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Heinkel 51 – Part Three – A “Civil ” Heinkel
I have chosen this title as a nod to the paint scheme on this Heinkel. I am pretending it was a civilian aircraft. Anyone familiar with the history of Germany at the time this was flying – mid thirties – can draw their own conclusions about what was a civil aircraft and what was a…
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Heinkel 51- Part two – A Sunshiny Grey Day
And as the house-keeping has been done for the week, there is nothing left but the Heinkel-keeping. You are never going to be doing all that much to an early Hasegawa kit – a little filling and sanding where the ejector pins were aggressive, but there is no overweening detail to dismay you. You are…
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Heinkel 51 – Part One – An Unexpected Subject
As most know, I do not, as a rule, model Axis subjects. Oh, I have done so where historically appropriate to tell a story, or as captured aircraft, but few in their own livery. The recent completion of a Heinkel 70 G-1 Blitz was an exception – it forms part of the civilian scene at…
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I’m Not Sure What It’s Supposed To Be
But I’ll follow the instruction sheet. I have never heard of the aircraft, nor of the maker. I barely recognise the firm who moulded the kit, though I see they are registered in Liberia. It says so on their stern. I will google up the thing when I get it home but I hope I…
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Beware Simplicity
For it will complicate your life every time. Scale modellers looking at a kit for the first time are all different creatures. One looks at the sprue trees and sees the big parts – another sees only the tiny details. Someone else goes first to the PE fret or the resin blocks. The artistic look…
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Renault R-35 – Part Six – Hit Me With That Rhythm Stick
Or a German tank shell – because that seems to be what the French armoured corps were hoping for when they thought up their paint scheme and then added tricolour insignia at all the best aiming points. I realise that they did not know what they were up against, nor what to do about it,…
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Renault R-35 – Part Five – Pierrot
I have discarded the idea of Art Deco – this tank has been painted by the costume designer for the Commedia Dell’Arte. I expect that there is an ammunition carrier that looks like Pierrette… The business of brush painting a model is both thrillingly new and old. It was my only means of model decoration…
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Renault R-35 – Part Four – Art Deco Armour
I cannot see the French armour colours in any other light than that of the 1920’s Art Deco movement. They are straight out of a pattern book of the period. Whether they disguised the tanks is another thing, but I’m guessing not. I have done a small bit of dirt-spray weathering on the hull at…
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Renault R-35 – Part Three – Running Gear
There must have been as many designs of tank suspension as there were designers – so few seemed to quite agree with each other. Even when one tank was the norm – like the Sherman – there were a number of suspensions and wheel arrangements This Renault R-35 seems to make use of the squeeze-a-rubber…
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Renault R-35 – Part Two – Clip And Click
There is something about a Tamiya kit that reassures us as soon as we open the box. The parts may be manifold, but we know they are going to fit like the instructions say. Such was the case with the R-35. Dry fit first day, everything went where it was intended. Cemented, I had a…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 