Tag: design
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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,…
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Sukhoi Su-2 – Part Three – Oh, Those Wacky Soviets…
Just when you start to think that they have no imagination, they come out with a new one and all you can do is scratch your head. Consider the heading image. I have assembled the engine for the Sukhoi following the diagrams as faithfully as can be. There’s the two rows of cylinders, like a…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Three – They’re All CAD’s These Days
That’s when they are not being narcissists – the new buzz word that you use to complain about your ex on Facebook. It suggests that the guilty party only looks at themselves. In reality, the fact that they are now your ex, lady, suggests that they took a long, hard, look at you… But I…
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North American Yale – Part Three – Canadian Peculiarities
It’s a nation that pours tree sap on its food. That eats strawberry jam pies. That considers chips in gravy and cheese to be healthy. Peculiarity is in the air. This also extended to the products of Canadian Car Foundry and the training airfields. Hence the odd hole in the side of the engine cover…
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The Valid Decision
If you want to drown in Official-Speak, go to Google and start looking up ” valid decision “. I often go and see what poking the bear will do before I write these things. In this case I have been preceded by academia, politics, and the sort of management that can close down a successful…
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Canadian Car And Foundry Harvard II – Part Three – Precision in Plastic
We are accustomed to read about how precise Tamiya model kits are. This is no exaggeration – they fit pretty well perfectly as soon as you clean the sprue feed points. We are also used to reading the groans of people who have tried to work with Mach 2, Amodel, or PM kits. They also…
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Do Kit Designers Hang Upside-Down In Caves?
I ask this because I have noted some of the priorities they assign to their kit designs. In the case of the beer, pretzel, and borscht bureaux, the decisions they make about the level of photo-etch to include in a cockpit area vs the basic fit of the thing into the fuselage hints at it.…
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Junkers Ju 87 – Part Four – When You Don’t Have To Land On A Boat
I am led to this line of thought by the glued-together Stuka – devoid of filler, undercoat, paint, wheels or any other signs of civilisation. As luck would have it it sat next to a completed model of a Northrop BT-1 for a while and the differences in the ships was marked: a. The Stuka…
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Bell AH-1 Z – Part Two – A Pleasant Surprise
I was prepared for the little Marine attack helicopter kit to be two things; crude and unshapely. It may be the latter but it certainly is not the former. The plastic from which it is moulded is a little more brittle than Airfix but not by much. It sands and cuts well, and the feed…
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Landing Gear
I’ve just re-glued some landing gear on a Grumman Guardian. It was cemented yesterday but I guess i put weight on it before it was entirely set – the joints gave way. it’s a Ukrainian kit and the fitting surfaces are Soviet-era. To be fair, Grumman asked the gear legs to do a lot with…
The Little World 