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My Christmas-Just-Passed List
Simple. a. A new Airfix kit. b. A turkey dinner. c. A new costume drama film. The family let me at them. I was qualified and could deal with all three. I did so quietly and made no trouble. I later years I have added a couple of stiff drinks of whiskey and the sight…
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CAC Winjeel – Part Four – FTS 1
Point Cook, Victoria. SOOTB rendition of this Winjeel and I don’t think I could be happier with the result. It will form the starting point of a number of RAAF training types – with the occasional side-excursion to an aerobatics team aircraft or the FAC service livery as used on ADF exercises. You have to…
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CAC Winjeel – Part Three – Baking Box
You might think that the cockpit of this aircraft would deserve that nickname. If the pilots were stuck on the cross taxiing strips waiting for something to clear they might be. That is what they always had an Esky full of VB in the back seat. No good dehydrating, is it? The final fit before…
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CAC Winjeel – Part Two – High Planes Surprise
It is a mistake to judge a book by its cover or a scale model kit by its sprue tree. In both cases appearances can be deceptive. The first glance at a High Planes product is not conducive to confidence – the trees seem crude and you wonder whether it is worthwhile going on. Have…
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CAC Winjeel – Part One – The Native Name
Air forces all over the world have code name families for their aircraft. Thus you get fighter plane names that project power like the USAAF Thunderbolt and Lightning or training names like the RCAF Yale and Harvard. In Australia there is a tendency to apply aboriginal native names to aircraft Like Boomerang and Wirraway. The…
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Scale Modelling Is All About A Sense Of Proportion
Some buy it in kits – the scale is stated on the box, unless it was moulded in the 1950’s… Some scratch-build and measure it out with rulers and calipers. Their computers will lay it out and editing programs let them change it. And they can lose it entirely at a scale model exhibition. If…
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The Display Of Apples At The Fruiterer
Lovely, red, gleaming – piled in geometric order out the front of the fruiterer’s shop. A temptation to buy apples. Or to steal one. How many children and youths have succumbed to the temptation of the display? How many destitute adults…hunger driving them. The fruit seller has legal rights and morality and more fruit than…
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You Look At It
It looks at you. The scale model stand-off; you have bought a kit well beyond your comfort zone. It has 1468 parts plus a booklet and a decal sheet with 47 different options. Every track link has 18 parts and you need to make up 256 of them. This might be fine, except it is…
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Your Environment Is Waiting To Mug You
As scale modellers we tend to forget a lot. We forget to save money in the hobby shop and we forget to put nose weights into our aircraft. We forget to to sign the club attendance book and to wash our hands in the loo. Most times we get away with it. However, the universe…
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Tupolev TB-3 – Part Five – An Ephemeral Chinese Bomber
Ephemeral? Well look at the guns, antennae and landing gear of this Soviet design. This model will be lucky to make it to my display shelf without these breaking off. The pictures you see in this post may be the last complete images of this ICM product ever shown. I am not unhappy with the…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
