Tag: canopies
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Five – Wild Blue Yonder
And off we flaming go… Someone at Tasman was enamoured of the vacuum moulding machine – the one they used for clear canopies – and of the possibilities that it presented. So they made a decision to try something that is – so far – unique in my model-building experience. They vac-formed the canopy a…
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Dornier Do-17Z – Part Five – Crewed Up
” Skipper to crew: Does anyone have the telephone number for Windscreens O’Brien…? “ Have patience, your canopy is in the preparation stage. Fortunately Monogram/Revell have moulded clear ones with pronounced frames. After-painting should be fairly straightforward. The Dornier is on her legs as well – and here the decision of the moulders to make…
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F-82 Twin Mustang – Part Three – It’s All Clear
And that’s not a good thing… The pretty looking set of canopies with this Special Hobby kit were superb. Clear and precise, with well-defined framing. I was looking forward to painting them – perhaps masking them in place for a change. As with all anticipated pleasures, it attracted the attention of a malign universe. One…
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Yakovlev 6 – Part Five – A Flying Fin
Not a flying Finn – unless the Finns captured a few of these in the Winter War. The fin is the price that this Encore model cost. And I think it has proved a sterling investment. The green you see here is a lightened and blued form of the Russian Green. The scale effect, perhaps,…
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Curtiss Shrike – Part Five – Bombs Away
And to think I was considering chopping the tail off this plane and making it into a silver prototype. I’m so glad I’m lazy. The Dragon model of the Shrike A25-A has come out very well, despite the funny landing gear doors. The interior is detailed enough that if I had wished, the glasswork could…
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Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk V – Part Four – We Have An Airplane
That magic stage of a build when the sprue trees have blossomed and fruited, and we have a recognisable airplane on the bench. It is one of the most heartening experiences in a modeller’s day. Of course some people spend literally weeks detailing subassemblies and parts for the eventual assembly, but I like to get…
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The Masked Man – Part Four – The Leap Of Faith
Every model kit build has a point that I hate – in the case of the R/C ships a half-century ago, it used to be the carving of the hulls. Now its the masking of the canopies and the cockpits on small airplanes. The tasks were and are small but the daunting is big. As…
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The Cockpit – Part Three – The Pen Is Mightier Than The Canopy
You’ve read before in this column about using a drafting pen as an instrument to paint the frames of a model airplane canopy. It is a perfectly valid technique – and one that I use all the time. If I am going to attach the canopy later with PVA glue, I can sit with it…
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The Cockpit Tapes – Part Two – Liquidation
Okay. You have looked at your 1:72 scale bomber and decided that you do not want to spend another $ 23 on pre-cut masks and you don’t want to spend a week trying to cut your own. What’s the alternative? Microscale, Humbrol, and GSI Creos would have you believe that painting a liquid mask on…
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Do Not Cock Up Your Pit – Part one – Wear A Mask And Talk Dirty…
Or ” Keeping the windows clean in a shit storm “. If airplanes were built like army tanks ( and some, Like the A-10 Warthog – are…) we modellers would have an easy time of it. Indeed if pilots were not such wusses and kept on insisting that they needed to be inside out of…
The Little World 