Tag: design
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Northrop Black Widow – Part Three – Swings And Roundabouts

Every airplane design has compromises and so does every kit. Some are adequately addressed and some are not – what you gain on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts. In the case of the P-61, the twin tail booms made of two pieces each ( double the seams ) mean two chances to get…
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Scale Modelling And Interpretive Dance

Or ” It’s My Party, And I’ll Glue If I Want To. “ A. Are you a bold and original individual? Are you a trend setter? Have some of the trends you’ve set gone off in your face prematurely? Well join the Queens Own Scale Modellers and we’ll make it All Right. The first thing…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part Four – The Winter Coat

Part of the appeal of the Grigorovich is the seasonal one…the fact that it’s a winter fighter with skis for landing in the snow. I am not an Australian fan-boy for snow…I passed my childhood in Alberta and I got all the show I needed, thank you. The skis are a novelty, but so is…
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Savoia Marchetti SM.81 – Part Four – Stop Laughing

This is serious. That’s an Australian joke, for the overseas readers. For the locals, its a historic Australian cartoon. Go look it up. The Bulletin long ago. In my case the risible arose because I needed to occlude the window spaces of the Pipistrello before painting. I’d deliberately left out the bulls-eye plastic windows that…
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The Wrong Scale

There is no better way of starting a donnybrook than to suggest that a model is the wrong scale. Say it to whom you will, you will have a fight. And haven’t we all seen the box scale gem that is destined to shine alone? Or the model that supports too little or too much…
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Caudron C-445 – Part One – The Metro Trawl

I don’t know whether Metro Hobbies in Melbourne lie in wait for me or if it’s the other way round. As the flow of money goes east and the flow of plastic comes west, it doesn’t really matter. I tend to shop in three modes: Cheap, Curious, and Canadian. Some say that this is tautology,…
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F-82 Twin Mustang – Part Seven – Long Dong

All right. We might as well get this over with… Those of you inclined to ribaldry may dissolve into laughter at the thought of the Long Dong radar pod joke. Elbow each other in the ribs and snort. The rest of the readers just be patient. The Monogram F-82 is proceeding wonderfully well, with no…
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Bristol Beaufort Mk I – Part Four – A Dirty, Dirty Business

But that was life at Doukhobor Bay in the old days. Baths once a month and toothbrushing every second week… The interior of the Bristol Beaufort is pretty well complete and has received a coat of filth. Fortunately it will be hard to see inside the fuselage once it’s closed up. Just as well, it’s…
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Bristol Beaufort Mk I – Part Three – Beaufitter

I used to think women were unnecessarily fussy about their shoes and clothes – everything had to be wrinkle-free or seamless. Men were not worried about that sort of thing. Then I took up scale model kit building and realised how much I had been fooling myself. I am hella fussy about the fit of…
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The Weak Link

In every chain they say the weak link will break first. So with every scale model. It changes with each type that you build. Do a few and you’ll know what to expect. You can fortify yourself against the troubles if you get in first. a. Aircraft are weakest in three areas; landing gear, antennae,…
