Tag: prototypes
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Will We Run Out Of Prototypes?
I asked myself this one day as I idly scrolled through the catalogues of Hasegawa, RS, and Special Hobby. I was trolling for 1:72 aircraft that I had not built yet. For a time there it was looking a bit bleak. The Hasegawa people are deriving a lot of their income from kits of Gundam,…
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So Good That…
That the makers of 1:64 scale cars and trucks don’t make their construction equipment in the same scale. That the cars they do make are nearly always brightly coloured race cars and rods. So useful for normal dioramas. That the die cast factories employ pantograph design machinery to produce the same thing in three scales.…
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Boeing X-Plane – Part One – The Nearly-Rans
I am no great fan of ” what-if ” modelling. Much of it is speculative and not a little disturbing. I see attitudes in the builders that are not supportable in real life. But I will admit aircraft and other items that were actually built to try to win government contracts. Even if they did…
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Handley Page Jetstream – Part One – Airfix Too Early
Occasionally you can get caught out by events…or by your own eagerness for business. This has happened twice to Airfix kits that I have encountered, but has not dimmed my pleasure in building them. The first model that made me aware of this was the original Airfix 1:72 Blackburn Buccaneer. I was given a historic…
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Is Unseen Unknown?
Welcome to Scale Model Philosophy 101. You may take notes but remember that there is no exam at the end. Instead we have a sponsored argument. When we see a scale model for the first time it can be an electrifying experience. – particularly the older 240 volt versions with the cloth wiring. You have…
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North American AT6 – Part Three – The Universal Airplane
What do you want from a model kit? A unique subject that was only ever built once, by one maker, for one flyer? A model that can never be made in an alternative form? Buy yourself a ” Spirit of St. Louis ” and a pot of silver paint, Charlie, and away you go. After…
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Yakovlev-3 – Part One – Never Slow Down Past The Kit Aisle
I was just going to Hobbytech for a pot of paint…I told myself…I noticed that my lacquer bright silver was running very low and I wanted to stock up. The paint aisle was easy – I found the Mr Color Bright Silver and grabbed it. They make a number of other forms of silver paint…
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Well Sir,…
The business of looking for scale models to build in a particular size is one thing. Finding aircraft to suit a particular air force is another. And getting a particular period of time… I always look for 1:72 RCAF WW2 through to 1966. To the great credit of the model kit companies, I can sometimes…
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The Seven Circles Of Modeller’s Inferno
Dante was not the only person who made a journey to the lowest depths of Hell and wrote about it. I’ve been to the hobby shows myself. Apart from a little more sulphurous smell and uglier demons, they are remarkably like the underworld. And just as Dante found, there are distinct levels of the place,…
The Little World 