Tag: Academy
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Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter – Part One – Widowmaker?

Well we got that one in print right off. You’ll see it repeatedly in the sensational press – attached to the F-104 in German service. You can read how many of them got into trouble, then look at what they hung off them and how they used them…and draw your own conclusions. The RCAF flew…
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The Curse of the Were-Decal

A modeller’s Halloween horror story… I had just gotten to the decal stage for a new model – a tiny little Academy 1:72 Sopwith camel. Lovely model, with interplane and cabane struts that just fell into place. And a simple colour scheme for mine – the RAF museum plane at Hendon; khaki and linen. The…
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Federal 2 1/2 Ton – Part One – Mojo To The Fore

This is unquestionably a mojo build for me. I stuffed up my last military vehicle badly and saw this one the next day as a saviour in the armour aisle. I do not intend to be as impatient and casual in its build as I was with the failure. I remember these trucks from a…
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US Army Ambulance – Part One – A Wander Down The Armour Aisle

I rarely wander down the armour aisle at my local hobby shop – the offerings in my scale are all big hulking things that bear no relationship to my modest airfields and everything else seems to be 1:35 scale. I am envious of all the accessories that the AFV builder can draw upon for the…
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B-17 – Part Two – What’s In The Box?

What’s in any kit box? Hopes and fears, mostly. Hopes that the kit is all there and not fractured or warped and fears that the mould may have deteriorated with time. The decals are an entirely separate class of anxiety… In this case the sprues are nice clean Academy products, which may have been nice…
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Too Much Of A Good Thing

Waterslide decals were the wonder of my childhood. I only encountered them in the model kits I built, and since these were kits in the 1950’s, they weren’t all that good. They were yellowed, cracked, thick, lumpy, and inaccurate. They had margins that looked like stranded jellyfish. They took about a half hour to soak…
