secret. It is made by the original people and half a dozen imitators – two of which I’ve been experimenting with. Useful for tacking posters to dorm wall and kid’s drawings…
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The Sock Drawer
Whenever some cartoonist wants to suggest that someone has no life – and way too much time to spend living it – they have the poor individual sorting out his or her sock drawer. It is meant to be hilarious and pitiful at the same time, like parliament in Ottawa. I think this is entirely…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Nine – The Mistake
Well, Walter I am going to let you into a secret – I make mistakes in my Little Workshop. This one’s not the first one I’ve made when building my Little World. I suspect it won’t be the last. The grey Spitfire model you see at the top of the page looks pretty well weathered…
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” We Can’t Attract Young People…”
That’s the catch cry of the plastic modelling club members over their coffee and biscuits as we glue together $ 100 model kits of equipment that existed 74 years ago and has never been seen since. Quite frankly, I’m surprised that we can attract ourselves… It’s not quite that bad in the model train world…
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The Rack And The Gallows
If you are expecting Torquemada I must disappoint you – I reserve those sentiments for my ” Here All Week ” column. See below. The rack I refer to is my new Little Workshop plane jig. It is made by Scrap Bin Pty Ltd and has three adjustable plane rests as supplied. You can get…
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Bell P 39 Airacobra – Part Four – The Northwest Staging Route
You might wonder a bit at the presence of a Bell P-39 Airacobra with red stars in a white circle appearing at an Alberta RCAF station in the 1940’s. The explanation is simple – the Northwest Staging Route flowed right through RCAF WET DOG as soon as Lend-lease was established and there were enough aircraft…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 