Tag: Weathering
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Do You Dine Clean Or Dirty?

Old British officers will know the difference. For scale modellers the question may be posed differently; do you build clean or dirty? Are your models fully weathered, tinted, oiled, and matted, or are they factory-fresh. It can be a great topic if you want to get tempers up – the two groups striving to justify…
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Nieuport 24Bis – Part Three – The Clean Machine

I suspect I could not have used this title two minutes after the ground crew swung the propeller for this French fighter. The exhaust provisions for the rotary engine seem to be two oval holes cut into the lower portion of the engine cowling. Given the castor oil thrown out by the motor plus the…
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Sherman Tank – Part Five – Aberdeen

And not the one in Scotland, either. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Harford County, Maryland. The US Army testing facility. There’s another one at Dugway in Utah, but you don’t want to stand downwind of it… The Zvezda kit provided decals for the Aberdeen tank, so it got the nod. That meant that it could be very…
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TKS Tankette – Part Three – I Cover My Tracks

And so I should – they are horrible. The plastic track option for the TKS was all I feared it would be. I’d seen club mates constructing their own 1:35 tanks with separate track links and just thought it a charming pretension on their part. Hypertension more likely – what looked to be a difficult…
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Whether or Not…

To weather. Is it better to slosh muck over your model or leave it gleaming? Only you can tell – but be aware that others will want to tell you what to do. So listen to me… I presume you are engaged in the hobby of scale model building. If I am wrong – if…
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The Big Local Scale Model Exhibition – Part Seven – Tanks For The Memories

At one time I would have regarded armour models and military vehicles with only minor interest – I am an aviation modeller. Yet, the need for prop vehicles for my airfields, and then civilian vehicles, has meant an increased recognition of the little machines. And recently a dollar purchase of a Polish armoured car in…
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Dirt Rich

As a kid I encountered the term ” dirt poor “. A lot of you know it as well – though we probably wouldn’t describe ourselves as such if we are building scale model kits or reading this on a computer screen. I would like to introduce a new phrase: ” Dirt Rich “. It…
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” It Looks Like A Die Cast “

A well-known contributor to a modelling You Tube site has often remarked that painting a model without weathering it extensively makes it look like a die cast. I think he’s right and I’m ever so grateful to him for the hint. I still do weather some models lightly, but knowing that they will look good…
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The Work-Rounds For Genius Modellers

There is more than one way to skin a cat, but you’d be wise not to tell this to pet owners. However, if you are a scale modeller there are a number of solutions to common problems that appear if you are prepared to think outside the box. Or, in the case of old Airfix…
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The Newbie – Part Three – There Is No Such Thing

There is no such thing as: a. A completely accurate model. Do it never so well, there will always be a detractor who will pull up an MAP plan from 1959 to prove that you’ve made a mistake. Don’t try to argue the case as their criticism is not intended to make the model look…
