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How Much Movement Do You Need To Be Alive?

If you are lichen…not a lot. Then again, you’ll never get to see much of the world on your holidays. You’ll end up being jealous of the toadstools and mushrooms…because they are such fungis…* The question is how much action do you need to have in your Little World to make it come alive –…
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Boeing Vertol CH 147 Chinook – Part Five – Whatever Happened To Sky??

Specifically, whatever happened to the colour Sky as applied to the underside of British and Commonwealth aircraft? The underside of this Canadian CH 147 Chinook seems distinctly visible, as the bronze-black and deep green camo scheme – as admirable as it seems on the top and sides of the helicopter – wrap around down under…
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Boeing Vertol CH 147 Chinook – Part Four – The Blue Mask Of Courage

No, you haven’t wandered into a Marvel comic – the blue mask of courage does not fight crime. It covers things up…rather like a bottled version of a parliamentary enquiry. Except it smells better. Youve read here of my efforts to mask clear canopies on 1:72 scale aircraft by various means; tape squares, Humbrol rubber…
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Boeing-Vertol CH 147 Chinook – Part Three – Miniature Misgivings

When constructing a kit I have learned to look at the instructions carefully. Then ignore a certain percentage of them – in particular the ones that ask me to glue on small breakable bits early in the piece. If I do so, I condemn myself to great anxiety over them ever after. There is a…
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Boeing-Vertol CH 147F Chinook – Part Two – You Want What?

I was taken aback. Normally the makers of plastic models do not expect you to saw them apart as soon as you open the box. Italeri did, though…and it was in a good cause. ‘Cause the Boeing company had made drastic changes to the sides of their Chinook helicopter and Italeri had to follow on.…
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Boeing-Vertol CH 147F Chinook – Part One – The Flying Bread Box

Okay, okay, I know. But that was what it looked like when I opened the box. It is the first of the modern twin-rotor helicopters I’ve encountered and I had no idea what the size of it was going to be. This is the second part of my fee-for-service I earned taking portraits and it…
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Unsticking – Part Three – The Results

Well the experiment went as planned – I waited 24 full hours before masking and spraying two mules. I checked that the red surfaces felt absolutely dry, then used both the cheap and the expensive masking tape to make a pattern. A spray with the vile turquoise colour and an hour’s wait until it had…
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Unsticking – Part Two – The Experiments

The mules were back in business today – 8 plastic panels coated with aqueous acrylic paint – 4 with the same Mr. Hobby gloss red that featured on the Piasecki Flying Banana – four with a Tamiya flat red. I sprayed, then let the paint cure in a hot workshop for a couple of hours.…
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Unsticking – Part One – The Problem

A recent paint job that required three colours sprayed onto a model aircraft fuselage went pretty well – the lightest colour first and then two more in layers with masking tape application between the coats. I have the business of dilution and air pressure pretty well sussed for the types of paint. Note that in…
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Macchi MC 205 Veltro – Part Three – The Great Azure Blue Quest

I think I may claim a modest victory today. I pursued RAF Azure Blue paint and overtook it. The quest started with that RAF Digital colour chart I found on the net. It lists all the major paints used in WWII RAF aircraft, Shows them in a clear panel, and then gives the RGB and…
