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Bell Model 47 – Part Two – Nothing Looks Like An Airplane

Upon opening the Italeri Bell Model 47 box and sliding out the two sprues I was struck by the fact that nothing on them looked like it could end up being an airplane. A collection of random boxy shapes interspersed with spindly framework. Frighteningly delicate parts. And when you come to think of it, wasn’t…
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Bell Model 47 – Part One – Sheer Terror Over the Brazeau

Being a kid whose dad was the project manager for a big construction project had its advantages – you got to ride out with him after supper when he made the evening round of the construction site and you got to climb all over the big tractors and earthmovers. In some cases, if they had…
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The Junkman Cometh

And is damned proud of it, at his age. Now back to the Little Workshop. All junk is not junk. Some junk is junque – witness the sort of things that twee secondhand shops import from Pakistan and sell as genuine. Junque indeed. Some junk is material that is just resting between engagements. The box…
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Yellow Sky In The Morning…

Modellers take warning. Have you ever looked at the box art of the plastic kits and wondered at the meteorology of it all? I took some time last week to survey the skies displayed inside the kit aisle of Hobbytech and found that they were predominantly yellow. Well, three colours, actually; yellow, orange, and lurid.…
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Hut, Hut, Hut…

All three huts, in fact, destined for either the radar station at Wet Dog Regional or the ablutions block at RCAF Wet Dog – wherever they will do the most good. They are the first fruits of Frugal Days – the week in which I do not build an expensive plastic kit, but rather turn…
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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.…
