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The Return Of The Chinese Junk

When I was a kid in the 50’s there were dime stores that sold goods cheaply. In some cases they were cheap goods – particularly if they were plastic toys from Hong Kong. There was a particularly brittle form of plastic that was used in toy factories that was moulded into all sorts of workable…
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OD’ing On Olive Drab

Is it just me or is it hard to find The True Meaning Of Olive Drab? I need to paint a number of USAAF planes and I am going to avoid the flashy multicolour of nose art and loud decals. I just want cooking quality Army ships for a diorama. You’d think that Olive Drab…
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Walk In Or Walk Out?

And we’re not talking about wing walks either. I want a kit. And a specific kit – having done my research in regard to it. Its the best for my purpose – and good news – it was a new Airfix release late last year and has been seen in the local hobby shop in…
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Fulfil Its Destiny – Build That Kit

On a recent trip to the eastern states I went charged with the task of finding a 1:48 scale model of a Macchi jet trainer for my friend Warren. He had worked on them in the Air Force and a few years ago Italeri had kitted one up with RAAF markings. Indeed, they had also…
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Ongoing Maintenance

I did not realise that there would be a schedule of maintenance on a plastic model – I thought once it was done, that was it. Silly me. There is maintenance on anything that you need to continue working – car, marriage, camera, etc. The models are no different. a. There will be cleaning issues.…
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Boeing Fortress Mk. III – Part Ten – All Right For Ops

It all came good – as much due to the precision of the Airfix company as to my own skill. The Birthday Boeing is complete and ready to go into the museum. I’ve indulged myself a little with the Nik Collection software in this final report- they do a plug-in for Photoshop that converts regular…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Three – Steel vs Wood vs Plastic
Walter, you and your Mum may have been wondering why I went off on a tangent about Meccano, Erector, and Dux sets last time we spoke. Let me explain. We live in a world of plastic. It’s a wonderful material and can be made to simulate nearly anything – from bricks to steel girders, to…
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Boeing Fortress Mk.III – Part Nine – Not A Good Idea, Max

Well that was a bust, albeit ultimately a successful one. The plan to carefully spray between the lines – with a Tamiya rattle can – was reasonably stupid thinking on my part. You saw in the last column where I just did the overall brown and went on as per normal. The camo lines were…
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Boeing Fortress Mk III – Part Seven – Heddo?

Er, Hello. You seem a little stuffed up. ” Dell Be About it. By builder has arrived at primer stage and has spent all day stuffing things into be. ” Is that plastic foam? ” Yes. He got four big pieces of it whed a printer was delivered and is using them for everything. ”…
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Boeing Fortress Mk III – Part Six – My Conscience Is Clear
Now all I need to do is keep the blasted windows on this airplane in the same condition – and Airfix have been either brilliantly helpful or blithering idiots – I will find out later. I’m used to the canopies and cockpit covers of model aircraft being of varying quality – from the horrible Mach…
