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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Three – Build Up To Obscurity
As the war clouds darkened over Europe in the 1930’s, the government of Ruritania realised that the defence of the realm would require additional spending – both for ground and air forces. Fortunately the kingdom is entirely land-locked and has no need for a navy aside from Customs and Excise boats on the lakes to…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Two – Dual In The Skies
Students of middle European history cannot be unaware that Ruritania is surrounded by Germanic and Slavic nations. While they have neever been quite completely occupied by invaders, they have never been completely free of them, either. This may seem to sit oddly with the decidedly British title of Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force. This is…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part One – Hope For The Future
The construction of a Little World can be a casual thing – a few paper dolls and a cereal box becomes an entire population in a city. Or endless years of painstaking research and modelling yields a vast empire. There can be accuracy and fantasy in anything…but for those of us who were raised on…
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The Vacuum Forms
If you want to put the fear of God into someone, just say vacuum-form. They will either go very hot or very cold, and you must be prepared for them to pull the lever on the ejector seat. You may end up talking to yourself and landing the thing yourself… The vac-form kit seems to…
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I’m Not Good
I’m proud to say I am not good at scale modelling. Well, not that good. Good in tiny little spots, perhaps. And trying hard to make those spots expand until they can encompass the entirety of the hobby. And I’ve got no chance of that happening any time soon… You see mistakes occur. Foolish ones,…
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Grumman Avenger – Part Seven – A Calm And Serene Day
The last day of a model build is either going to be Shangri-la or Stalingrad. Either you are merely dusting it with a feather or grinding the tailplanes off with a chainsaw. In the case of the Avenger it was all peaceful. Well, peaceful after I glued the fake .50 into the turret. I am…
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Grumman Avenger – Part Six – Hande Hoch!
Und if you do not obey ziss varning – zere vill be conzeqvences… The consequences will be fingerprints in the clear varnish on the model. I know – I’ve been here before and done this very thing. And had to discipline myself not to do it again. The Mk III jig helps – I got…
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Grumman Avenger – Part Five – Half-Dressed
It is unfair to take a photo of a lady when she is only half-dressed…unless she specifically wants pictures of herself in that condition. I was reminded of this when I thought to picture the Avenger TBF-1 in her masking tape. But as this is a new departure – a three-level USN paint scheme –…
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Grumman Avenger – Part Four – The Quaker
Well, the obligatory problems have arisen. No kit ever gets finished wthout them and you might as well get them over early. The radio mast on the tail has broken off – but this is neither unexpected nor a big deal. The idea of a plastic manufacturer moulding a scale aerial on one half of…
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Grumman Avenger – Part Three – The Economy Kit
I have discovered a few reasons that the Academy Grumman TBF-1 was so cheap: a. The age of the mould means that while the fit and finish are fine, the amount of detail they were prepared to make in the casting – ie time taken to inscribe things – was limited. Either that or they…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 