Category: 1:72 scale
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Seahawk HH-60H – Part Two – Crows Nest Pass

It’s about as close to the sea as Kalgoorlie… But when the military sell off their old aircraft, the local fire authorities get a chance to pick up some useful heavy lifters for the fire fighting role. Queensland has them – so to other states. Why not sell a few to Alberta and strip off…
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Seahawk HH-60H – Part One – The Wounded Box

Hard to say whether the original owner of this Italeri kit sat on it or rolled over it…but the effects were slightly dire. The windscreen is cracked and a couple of parts missing. Someone thought so little of it that they put a $ 5 red sticker on it and our committee cleaning out the…
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CAC Winjeel – Part Four – FTS 1

Point Cook, Victoria. SOOTB rendition of this Winjeel and I don’t think I could be happier with the result. It will form the starting point of a number of RAAF training types – with the occasional side-excursion to an aerobatics team aircraft or the FAC service livery as used on ADF exercises. You have to…
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CAC Winjeel – Part Two – High Planes Surprise

It is a mistake to judge a book by its cover or a scale model kit by its sprue tree. In both cases appearances can be deceptive. The first glance at a High Planes product is not conducive to confidence – the trees seem crude and you wonder whether it is worthwhile going on. Have…
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CAC Winjeel – Part One – The Native Name

Air forces all over the world have code name families for their aircraft. Thus you get fighter plane names that project power like the USAAF Thunderbolt and Lightning or training names like the RCAF Yale and Harvard. In Australia there is a tendency to apply aboriginal native names to aircraft Like Boomerang and Wirraway. The…
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Tupolev TB-3 – Part Five – An Ephemeral Chinese Bomber

Ephemeral? Well look at the guns, antennae and landing gear of this Soviet design. This model will be lucky to make it to my display shelf without these breaking off. The pictures you see in this post may be the last complete images of this ICM product ever shown. I am not unhappy with the…
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Tupolev TB-3 – Part Four – The Inevitables

” The Inevitables ” is a cartoon band of super-heroes that you eventually watch, even if you don’t want to… The inevitables in a complex kit from Eastern Europe are the things that don’t fit and the things that are too complex. The first was illustrated when I found gaps in the structure – yawning…
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Tupolev TB-3 – Part Three – Ministry Of The Interior

I am in several minds about detailing the insides of 1/72 scale aircraft. On one hand it is a pain, but on the other it means an additional glance into the design – even if I am the only person who will ever see it. In the case of this Tupolev bomber, the open cockpit…
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Tupolev TB-3 – Part Two – More Pegs Than A Dublin Phone Book

And every one of them working… The next time you hear someone blithely tell you that they ” winged it “…and make out that it was all so easy…refer them to me. I have winged the Tupolev TB-3 and I know what the abyss looks like. The basic bracing inside was actually very precise –…

